To What Extent Is Barack Obama a Charismatic Leader - Essay Example

INTRODUCTION The victory of Barack Obama in the US presidential elections of 2008 was spectacular and promises to herald in a new era of governance. Much has been written about President Obama and his ability to captivate audiences with his theme of “Change” and the fact that he is the first black president of the US. It is easy to forget that the Civil Rights movement to secure rights for the African Americans was just a few decades ago when the very thought of a person of color aspiring to the highest office in the US would have been unthinkable. President Obama brings a refreshing freshness to the office of the President and comes into the “inheritance” at a point when the country is going through a crisis internally and externally (Sanger, 2009, 45). Thus, it is important than ever that his Charisma and ability to unify rather than divide would be needed at this hour. The comparisons with FDR and JFK may not seem far fetched when viewed from this perspective. Throughout the campaign, what was noticeable and striking was the way in which audiences across the land turned up to watch and cheer Obama. If there was any doubt that he was reaching out only to a particular audience, there need not have been any misgivings if one were to look at his acceptance speech and inaugural address (Obama, 2009). This paper looks at the question about the extent to which Obama is a charismatic figure and examines the point from the perspective of his personality, the current time when people want change and his meteoric rise because of his abilities. I try to answer the criticism about the “personality cult” politics as well. First, I take a look at some characteristics that define Charisma and how they relate to Obama’s personality. OBAMA’S CHARISMA AND PERSONALITY In this section, I look at what it means to be “Charismatic” from the point of view of an academic study conducted by Rosenberg and Hirschberg that details the characteristics of a charismatic personality. At the outset, the authors make it clear that, “Charisma, the ability to attract and retain followers without benefit of formal authority, is more difficult to define than to identify. While we each seem able to identify charismatic individuals – and non-charismatic individuals – it is not clear what it is about an individual that influences our judgment”. Boss (1976) identified a set of ‘essential aspects of charisma’ which he felt were directly related to the rhetoric employed by a potential leader. These nine aspects included ‘‘(1) the ‘gift of grace’ . . .; (2) the concept of the ‘leader–communicator’; (3) the ‘inspiring message’; (4) the ‘idolatrous follower’; (5) a shared history; (6) high status; (7) the concept of ‘mission’; (8) an important crisis; and (9) successful . . .results” (p. 301). If we apply this model to the success of Obama, we find that he scores high on all the parameters listed above. I will take each of these parameters and analyze how Obama fits in. If we look at the gift of grace, we find Obama measures up very well. For instance during the presidential campaign, he refused to be drawn into the controversy surrounding Sarah Palin’s daughter and chose not to respond stating that it was Palin’s private matter. Next, Obama is an excellent communicator and the message that he brings is inspiring and stirring, to say the least. And the followers are certainly idolatrous towards him (I discuss this point in a separate context as well). Obama’s appeal of a shared history is more towards the 60’s generation that came of age in an era of protest and anti-materialism. Of course, the concept of high status is something that Obama achieved by virtue of his studies and subsequent accomplishments like being the first black president of the Harvard Law Review (Obama, 1994, 254) The next three parameters are the ones that are the most crucial when it comes to defining Obama. The concept of a mission is evident when one goes by his books, “The Audacity of Hope” and “Change we can believe in”. In both the books, there is an overriding sense of hope and renewal towards the US and an abiding sense of making history (Obama, 2006, 25) & (Obama, 2008, 76). And as has been noted in the survey of the election results, his victory came at a time when Americans were concerned about electing what they perceived as the same set of people that caused the economic crisis in the first place. Thus, at every pivotal moment in history, there has always emerged a leader who promised hope and redemption to the people. Obama’s victory has to be seen in this context. The last point about successful results is somewhat premature to talk about as he has just taken office. As Rosenberg & Hirschberg (2008) note,”Charisma is often said to be a personal quality of a speaker, and a manifestation of a special speaker–listener relationship. The literature on charisma (Weber, 1947; Marcus, 1967; Boss, 1976) suggests that charismatic individuals have an unusual ability to establish a personal relationship with their followers, even without face-to-face contact”. Thus, Obama’s televised addresses to the nation on the election eve can be said to have had an impact on the prime time audience that bought into his theme of “Change” and ideas. As they note further in their study, “Thus it seems fair to conclude that both what is said and how it is said influence listener/readers’ judgments of charisma” (Rosenberg & Hirschberg, 2008, 10). This statement can be paraphrased as stating that one needs to walk the talk as well. Obama is widely seen as someone who has come up the hard way and his themes resonate well with the average American. Obama’s appeal lies in the fact that he was the child of an interracial marriage who was exposed to a wide variety of communities and countries before he settled in the mainland. Obama’s convictions and persuasive skills are as much due to the fact that he worked hard for them as to the personality traits (Obama, 1994, 35). It is these traits that have seen him rise to meteoric heights at a relatively young age and his charisma is in part due to his ability to have what he has described as “The Audacity of Hope”. OBAMA’S CAMPAIGN The Presidential Campaign of 2008 could well be a turning point in the history of the United States for the innovative use of technology and airtime by the campaign team of Obama to project him and his ideas. Throughout the campaign, Obama drew large crowds of adulating supporters who were so eager to see him in person and listen to him. The fact that there were cut-outs of Obama at many rallies is reminiscent of a developing country where the leaders are icons by their personality rather than the US. When he first started out in February 2007, there were very few takers for his bid. Many commentators saw his bid for nomination as a novelty and one that was historical but stopped at that. It is to Obama’s credit that he managed to stay in the race till the end and ultimately win the election. No doubt, his appeal to young voters with his themes of reform and transparency as well as his attention to the issues being faced by the lower income groups were reasons for his initial success. The fact that by the end of the campaign, he was able to draw in voters who otherwise were republican had to do as much with the state of the economy as with his appeal. The point here is Obama is a very adroit person who realizes the mood swings and sways of public opinion shrewdly. Thus, he started off the campaign with a theme of change and modified it with the phrases, “Change comes to Washington”, and “Change you can believe in “and “Change is here as the campaign progressed The fact that any change is glacial is not lost on him when he declared in his acceptance speech of the enormity of the task at hand and how it might take more than one term to put his ideas into action (Obama, 2009). OBAMA AND PERSONALITY CULT While we have discussed the facets of Obama’s charisma, there have been a few voices of criticism against what is perceived as a personality cult in American politics. As Jerome Corsi (2008, 135-150) describes in his book, Obama Nation, the hype surrounding Obama and his elevation to rock star status would undermine the issues and values that a president is expected to deliver. Even mainstream commentators like Paul Krugman have complained that “Obama looks more and more like a messiah” (Krugman, 2008) .Thus, the argument here is that some of the serious issues would get sidelined in this type of personality politics at play. Obama has been criticized for his metaphors linking the country to system and treating the people to what may seem to be a “network nation” as Leon Wieseltier puts it. As Leon puts it, “I worry also that the Obama frame of mind sometimes slips its hope for reality into its assessment of reality: the challenge for reason is to understand that it is an island, that it is surrounded by its opposite and that therefore it may quickly reach the limit of what it can accomplish by its preferred method” (Weitseiler, 2009). Thus, the author notes that the recession has shown that we are not one nation and significant differences exist between Wall Street and Main Street. What I can conclude from this is that Obama’s appeal to unify the country is being seen as rhetoric and nothing more than that. My answer to this sort of criticism would be that Obama is a product of the age that we live in when the whole zeitgeist of our times is to look for idols that we can worship and relate to. Thus, Obama is no more a demi-god as the one being made out by his adoring supporters. While it is certainly true that personality politics should be avoided in the greater interests of the constitutional office that a president holds, being a leader among men does not do any harm. Further, the cult of adoration surrounding Obama has largely died down after the presidential election and inauguration. What is now apparent is that he is getting down to business and ensuring that he fulfills the responsibilities and confronts the challenges that face a president. OBAMA AS A NEW JFK/FDR While comparisons may be odious, it is human tendency to compare people and our leaders are no exception. Thus, we find Obama being compared to JFK in the way he approaches and reacts to people and to FDR for the situation that he finds themselves in after becoming president at a time when the US economy looks like it is going into a depression a la’ 1930’s. Thus, the expectation is that he would provide a “new deal” of sorts and help the country back into a period of growth. While Obama may have consciously drawn comparisons with JFK throughout his election campaign by quoting him, the fact remains that like JFK, Obama remains a unifying figure much like the former was. The reason for taking JFK and FDR’s examples is to show that Obama has been placed by history in the context of these two all time favorite US presidents. While Obama may lack the dewy eyed charisma of JFK, he indeed is seen by many as someone who can carry the mantle for the present generation in the same way that JFK did. The other example of FDR is pertinent as the shrinking US economy desperately needs fixes and solutions and imaginative and innovative approaches are called for. CONCLUSION There a lot of expectations from Obama and these are the driving force for the high approval ratings that he has. As I have argued throughout the paper, Charisma is a two Way Street where the leader by virtue of his personality builds on the momentum of the followers and they in turn with their adulation seek to imbibe the leader with more strength. Thus, it is a mutually reinforcing set of forces at play and one builds on the other. The task before Obama is not simple or straightforward. Living up to the election promises and delivering at a time when the world is in crisis calls for capabilities that go beyond the normal. Thus, Obama has to live up to the election hype and the desires of the American public. As to the question for this paper, the extent of Obama’s charisma is that of a leader who seized the opportunity when it arose and combined astute personal skills with that of a momentum for change. Throughout history, crises have presented themselves for leaders to emerge and the subsequent paths have shown that some of them use it for the good of the society (Gandhi, Martin Luther King etc) whereas others (Hitler, Stalin etc) have used it to the detriment of humanity. While I am certainly not suggesting that Obama falls in the latter category, he should at least ensure that he does not leave a legacy or a vacuum that is filled by demagogues. This is the least that he owes to the American people. Sources Boss, P. “Essential attributes of charisma”. South. Speech Comm. Journal. 41 (3), 300–313. (1976) Corsi, Jerome. Obama Nation: Leftist Politics and the Cult of personality. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2008. 135-150 Harris, Paul. The Week the Obama backlash started. The Guardian. Retrieved Feb 26, 2009 from: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/feb/24/barackobama.hillaryclinton Obama, Barack. Change We can believe in. New York: Bantam House, 2008. 65 Obama, Barack. Dreams from my father. Boston: Harvard Press, 1994. 35-55. Obama, Barack. The Audacity of Hope. New York: Crown Publishers, 2006. 50 Official Website of Barack Obama. “Obama’s Acceptance Speech”. http://www.barackobama.com/speeches/index.php (Accessed Feb 25 2009) Rosenberg, Andrew & Hirschberg, Julia. “Charisma Perception from text and speech”. Science Direct. (November 2008). Sanger, David. The Inheritance. New York: Harmony Books, 2009. 45 Weber, M. The Theory of Social and Economic Organization. (Oxford University Press, 1947) Weitseiler, Leon. “Network Nation”. The New Republic. February 18, 2009. 48 Read More