US Ruling Class Favors Obama Victory Emilio Zebadua - El Universal
go to original October 10, 2012

The election battle between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney, which takes place in a system where the outcome does not depend on the arithmetic sum of public votes, will be decided in three, maybe four states (Ohio, Florida, Virginia and Pennsylvania). But overall, the polling has shown enough of a widening lead to anticipate the reelection of President Obama.

October 4th's debate in Denver, Colorado showed once again showed not the differences between the two candidates, but the enormous similarities in their proposals. Both stand near the center of the U.S. political spectrum - a “center” that, by the way, is already on the right. And that proximity is what gives added power to his reelection aspirations. In fact, President Obama’s triumph was settled along ago, before the Democratic and Republican conventions, and even before Romney had secured the needed delegates to win his party's nomination.

The Republican campaign against Obama has followed two independent sets of logic that ultimately converged in the candidacy of Mitt Romney, but which are not compatible or even complementary.

For one, the offensive of the “extreme right,” a group represented alternatively in recent years by Sarah Palin, Rick Santorum, Michelle Bachmann and Newt Gingrich.

The far right lacks the strength to present a hegemonic program or platform for the country, but it can finance a number of politicians that advocate some key issues, primarily related to the weapons industry, oil, a sector of the medical industry, and conservatives churches, among others.

This group was defeated by McCain, who made possible Palin’s failed 2008 candidacy for the vice presidency, and was defeated again by Romney. His was a long four-year battle in which no opponent to his right had the corporate and bank support, or the resources, that explain Romney’s candidacy. He defeated all of the extreme-right candidates, not so much thanks to primary votes, but because of his place at the center.

The vast majority of the U.S. ruling class - in the banking sector, technology and communications, pharmaceuticals and insurance, etc. - are in accord with Obama’s policies. By inching rightward since his first day in office, the president has consolidated his position at the “center.”

Obama has complied with: 1) the Wall Street bailout, 2) withdrawals from Iraq and Afghanistan, 3) economic policies with the European Union, Russia and China, 4) domestic security and immigration controls, and 5) public health reform (hence the decisive vote at the Supreme Court by its chief, the very conservative John Roberts).

The rightward shift of Obama’s Administration has made the November battle for the presidency one of marginal differences.

Romney is trapped in this paradox: to beat Obama, he has to approximate his policy proposals; but it is this resemblance that favors the president.

Emilio Zebadua holds a doctorate from Harvard University - emilio.zebadua@hotmail.com

Translated By Florizul Acosta-Perez

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