Obama fait recette chez les républicains et chez les neocons

Le candidat à la désignation démocrate, le sénateur Barack Obama, attire des soutiens de points en apparence inattendus de l’échiquier politique aux USA. Le Sunday Times de ce jour signale plusieurs ralliements de parlementaires républicains.

«Disullisoned supporters of President George W Bush are defecting to Barack Obama, the Democratic senator for Illinois, as the White House candidate with the best chance of uniting a divided nation.

»Tom Bernstein went to Yale University with Bush and co-owned the Texas Rangers baseball team with him. In 2004 he donated the maximum $2,000 to the president’s reelection campaign and gave $50,000 to the Republican National Committee. This year he is switching his support to Obama. He is one of many former Bush admirers who find the Democrat newcomer appealing.

»Matthew Dowd, Bush’s chief campaign strategist in 2004, announced last month that he was disillusioned with the war in Iraq and the president’s “my way or the highway” style of leadership – the first member of Bush’s inner circle to denounce the leader’s performance in office.

»Although Dowd has yet to endorse a candidate, he said the only one he liked was Obama. “I think we should design campaigns that appeal, not to 51% of the people, but bring the country together as a whole,” Dowd said.

»Bernstein is a champion of human rights, who admires Obama’s call for action on Darfur, while Dowd’s opposition to the war has been sharpened by the expected deployment to Iraq of his son, an Arabic-speaking Army intelligence specialist.»

Là-dessus, le Sunday Times mentionne le nom le plus surprenant parmi les (possibles) ralliés : celui de Robert Kagan, néo-conservateur notoire, père satisfait de la thèse de “Mars & Venus” (Mars c’est l’Amérique, Venus c’est l’Europe) du temps des préparatifs de la guerre contre l’Irak. C’est dans sa tribune du Washington Post du 27 avril que Kagan s’extasie devant «Obama the interventionnist», qu’il compare à John Kennedy pour son enthousiasme interventionniste, notamment pour répandre la démocratie et la liberté US à travers le monde.

«Obama's speech at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs last week was pure John Kennedy, without a trace of John Mearsheimer. It had a deliberate New Frontier feel, including some Kennedy-era references (“we were Berliners”) and even the Cold War-era notion that the United States is the “leader of the free world.” No one speaks of the “free world” these days, and Obama's insistence that we not “cede our claim of leadership in world affairs” will sound like an anachronistic conceit to many Europeans, who even in the 1990s complained about the bullying “hyperpower.” In Moscow and Beijing it will confirm suspicions about America's inherent hegemonism. But Obama believes the world yearns to follow us, if only we restore our worthiness to lead. Personally, I like it.»

Ralliement, ou dans tous les cas rapprochement étonnant? Pas si sûr. Il y a beaucoup à dire sur cet événement et peut-être nous y risquerons-nous.

Mis en ligne le 6 mai 2007 à 14H59