Not long ago, but now forgotten, in the United States, there was HOPE. And it was Barack Obama who promised it and then embodied it. The year was 2008 when the US was grappling with sinking economy, torn with wars desperate to reverse the pernicious practices of the Bush years. ‘Yes We Can’ and ‘Change You Can Believe In’ were slogans that were the white ray of hope. An American born in Honolulu to a white woman and a Kenyan black man, raised by a strong grandmother, Barack Hussein Obama became the 44th President of the United States defying all odds. With a name like that, he was always the Outsider.

But the ‘Forward’ campaign for the second term is not a ‘shoo-in’ as was predicted. The Democratic Party distributed 3.5 million copies of the Obama plan for term-2, with 1.5 million copies available for distribution from campaign field offices and the rest mailed to voters’ homes. Did anyone actually read them? The President spoke about it all of last week as he criss-crossed the country, voice hoarse in earnestness. He listed out what he achieved in his 1st term: Obamacare (healthcare), cutting middle class taxes, the bail out, bringing back troops from Iraq, ending the Afghan war and of course, killing Osama bin Laden. Should be enough, one would think, for rewarding him with four more years. But in large swathes of the country, people are not convinced.