A 2008 letter from America: Rita Ricketts records impressions of American attitudes to the advent of President Obama and considers their perceptions in light of the new president's first weeks in office.

• Author: Ricketts, Rita

'If it should happen that America, in its new period of world power, comes to do what every other world power has done, if Americans should have to govern large numbers of foreigners, you must expect that Americans will be well hated before they are admired for themselves.' (1)

This warning, issued by Alistair Cooke in 1946, in one of his legendary broadcasts, is as valuable a piece of advice now as it was then. He repeated it in 1961, telling his worldwide audience that JFK's invocation of Pax Americana on the day of his inauguration in 1961 was 'magnificent as rhetoric, appalling as policy.' (2) Within a few months of the Bay of Pigs fiasco, Kennedy was conceding that the United States is 'neither omnipotent nor omniscient ... that we cannot right every wrong or reverse each adversity ... that there cannot be an American solution to every world problem'. (3) Cooke concluded, sadly, that Vietnam was the price of the Kennedy inaugural. Yet, reeling forward in time, we saw Bush making similar grandiose inaugural claims over Iraq. (4) Obama's inaugural speech, however, may well be ringing the changes. While he asserted his willingness to lead, it was to be within 'sturdy alliances': 'our power alone cannot protect us, nor does it entitle us to do as we please'. And he promised to temper power with 'qualities of humility and restraint'. Perhaps there is hope that Obama will at last complete what John Kenneth Galbraith labelled the 'unfinished business of the [last] century'? (5)

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Just how Obama might settle 'unfinished business', was indicated in his inaugural:

We will begin to responsibly leave Iraq to its people, and forge a hard-earned peace in Afghanistan.... With old friends and former foes, we will work tirelessly to lessen the nuclear threat, and roll back the spectre of a warming planet.... To the Muslim world, we seek a new way forward, based on mutual interest and mutual respect. To those leaders around the globe 'who seek to sow conflict, or blame their society's ills on the West', Obama was ready to talk, if they would unclench their fists. There was perhaps a nod to Doha: 'to the people of poor nations, we pledge to work alongside you to make your farms work'. Within days Obama was intent on closing Guantanamo Bay, cutting troops in Iraq, considering dialogue with Iran, Israel and Palestine and engaging in the Kyoto process. His biggest hurdle was to get the economic rescue package on the statute books, reassuring the 'haves' and 'have-nots' at home while quieting protectionist fears overseas. Four weeks into office, Obama's economic package was successfully under his belt.

Back on 4 November 2008 few Americans would have dared to take such outcomes for granted; everything was still up in the air. (6) Uppermost in the minds of academics, librarians, publishers and booksellers from around the world flying into Charleston, South Carolina, was not just the outcome of the election but the irony of flying into a state that had in the past fought to prevent the end of slavery when the United States may just have elected its first African-American President! (7) As the plane glided in on a Miltonesquely peaceful night, Fort Sumter could be clearly seen. Taken by the Confederates in 1861, it was here that the fight to continue slavery was waged and the first shots of the American Civil War fired. (8) All that is history: the Union survived, the secessionists were routed and slavery became illegal (except that is, it was muttered across the aisles, for human trafficking). (9) Yet Charleston remains a heartland of (white Republican) conservatism, despite its multiracial population. In the taxi to the hotel the driver informed us categorically that McCain would win, but on CNN news a different story was unfolding. By the early hours McCain had conceded and President-elect Obama was being feted around the world, nowhere more intensely than in his father's home village in Kenya.

Messianic welcome

In the early hours of 5 November, there was something religious, almost Messianic, about Obama's welcome. Although he was not entering Jerusalem on a donkey, he was being asked to deliver heaven on earth. But in his acceptance speech he made no such promises. He heeded Lincoln's advice: 'you can't please all of the people all of the time'; and John F. Kennedy's: 'ask not what your country can do for you'. No party-pooper dared mention that both Lincoln and Kennedy had been assassinated, the world celebrated and a new dawn came up over Charleston harbour. But what kind of a reception would there be for Obama in this historic early-settlers town: a heartland of McCain support even though some of the inhabitants of Charleston were only just two generations past slavery? (10)

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Out on the corridor and on the front desk, staff responsible for the up-keep of the hotel had smiles as broad as crocodiles. Tentative congratulations could perhaps be proffered? Smiles grew wider at this acknowledgment: so far so good! A lone dissenter, portering on the front door, was a local MBA student who rather sourly expressed his fears for the 'market', the costs of what he called 'dependency' and the continuation of the 'war on terror'. But among the conference delegates--academics, librarians and students--there were very few who sympathised with him.

On the street, at the market where slaves had once been bought, sold and despatched to the plantations, President Obama T-shirts were already on sale. On the stalls, which are now expensive outlets for tourists, were the exquisite sweet grass baskets, in all shapes and sizes, only marginally cheaper than those sold in the up-market art galleries. This art form, passed down through the generations and...