inaug09

El negro (Ghost) del Presidente Obama

El escritor de los sueños de Obama

Jon Favreau redacta los discursos que han fraguado a un orador brillante

Un hombre practica deporte en Washington cerca del memorial de Abraham Lincoln, ante la imponente estatua del presidente que en 1863 proclamó el fin de la esclavitud. Ahí mismo, el 28 de agosto de 1963, bajo las palabras de Lincoln grabadas en mármol, Martin Luther King pronunció su legendario discurso Tengo un sueño: "Que mis cuatro hijos vivirán un día en una nación en la que no serán juzgados por el color de su piel, sino por su reputación. Que un día sobre las colinas rojas de Georgia los hijos de quienes fueron esclavos y los hijos de quienes fueron propietarios de esclavos serán capaces de...".

Jon Favreau deja de correr y piensa en lo que sabe que no debería pensar: mañana se van a dar cita en el Lincoln Memorial millones de personas para oír el discurso de Barack Obama, un discurso que durará 20 minutos y en el que este hombre de 27 años ha trabajado más de dos meses.

Semanas antes de las vacaciones de Navidad, Obama y su consejero David Axelrod se reunieron en Chicago con Favreau para darle las directrices de lo que tenía que ser el discurso. Le silbaron la música a sabiendas de que Favreau le pondría la mejor letra. Favreau estudió los discursos inaugurales de otros presidentes, se reunió con Peggy Noonan, redactora de los discursos de Ronald Reagan, encargó a un miembro de su equipo que estudiase las alocuciones presidenciales en tiempos de crisis y a otro que entrevistase a varios historiadores.

Bill Burton, portavoz de Obama, le dijo: "Tío, ¿te das cuenta de que lo que estás escribiendo lo colgará la gente en carteles en sus habitaciones?". Pero si pensaba eso, Favreau se paralizaba. Si pensaba que desde el 20 de enero pasaría a ser el escritor de discursos más joven que haya trabajado nunca en la Casa Blanca y que sus palabras pueden ser algún día grabadas en mármol, no avanzaba.

Favreau prefiere seguir siendo Favs, el chaval que se lleva el ordenador portátil a las cafeterías Starbucks, escribe desde allí mientras se comunica con sus amigos en la página de Internet Facebook,el tipo que se ha comprado un apartamento de una habitación en Washington y lo tiene amueblado apenas con un colchón hinchable, el escritor que durante la campaña electoral declaraba que no tenía novia y que mucha gente, cuando le preguntaba a qué se dedicaba, no creía que fuese el escritor de Obama.

A Favreau también le han criticado a veces la supuesta vacuidad y excesiva belleza de sus discursos. "Mi rival da discursos. Yo ofrezco soluciones", solía decir Hillary Clinton cuando competía con Obama en las primarias. Pero la oratoria de Obama la fue arrollando. Tras ganar las presidenciales, un amigo de Favs expuso durante dos horas enFacebook una foto en la que se le veía muy sonriente en una fiesta mientras le cogía el pecho a una figura de cartón de Hillary Clinton. La foto saltó de Facebook al resto de la Red y de ahí a la prensa. Aparentemente, la broma no causó demasiada molestia a la próxima secretaria de Estado del país.

A mediados de diciembre The Washington Post llevó a su portada a Favreau y apenas sí mencionaba ya el caso Hillary. El gran tema era el primer discurso del primer presidente negro. Favreau hablaba del miedo escénico que le paraliza cuando pasa ante la estatua de Lincoln y de su compenetración con Obama, quien ha declarado en diversas ocasiones que Favreau, más que un escritor, parece "un lector de mentes". Favs también contaba que hasta hace unos meses compartía piso con seis amigos, apenas se afeitaba, nunca cocinaba y solía quedarse hasta el amanecer jugando a un videojuego.

Obama, que ya ha escrito dos libros autobiográficos, y Favreau han creado algunos de los discursos más memorables de las últimas décadas, lo cual es mucho decir en un país donde el discurso político tiene rango de género literario y las palabras de presidentes como Franklin D. Roosevelt -"la única cosa de la que hemos de tener miedo es el miedo mismo"- o John Fitzgerald Kennedy -"no preguntes qué puede hacer tu país por ti, sino lo que tú puedes hacer por tu país"- son parte de la memoria colectiva.

En marzo de 2008, en plena campaña electoral, Jeremiah Wright, el clérigo que casó a Obama y bautizó a sus dos hijos, pidió "que Dios maldiga a América" a causa del racismo. Cuando Obama salió al paso de la polémica con un discurso sobre el racismo que encandiló a negros y blancos y fue calificado de histórico por cientos de periódicos -"La ira es real, es poderosa y el simple hecho de desear que desaparezca, el condenarla sin entender sus raíces, sólo sirve para incrementar el abismo de falta de entendimiento que existe entre las razas"-, la pluma de Favreau ya estaba cumpliendo su trabajo. Cuando cinco meses después, en Denver, Obama se metió a los delegados demócratas en el bolsillo con su discurso ante una audiencia de 38 millones de telespectadores -"Tenemos más riqueza que nadie, pero eso no nos hace ricos. Tenemos las mayores fuerzas armadas sobre la tierra, pero no es eso lo que nos hace fuertes. Nuestras universidades y nuestra cultura son la envidia del mundo, pero no es por eso por lo que el mundo se acerca a nosotros. Es el espíritu americano, esa promesa americana que nos empuja cuando el camino se hace incierto. Esa promesa constituye nuestra mayor herencia"-, Favreau también había hecho su trabajo. La noche en que Obama ganó las elecciones y pronunció un discurso en Chicago -"Si todavía queda alguien por ahí que aún duda de que Estados Unidos es un lugar donde todo es posible..."- que conmovió a millones de ciudadanos, Favreau tenía listo también el de la derrota, por si su jefe perdía.

El discurso que Obama pronuncie mañana quedará para la historia como su discurso, pero Favreau también se llevará su parte de reconocimiento. En EE UU, a los escritores que escriben para otras personas se les llama fantasmas (ghosts), en lugar de negros, que es como se les denomina en España. Robert Schlensinger, hijo de un escritor de discursos de Kennedy y autor del libro Los fantasmas de la Casa Blanca, ha escrito en su blog que la clave del éxito de un fantasma es que sepa captar la voz de su jefe, que hayan trabajado mucho tiempo codo con codo y que su jefe confíe plenamente en él.

La historia de Favreau como gran escritor comenzó un verano de hace cuatro años en Boston, cuando tenía sólo 23 y trabajaba para el candidato demócrata a la presidencia John Kerry. Favs vio detrás del escenario de la convención a un senador ensayando su discurso y no dudó en aconsejarle que suprimiera una frase porque le parecía redundante. El senador era Barack Obama. Y el discurso que ensayaba era una pieza brillante que iba a marcar un antes y un después en la política estadounidense. Pero Favs se atrevió a hacerle aquella sugerencia.

"Obama me miró un poco confundido, como diciendo ¿quién es el niñato éste?", declaró Favreau en diversos medios. Al siguiente año Favreau se quedó sin empleo y solicitó una entrevista de trabajo con Obama para trabajar como escritor de discursos del senador. Tras media hora charlando sobre la familia y el béisbol, Obama le preguntó cuál era su teoría sobre los discursos. Y Favs, que apenas acababa de graduarse en Ciencias Políticas en la Universidad Holy Cross de Worcester (Massachusetts), le dijo: "Un discurso puede ensanchar el círculo de personas a quien le importa esta cosa. Es como decirle a la persona que ha sufrido: 'Te escucho. Incluso aunque estés decepcionado y cínico respecto a la política del pasado, porque tienes buenas razones para sentirte así, podemos ir en la dirección correcta. Sólo concédeme una oportunidad". Obama se la concedió a Favs. Él hizo lo mismo con Adam Frankel, de 26 años, y Ben Rhodes, de 30, que trabajaron a sus órdenes en la campaña. Y juntos se encargaron de buscar las mejores palabras de aliento en una época desalentadora.

Obama's trip to Washington

PHILADELPHIA – President-elect Barack Obama, tracing the train route Abraham Lincoln took nearly a century and a half earlier, undertook the final leg of his inaugural journey to the nation's capital Saturday, pledging to reclaim America's spirit but also warning of steep challenges facing the country.

"Starting now, let's take up in our own lives the work of perfecting our union," he told several hundred people gathered inside a hall atPhiladelphia's historic 30th Street train station. "Let's build a government that is responsible to the people and accept our own responsibilities as citizens to hold our government accountable. ... Let's make sure this election is not the end of what we do to change America, but the beginning and the hope for the future."

While talking about the future, Obama reflected on the past, echoing the words of the Declaration of Independence, Lincoln and President John F. Kennedy. He cited the founding fathers who risked everything with no assurance of success in Philadelphia in the summer of 1776:

"They were willing to put all they were and all they had on the line — their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor — for a set of ideals that continue to light the world: That we are equal. That our rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness come not from our laws, but from our maker. And that a government of, by, and for the people can endure."

It's a momentous time for the Obamas. And for Michelle Obama, it was also her 45th birthday.

The president-elect's triumphant day — to be heralded by cheering throngs along the 137-mile rail route — was starting in Philadelphia with a sober discussion of the country's future with 41 people he met during his long quest for the White House.

At the outset, he told a crowd gathered in a flag-draped room that the same perseverance and idealism displayed by the nation's founders are needed to tackle the difficulties of today.

"We recognize that such enormous challenges will not be solved quickly," Obama said. "There will be false starts and setbacks, frustrations and disappointments. And we will be called to show patience even as we act with fierce urgency."

He cited the faltering economy, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan — "one that needs to be ended responsibly, one that needs to be waged wisely" — the threat of global warming and U.S. dependence on foreign oil.

"We are here today not simply to pay tribute to our first patriots but to take up the work that they began," he said. "The trials we face are very different now, but severe in their own right. Only a handful of times in our history has a generation been confronted with challenges so vast."

Preparing to board the train, Obama said that "what's required is a new declaration of independence — from ideology and small thinking."

Obama was traveling from Philadelphia to Wilmington, Del., where he was picking up Vice President-elect Joe Biden, and then Baltimore before arriving at Washington's Union Station after nightfall.

At Union Station, as Obama set out from Philadelphia, the vanguard of perhaps the greatest crowd in Washington history was beginning to arrive.

Bursting with enthusiasm, Toni Mateo arrived from Atlanta, where he works at a public relations firm.

"It's going to be life-affirming for me," said Mateo. "It was really important that I come here to represent the family and to take the energy back with me." He said his train car was crowded but quiet — until "I just screamed out `Obama,' and the whole crowd erupted."

Obama's train was also to make "slow rolls" through the towns of Claymont, Del., and Edgewood, Md., so more people could see Obama waving from the back balcony of the rail car. Curious onlookers also were expected to gather on overpasses, parking lots and commuter train stations hoping to get a glimpse of the president-elect.

Obama was to deliver a speech before as many as 100,000 at Baltimore's War Memorial Plaza. Pressing the inaugural theme of service and community, event planners also called for canned food drives in Wilmingtonand Baltimore to coincide with his stops.

Temperatures were in the single digits in Philadelphia, but the energy in the room warmed the crowd.

"Hello Philadelphia!" Obama shouted to cheers.

Although his path tracked Lincoln's and took on the same overtone of high security, it wasn't the journey of virtual secrecy that the 16th president-elect took so long ago on the eve of the Civil War. Lincoln was smuggled under cover of darkness from one train station to another to avoid a feared assassination attempt.

Obama promises new tack on Iran

President-elect Barack Obama says the US will take a new approach to dealings with Iran under his leadership.

Mr Obama said in a US TV interview screened on Sunday that "Iran is going to be one of our biggest challenges".

He said he was concerned about Iran's support for Lebanese Shia party Hezbollah and Tehran's nuclear enrichment programme.

In the wide-ranging interview, Mr Obama also said he planned a special team to deal with conflict in the Middle East.

The president-elect said he was not ruling out prosecution for possible crimes committed by Bush administration officials.

And he repeated his promise to close the Guantanamo Bay prison camp, but suggested it might not happen within his first 100 days in office.

'Need for engagement'

Mr Obama also criticised the outgoing administration's handling of the $700bn (£459bn) federal bailout plan to help the US banking system amid the global financial crisis.

And he said his attorney general could investigate accusations Bush administration officials had abused their power.

I am putting together the team so that starting on day one, we have the best possible people who are going to be immediately engaged in the Middle East peace process  Barack Obama Obama interview - key excerpts

He said: "He's going to be making some calls, but my general belief is that when it comes to national security, what we have to focus on is getting things right in the future, as opposed to looking at what we got wrong in the past."

The incoming president told ABC's This Week presenter George Stephanopoulos he would break away from President George W Bush's policy on Iran and seek a much broader approach with the Islamic state.

"We are going to have to take a new approach. And I've outlined my belief that engagement is the place to start," Mr Obama said.

Mr Obama, who won the US presidential election in November, takes office on 20 January.

Iran's nuclear programme is causing concern in the West

In the interview, he promised "a new emphasis on respect and a new emphasis on being willing to talk, but also a clarity about what our bottom lines are."

He added he believed his administration would "move swiftly" in its new approach with Tehran.

Mr Obama had earlier said there should be no pre-conditions in discussions with the Iranian leadership.

The Bush administration had accused Iran of developing nuclear technology in order to produce nuclear weapons, but Iran has insisted the processes will only be used to generate electricity.

'Failure of supervision'

"Iran is going to be one of our biggest challenges and as I said during the campaign we have a situation in which not only is Iran exporting terrorism through Hamas, through Hezbollah but they are pursuing a nuclear weapon that could potentially trigger a nuclear arms race," Mr Obama said.

Mr Obama also said a new team would begin work on a wider Middle East peace process when he began his presidency.

"What I am doing right now is putting together the team so that on 20 January, starting on day one, we have the best possible people who are going to be immediately engaged in the Middle East peace process as a whole," Mr Obama said.

On the economy, Mr Obama said he was dissatisfied with the way the first $350bn (£229bn) in the Troubled Asset Relief Program (Tarp) had been spent after it was approved by Congress last year.

"There hasn't been enough oversight," Mr Obama said. "We found out this week in a report that we are not tracking where this money is going." 

Obama and the fucking US economy

US President-elect Barack Obama has called for "drastic action" to prevent the US economic situation worsening.

In his first major policy speech since being elected, Mr Obama urged Congress to act quickly to pass his $800bn (£526bn) stimulus plan.

"I don't believe it's too late to change course, but it will be if we don't take dramatic action as soon as possible," he said.

"If nothing is done, this recession could linger for years."

"This is a crisis unlike any we have seen in our lifetime," he said in a speech in Virginia.

No longer can we allow Wall Street wrongdoers to slip through the regulatory cracks  US President-elect Barack Obama US deficit to reach $1 trillion Will you go to inauguration? What issues does Obama face?

"A world that depends on the strength of our economy is now watching and waiting for America to lead once more, and that is what we will do."

Mr Obama said that, with US interest rates near zero, and economic activity and lending still shrinking, it was up to the government to act.

"Only the government can provide the short-term boost necessary to lift us from a recession this deep and severe," he said.

"Every day we wait, or point fingers, or drag our feet, more Americans will lose their jobs, more families will lose their savings, more dreams will be deferred and denied, and our nation will sink deeper into a crisis that at some point, we may not be able to reverse."

"I urge Congress to move as quickly as possible on behalf of the American people."

Political battle

Mr Obama, who takes office on 20 January, has spent his first week in Washington focusing on his plan to revive the struggling US economy, which is entering its worst recession since the 1930s.

KEY ELEMENTS IN STIMULUS PLAN Immediate tax cuts of $1,000 per family Increased benefits and health care for the unemployed Computerising all health care records in five years Doubling investment in alternative energy and re-shaping energy grid Aid to states to help maintain vital services

His stark warning comes as US job losses for 2008 are expected to reach 2.5 million when the December figure is released on Friday.

Mr Obama said his plan would create three million jobs by 2011.

But in a bid to gain bipartisan support for his plan, he is also including substantial tax cuts for both individuals and businesses, as well as a large programme on infrastructure spending on such items as roads and schools.

Unemployment is rising as the slowdown bites

His task has been made more difficult by the projections by the Congressional Budget Office, released on Wednesday, that the budget deficit will reach $1.2 trillion this year - before any extra stimulus plan.

Even the Democratic chair of the House Budget Committee, John Spratt, said that he had been shocked when he saw the figure.

The size of the package means that his hopes of Congress passing the plan by the time he takes office have faded, with mid-February now seen as the earliest date that Congress could take action.

Mr Obama acknowledged that there was substantial scepticism among the US public about government intervention in the economy.

The US economic is set to continue to shrink in 2009

"I understand that some might be sceptical of this plan. Our government has already spent a good deal of money, but we haven't yet seen that translate into more jobs or higher incomes or renewed confidence in our economy," Mr Obama said.

He said that any decisions on spending would be made transparently and informed by "independent experts", while he would launch an "unprecedented effort" to "eliminate unwise and unnecessary spending".

Mr Obama's speech seemed to lift some stock markets in Europe.

"The message is just going down well. There is a belief that there's something about this man and something about this plan," said Howard Wheeldon, senior strategist at BGC Partners in London.

But US stock markets were still reflecting the gloomy trading figures from many companies over Christmas.

Regulating Wall Street

Recent scandals such as those involving Bernard Madoff have engulfed Wall Street

Mr Obama said that the crisis was caused "an era of profound irresponsibility that stretched from corporate boardrooms to the halls of power in Washington."

He added that there had to be a "sweeping effort" to address the foreclosure crisis and keep the financial system functioning.

He pledged to reform "a weak and outdated" regulatory system to protect consumers and investors from the "reckless greed and risk-taking" that should "never endanger our prosperity again".

"No longer can we allow Wall Street wrongdoers to slip through the regulatory cracks. No longer can we allow special interests to put their thumbs on the economic scales," he said.

He also vowed to do more to help families who had been directly hit by the downturn, including those who are facing foreclosure.

In a concrete sign that Wall Street is now prepared to help such families, it emerged that some leading bankers have withdrawn their opposition to allowing bankruptcy judges to modify the terms of mortgages in arrears in order to prevent foreclosures.

According to a report in the Wall Street Journal newspaper, the huge US bank Citigroup is now negotiating with key Congressional committees on a deal which would give judges unprecedented powers, something long opposed by the financial services industry.

Tax cuts

Around 40% of Mr Obama's stimulus package will consist of tax breaks, including rebates for people earning less than $200,000 a year, as well as tax credits for companies taking on additional staff.

Besides $500 tax cuts for most workers and $1,000 for couples, the proposals could include tax breaks of more than $100bn for businesses.

The plan is likely to allow firms incurring losses last year to take a credit against profits dating back five years, instead of the two years currently allowed.

Another provision would award a one-year tax credit costing $40bn-50bn to companies that hire new workers, and would provide other incentives for business investment in new equipment.

Spending plans

Mr Obama's economic recovery plan depends on swiftly pumping hundreds of billions of federal dollars into the economy to create jobs.

The focus is on tax cuts and government spending that can provide an immediate lift to the economy.

However, the proposals also appear to contain money that might not actually be spent for several years, such as plans to rebuild the electric power grid and buy billions of dollars of computers and software for the health care sector, and to refurbish public schools.