A hollow victory

Barack Obama this week pulled off a remarkable victory. The American economy is recovering at a pace most voters regard as unacceptable, and just over half believe that the country is on the wrong track. The President campaigned with an approval rating below 50 per cent and unemployment above 8 per cent. Historically, these factors have combined to ensure defeat for any sitting president. But as Obama reminds us now and again, he is in the business of changing history.

He has again demonstrated that he can inspire people — even the British — in a way that other world leaders can only dream of. His extraordinary personal appeal has trumped the paucity of his achievements. Much of it lies in what he embodies, and his re-election certainly makes life easier for America’s friends abroad. Anti-Americanism is one of the most pernicious forces in world affairs, and it is far harder to hate America with Obama and his young family in the White House. For those who do not have to pay his taxes, he remains the ideal American president.

But let us not pretend that he has won an emphatic endorsement. The race was conducted on a knife-edge and had a few thousand people voted the other way then Mitt Romney would have been in the White House. Obama was blessed with a uninspiring challenger, who failed even to take states like Nevada and Virginia, which have Republican governors. Conservatives can claim to have won one argument: the polls show that even in swing states, most voters agreed with Romney and Paul Ryan over the deficit. But an American election is not a game of economic Mastermind. Obama was a better candidate with a smarter campaign: he deserved his victory.