Hail to the chief

Barack Obama has been sworn in as the 44th President of the United States. The swearing-in went as planned, even though the oath taking was without precedent. Chief Justice William Rehnquist, appointed to his present post by the outgoing president's father when he was president, and to the Supreme Court itself by Richard Nixon, had sworn in a Democrat before, but this was the first time that he was swearing in a man of colour. This Inauguration was not a purely an American event, as it was watched on TV screens the world over. Previous Inaugurations were of a person equally powerful, and influential outside the borders of the United States, but it seems that the world has finally woken up to this. The expectations placed on Barack Obama were probably unrealistic, but it was a sign of the times, as well as the USA's position in the world, that many of the concerns that President Obama was supposed to address were global. It would be useful to remember that Obama was elected president by the votes of white people, and further that he will, in four years, be going back to them for re-election. Therefore, he has to address their concerns first.
There are two global concerns which are also American concerns. The first is the global financial crisis. The second is the War On Terror, currently being fought in Iraq and Afghanistan. Two end-of-Bush-term crises have wound down before the 'inauguration', but they reflect crises that have festered for many years, and which Obama, like presidents before him, thinks he has the answers to: Palestine, where Israel has exploited its special relationship with the USA to commit yet more war crimes against the Palestinian people, and the subcontinent, where India has once again blamed its own vulnerabilities and insecurities on Pakistan.
Obama has identified the economic crisis as the prime concern of the Americans who elected him. His Inaugural address did not contain a blueprint for its solution, but Obama is known to favour a new protectionism, which is the normal capitalist reaction to any economic crisis. This will be reflected in less free markets for the USA's trading partners, and any little hopes that Pakistan had of help in this direction from the USA will be dashed. The crisis will probably be over despite Obama, and was probably not as bad as some of the crises to have hit world capitalism since the Depression, with which it is often compared.