WASHIGTON DC: Two days before Barack Obama is sworn in as the 44th president of the United States, Washington D.C. was already teeming with people who have come to be part of this historic event.
Hotels were booked, train tickets into the city were sold out and over 2 million visitors were expected to pack into the capital city.
People from all walks of life fill Washington’s streets, demonstrating the wide spectrum of those who have caught the Obama fever, including Obama supporters from the Arab-American community who came to witness the moment when for the first time a racial minority will take over the highest office in the US.
This was one reason why New York lawyer Samer Khalaf decided to travel to Washington to attend the inauguration.
“I think it’s the historic nature of the event – the first African-American to be president of the United States, said Khalaf who had volunteered for the Obama campaign. “It’s an ‘I’ll have stories to tell my kids’ type of thing.
Washington resident Arab-American Rana Malek told Daily News Egypt that she planned to brave the crowds and cold temperatures on Jan. 20 to go down to the capitol lawn to experience the inauguration celebration. Thus far, this has been the only inauguration she could ever see herself attending.
Like Khalaf, Malek had started volunteering for the Obama campaign during the primaries and spoke of feeling a “self-identification with Obama due to the half-Kenyan’s global upbringing and world-view rather than the “close-mindedness she had seen during the past eight years of the Bush administration.
Similarly, Janan Omar feels that Obama epitomizes the synthesis of “East meets West that she experiences in her own life. Omar, who is half-Egyptian and half-American, was raised in Maadi, but has been living in the US for the past four years.
“I really have faith in people who I know have also traveled and lived in other places, Omar said, “especially now with globalization in the Arab world, I think it’s important to have someone with [a global] mindset.
Obama was the preferred candidate for Arab-Americans in the American presidential election. A Zogby poll taken just before the election reported that he led by a 3:1 margin over Republican nominee John McCain. The Arab-American community has tended to vote Republican during previous presidential elections.
According to Khalaf, Obama’s popularity among Arab-American voters had much to do with his minority appeal.
“He represents an exposure to something different than the normal, white America, Khalaf explained. “This is a person whose roots are in the third world. That has a lot to do with the appeal. That at least this guy could know where we were coming from.
“I think this is great for minorities. I think that it breaks the glass ceiling, he continued.
Malek felt that Obama had won the Arab-American vote because the Bush administration “proved to be so horrific to minorities.
“It was very hard to be Arab or Muslim and support the republican platform after what they’ve done, she said, citing Guantanamo Bay and policies that encouraged racial-profiling.
However, Malek continued, Obama’s Middle East foreign policy did not play a major role in her support for the candidate.
“A while ago I realized that I could never vote for any elected official based on their Middle East policy, she said. “You’ll never have someone who will run for office and say that I believe Palestinians are equal to Israelis.
Omar, on the other hand, was more hopeful when asked if she foresees American foreign policy in the Arab world changing course under the incoming Obama administration.
“I think Obama is definitely going to focus a lot more on the Middle East, and not just on the security aspect, she said.
Despite Obama being viewed as a more pro-Palestinian figure in American politics early during the campaign, he remained silent during the recent Israeli onslaught on Gaza. While this has disappointed members of the Arab-American community, none of the interviewees for this story are discouraged enough to forgo attending the inauguration.
New York-based comedian Dean Obeidallah talked about Obama’s response to the Gaza crisis with guarded optimism.
“When he gets sworn in we’ll hear what he has to say, Obeidallah said. “I don’t expect him to be pro-Palestinian. I just expect him to be balanced.
As a professional comedian, he mentioned one downside to an Obama presidency compared to George Bush’s last eight years.
“Obama is not going to provide the same amount of material, he said.
All interviews expressed a twinge of nervousness when asked about the anticipated chaos that is going to take place in the US capital during the inauguration. No one knows quite what to expect.
“I’m just looking forward to it. I’m really excited. I don’t know what’s going to happen, Khalaf said. “I still have to look at the schedule. The only thing I care about is that I got my tickets, I’m going down there, soaking in the history.
