Tom Switzer - The US Mid-Terms (Nov 9 2010)

Tom Switzer spoke at Harris Terrace in Brisbane on the 9th of November to members and guests of the Queensland Branch of the AIIA. We are pleased to present a podcast of this presentation. Abstract Conservatives say Barack Obama's ideological overreach -- big spending stimulus, universal health care, automobile/bank bailouts -- has ignited an angry backlash from Middle America. Liberals say Obama and congressional Democrats have failed to prosecute a truly left-liberal agenda in Washington during the past two years. Both explanations are limited. The repudiation of President Obama and the Democrats has more to do with America's spiritual doldrums. In 2008, Americans embraced Obama's optimistic vision of change and renewal. But in the two years since, he has failed to meet the lofty expectations that the public, the media and he himself set. Polls consistently show a significant majority of Americans think the U.S. is heading down the wrong path. Hence the rapid mood swings within the electorate, epitomised in Obama's fall from adulation to anger within only a few months in 2009. Of course, America has undergone crises before, but it has never endured one quite like this. It is not just that the US military is stretched to breaking point. Nor is it just that the US is mired in near double-digit unemployment and skyrocketing levels of debt. It is more to do with whether Americans will gracefully accept a lesser role in an increasingly multi-polar world. About Tom Switzer Tom Switzer is a research associate at the United States Studies Centre at the University of Sydney where he also teaches undergraduate courses in American politics and Australian political and diplomatic history. He is also editor of The Spectator Australia and a research fellow at the Institute of Public Affairs in Melbourne. In 2009 he was a candidate in the Liberal party primary for the federal seat of Bradfield in northern Sydney. In 2008 he was senior adviser to former federal Opposition Leader Brendan Nelson. Before that, he was opinion page editor for The Australian (2001-08), an editorial writer at The Australian Financial Review (1998-2001) and an assistant editor at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, DC (1995-98). He has also contributed articles to the Wall Street Journal (US, Asia and Europe), International Herald Tribune, the American Interest, Far Eastern Economic Review, the American Review, ABC The Drum, the American Conservative, the American Enterprise, the Age, the Sydney Morning Herald, the Australian Literary Review, Courier Mail, Newcastle Herald, Quarterly Essay and Quadrant magazine. He has a Masters in International Relations in 1994 and a Bachelor of Arts in History (First Class Honours) in 1993, both at the University of Sydney.