If only people from around the world could vote in the U.S. presidential election and the election was held today, without doubt the Democratic Party candidate for the presidential election, Barack Obama, would win by a landslide.

Early in the campaign season, the American voters and the global electorate may have been drawn by his skin color and his unique upbringing, but as the campaign season dragged on, and especially during the final months of the long election season, this constituency grew more supportive of Obama -- for his sane view of global politics (as opposed to McCain's "bomb, bomb, bomb Iran" approach), his redistributive economic plan and his cool-headed temper that is badly needed in these troubled times.

With the American economy going down the drain, its military embroiled in two major wars and the prospect of a more assertive Russia, what America needs now is a leader that has the ability-to (quote the cliched campaign slogan that rings true now more than ever), bring Americans together rather than divide them further between "small town America" and "unpatriotic America".

But, more than anything else, what Obama represents is a break from the past and for an established, not to say conservative, society like America. This indeed is be a remarkable achievement.

The joke among American political pundits is that for the first time in 32 years, the race to the White House does not involve the Bushes and the Doles -- the latter referring to the family of the former U.S. senator for Kansas, Bob Dole, who ran as a candidate in almost every Republican party primary.

Being a law professor who later served as a community organizer in the South Side of Chicago, Obama is a new breed of candidate aiming for the White House. The last time America had a law professor at the White House was when International Relations scholar Woodrow Wilson sat at the Oval Office, and that was almost a century ago.

Obama's candidacy and his stronger chance for victory also comes when the last hope for incumbent President George W. Bush not ruining the superpower country even further has been dashed.

So in a critical juncture of its history, the American political system works its way out to give birth to a figure who would represent a break from the past. And along the way, Obama's youthful energy has also given birth to a new generation of voters whose enthusiasm serves as an anachronism for a mature democracy like the United States. Politics is dead in Europe, but has come back to life in America.

The sad thing about this whole exercise of the American democracy for us in Indonesia is that while a politically conservative society like the United States could come up with their own little revolution, we in Indonesia are in fact undergoing a kind of devolution, less than a decade after making a great stride in toppling an autocratic regime -- our own small revolution.

Those on the left have long lamented about the resurgence of elites, both in business and politics: members of an oligarchy who are now in control of Indonesia's political establishment.

In spite of the extended enfranchisement of the populace in a representative democracy, we have achieved little in this whole exercise with a member of the military (however progressive he was) and a chairman of the Golkar party (the mainstay of the New Order authoritarian regime) being elected for the country's highest office in the first direct presidential election in 2004.

The prospect of "change" is very unlikely now that the 2009 presidential elections will feel like a repeat of the 2004 scene. The least that we can expect from voters is that they will only give a subdued response to the whole electioneering process. And in next year's election, we will have more reasons to be concerned that more and more stalwarts of the ancient regime will join the fray.

As for a number of young people who jumped into politics, some of whom were candid about their presidential aspirations that were partly inspired by Obama's meteoric rise, doubts abound whether they are the real deal.

And beyond their close-knit academic and/or non-governmental organization networks, these young people don't have strong foundations on which they could launch an effective political campaign. It is doubtful that without this foundation, they could build a good rapport with voters in general.

Some of these young politicians may have believed that the success of Obama's campaign could be attributed to the effective use of public relations campaigning and marketing strategies coupled with information technology.

However, the use of Facebook, blogs, Tweeter or MySpace will mean little if there is no substance to back it up. The employment of a sophisticated marketing campaign will yield little if you don't have a quality product to begin with. Obama not only has great teeth and wordsmith skills, he has substance.

This is not an indictment against young politicians who have made attempts to go against the political establishment (that is populated by New Order politicians and businessmen) and to do what they think best in how to turn this country around.

But before doing so, the most basic question is whether they are willing to do away with the establishment that has nurtured them. As for those who have not made up their minds about joining the establishment, they should ask the question of whether they would be able to withstand the corrupt nature of the political establishment.

The writer is a journalist with The Jakarta Post and is currently a graduate student at the Political Science Department of Northern Illinois University (NIU), DeKalb, Illinois.

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