For a reporter who is very much used to the political environment, where a single whirlwind of popularity can take over an entire election, the 2008 American election remains a puzzle. According to a public opinion poll commissioned jointly by the New York Times and CBS News a few days ago, 29% of Americans think the Bush administration did a good job, and 66% think it did poorly. When asked about the economy, 20% of respondents thought positively while 80% thought negatively. In retrospect, the Iraq War is evaluated highly by 37%, and 59% think America needs to withdraw. In a word, Bush’s Republicans have made crap of inside and outside of the nation and thus resemble the last stage of the Roh Mu-hyeon government.

If this is the general public’s opinion with the election only two months away, the result of the election should be obviously predictable. Furthermore, the Democrats have the hero at the center of the whirlwind, Barak Obama, who beat out the presidential candidate the party had been preparing, Hillary Clinton. However, according to a poll by CNN on the same day as the New York Times/CBS News poll, Obama is at 49%, and McCain is at 48%, a razor thin difference. A week ago, a virtual tie!

Last week was the week of Obama. On the last day of the week, a week wholly dedicated by the country to the Democratic Party’s national convention, on a day carefully selected for being the 45th anniversary of Martin Luther King’s I Have a Dream speech, Obama made his acceptance speech in an outdoor venue, just as JFK did in 1960. With layer upon layer of symbolism, the speech was watched by 40 million viewers, the most in the history of American politics. Yet the poll shows a razor thin difference. Where is the whirlwind that swept through the nation in the past year?

Obama’s popularity has been analyzed to be solely due to his being African-American. However, there is no evidence to suggest that Hillary Clinton would have been able to achieve more support from the people had she won the candidacy. Obama has consistently beat Clinton in terms of competitiveness in the presidential election.

American political experts say Obama’s whirlwind among Democrats is limited to Democrats and has nothing to do with Republicans. In a democracy with shallow partisan roots such as ours, a whirlwind can spread easily, but such is not the case in America, a democracy with deeply rooted partisanship.

In a survey by the New York Times, 93% of Democratic delegates answered negatively about Bush; however, 79% of Republican delegates responded positively. Even regarding the Iraq War, 80% of Republican delegates replied positively, and 95% of Democratic delegates insisted on withdrawal. Asked which was more important, medical insurance for the American population at large or tax reduction, 77% of Republican delegates chose tax reduction while 94% of Democratic delegates answered that medical insurance was more important. Polarized senses of values and ideas about remedies -- such extremely dichotomized goals and policy may be too much for a whirlwind to make up for.

We have been talking about partisan democracy in ideal terms; however, in the real world, whirlwind politics has survived partisanship. Whimsical politics by the powerful and popular is always glamorous. If Obama had created whims at an early stage in Korea, he might have determined the result of the election a long while ago. Of course, no one including himself in Korea can be sure about the future of his party or his registration beyond a few years. Ever since the first president, Rhee Syng-man, no single president has instituted parties with their unique political philosophies; no one party in the same name survived his retirement.