Now world waits to see how the US will repair its tattered image

Supporters of Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton react when it became clear she was losing to Donald Trump in last week’s US presidential election. PHOTO | AFP

What you need to know:

  • Over the years, the tradition has been that the retiring president keeps off the campaign trail, only making a few appearances. But this year, President Obama and his wife Michelle were among the most forceful campaigners for Clinton.

Hillary Clinton ran exactly the same campaign as her last shot at the presidency in 2008. In 2016, the only new ingredient was that she had the incumbent, Mr Barack Obama, firmly in her camp.

Over the years, the tradition has been that the retiring president keeps off the campaign trail, only making a few appearances. But this year, President Obama and his wife Michelle were among the most forceful campaigners for Clinton.

The final victor, Mr Donald Trump, was clearly not made for the White House. He was accused of a myriad crimes, among them groping women, failing to declare his taxes, and insulting fellow Americans and foreigners, among them Muslims, Mexicans, and Chinese, whom he described as currency manipulators.

This election broke many traditions. Most elections produce bitter campaigns but the 2016 one was right in the gutter. Accusations against Mr Trump painted him as totally unsuited to hold this most powerful office on the globe.

Tapes were produced to show him boasting about groping women. Several women who had encountered the candidate described him as a monster.

However, these accusations did not help his opponent, Mrs Clinton. In 2008, Barack Obama was painted as inexperienced and it was suggested that he would be sleeping at the White House as a crisis unfolded elsewhere on the globe. All this scare-mongering did not work and Mr Obama won the Democratic Party ticket.

This election turned the world of opinion polling upside down. The question is whether any lessons were learnt. Perhaps one lesson is that elections are won at the grassroots, where the scandals and exposés bandied in the mainstream media do not matter if the candidate is thick-skinned enough to endure and not pull out of the race.

Except for the flawless power transfer machine that has been set in motion by President Obama, this election leaves the US’s image abroad damaged.

The protests and stone-throwing that followed the ballot and still persist have shown that the streets of New York or San Francisco are no different from any African city’s after a contested election.

The shock on the faces of the protesters registered the fact that for the next four years, a man they vehemently opposed would be their commander-in-chief.

Mr Trump could just have been lucky. The tradition in the US has been that once any of the parties — Democratic or Republican — completes two terms, the next president is usually from the other party, the only exception in recent memory being in 1988 when Ronald Reagan was succeeded by his vice-president, George Herbert Bush. However, Mr Bush only served one term despite his successes on the global scene such as driving Iraqi forces out of Kuwait and sending his troops to save lives in Somalia.

That Hillary Clinton was trying to debunk this tradition and ended squarely on the ground should be a lesson to future candidates. Mrs Clinton had been a two-term first lady and there have been questions raised over the Clinton Foundation and her handling of State affairs while serving as secretary of State when she used her private email for State business.

Now, as the chips fall in place, what is yet to emerge is how the US will repair its tattered image.

There is also the question of what the Democratic Party plans to do to return to the centre of US politics since it is clear that the doyen of their show, Mrs Clinton, is unlikely to gun for the presidency again. It is now a US where Rudy Giuliani, a radical former mayor of New York City, and Mike Tyson, an ear-biting former boxing champion, both of whom endorsed Mr Trump quite early in his campaign, will be welcome at the White House.

The biggest loser in this battle is the Clinton political flame that appears to have been extinguished.

To the media, Mr Trump’s win is a wake-up call. It also guarantees a steady supply of juicy copy in this odyssey that is just starting.

Mr Owuor is foreign editor, Daily Nation [email protected]