Barack Obama: America’s First Global President

President Barack Obama was born in 1961, which places him at the tail end of the Baby Boom. He may be 47, but in outlook Obama has much more in common with America’s 18- to 29-year-olds, a group I call the First Global Citizens.
Zogby International polling has consistently found that young adults have more outward-looking and accepting attitudes. Beginning in their teens or earlier, their lives have been wired to their friends and to the whole world. You need look no further than Obama’s affi nity to his BlackBerry to see that Obama and the First Globals have much in common. But it goes beyond having a smart phone.
Obama has been described by some as post-racial. That description to a large degree fits many in the 18 to 29 set. One of our Zogby writers was watching the inauguration with his son Matthew, age 20. After hearing one too many times that Obama’s election was the fulfillment of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “dream,” Matthew snarled at the screen that “King’s dream won’t be realized until you all stop talking about the fact that Obama is black.” The message was clear: Race shouldn’t matter.
An August 2008 Zogby Interactive survey found First Globals were more likely than other age group to believe that Sen. John McCain’s campaign “was trying to indirectly use race as an issue against Barack Obama.” They were also less likely to believe that Obama “wants people to believe that some criticisms of him are based on his race.” Obama has obviously thought a great deal about race—but like the First Globals, though, he acknowledges race but avoids dwelling on it. I anticipate the race issue will diminish as the nation gets more comfortable with Obama as its leader, and as the First Globals are followed by the next wave of young adults, who will be even more accustomed to a multi-racial society.
The signals from Obama could not be clearer that U.S. foreign policy will be more about cooperation than confrontation. The First Global chorus shouts “Amen.” Despite their more limited means, 18-to 29-year-olds are more likely to have a passport than older age groups. Our 2008 post-election poll showed 61 percent with valid passports, actually putting them ahead of those with the most time to travel, people 65 and older.
Having roots in Kenya, lived in Indonesia and raised in poly-ethnic Hawaii, Obama’s background makes him more of a world citizen than perhaps any other president. That is a good thing, according to most young adults.
As political terms, “liberal,” “conservative” and even “moderate” have been so overused we hardly know what they mean anymore. To be sure, they imply orthodoxy, something First Globals eschew. In his words (we’ll see about his actions), Obama shares their dislike for political labels.
But in the dictionary sense, both the First Globals and Obama are “liberal.” They are broad-minded, eager to think things through on their own and resistant to “my way or the highway” answers. And Obama says he is open to all ideas, as long as they are effective.
The First Globals’ affinity to the Obama worldview will be profound. This cohort rejects the forces that have shaped the current Republican Party, where economic, social and religious orthodoxy rule. The GOP will have to become more like our First Globals, or it may disappear.
For now, the First Globals are with Obama and his party. But the Democrats have their own strictures tied to all of their own interest groups. Democrats act with peril if they follow the old ways, and turn off young adults, who are not afraid to try something new—like a third political party.John Zogby is president and CEO of Zogby International and the author of The Way We’ll Be: The Zogby Report on the Transformation of the American Dream.