Obama promised the Democrats that he will counter the Republican smear tactics by “telling the truth — forcefully, repeatedly, confidently — and by trusting that the American people will embrace the need for change”. He also confronted the Republican criticism of his call for an early withdrawal of troops from Iraq and for talks with Iran. “I trust the American people to recognise that it is not surrender to end the war in Iraq so that we can rebuild our military and go after al Qaeda’s leaders... That it’s not weakness, but wisdom to talk not just to our friends, but our enemies — like Roosevelt did, and Kennedy did, and Truman did”. As far as Obama is concerned the intra-party debate is over and it is time to challenge the Republicans.

The writer is professor at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore