By Vusi Moloi © 2008
The Honourable Senator of Illinois Mr. Barack Obama is now the new President of the United States. He has defeated his vigorous contender the Honourable Senator Mr. John McCain of Arizona.
This gruelling campaign which lasted over 20 months is an extraordinary moment in America’s history. Mr. Obama cast himself as a change agent with a goal of changing the lives of ordinary Americans for the better regardless of their gender or racial heritage. Even though he received support from across entire spectrum, Mr. Obama was particularly propelled to victory by female, youth and first time voters.
In an unusual move with a show of impressive sportsmanship Senator McCain made an early concession in a race where the writing on the wall began with the unincorporated village of Dixville Notch, New Hampshire which declared America’s first election results in which they overwhelmingly elected Obama as America’s President. He told supporters at his hometown of Phoenix, Arizona that he had called Senator Obama to congratulate him as a new President of the United States of America. Mr. McCain expressed his recognition of the historical significance of Mr. Obama’s election as the country’s first African American President. For her part, Governor Sarah Palin refused to concede and instead continued to denounce Senator Obama using her belligerent and defamatory language.
The President-Elect Mr. Obama becomes the 44th President of the USA and along with his Vice-President the Honourable Senator Joe Bidden he will be sworn into office on January 20 2008. Mr. Obama will assume the oval office shortly thereafter. Speaking to supporters at his hometown of Chicago, Illinois, Mr. Obama praised Mr. McCain and promised to work with him along with Governor Palin in the service of the American people. Part of the credit of Mr. Obama's success must go to the great Campaign Manager Mr. David Plouffe who executed brilliant strategic and tactical moves. Even an ordinary guy like me was able to communicate with him as well Mr. Obama and others during the campaign, something unheard of for a shepherd boy.
The television talk show queen Ms. Oprah Winfrey as well as the pioneering veteran of the Presidential race the highly regarded Reverend Jesse Jackson were in tears like many other Obama supporters during the Obama’s acceptance speech. All the races felt the unifying force of the families of Mr. Obama and Mr. Bidden on stage.
The African continent, the Middle East and in fact the entire world see Obama’s Presidency as instrumental in the peaceful realignment of World affairs along the lines of bilateral relations, peaceful and respectful interaction and the building of alliances in defeating economic injustices which remain a crushing experience for many economically disenfranchised peoples. Mr. Obama has committed to fixing the economy and also withdrawing American troops out of Iraq within 16 months.
Countries like Zimbabwe will be more open to work together with Mr. Obama as opposed to the current Mr. George Bush who has inevitably alienated the US powerhouse from the world and lost many friends of the world in the process.
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2 comments:
From a global perspective, it seems that by voting for Obama, Americans are telling the world that they are not what the Bush administration claims to represent. Furthermore because Obama is clearly of black African descent, they're telling the world that they are capable of practising some of the "equal opportunity for all people" philosophy that they have preached to the world for the last 100 years. Independent of the accomplishments of a future Obama administration, that message will buy Americans a lot of global credibility.
I couldn't agree more. A lot of doors on the world stage definitely will open up as a result. I was listening to a Toronto radio this morning where one Canadian commentator was saying that at least racism is not so much an issue here in Canada as it's in the US and I said to myself that racism was not perceived as an issue in our country because discussion of the subject is taboo in Canada and as a consequence the issue has since receded from public discourse to private discourse whereas in the US they decided to put their dirty laundry out in the public.
Given the fact that Senator Barack Obama said his foremost task upon taking the White House will be tackling the economy and also withdrawing the US troops out of Iraq, I suspect he might stay at least three months before traversing the globe in order to kickstart the engine of the economy. He was elected on that platform and it's only reasonable that he will ensure it gets jumpstarted as soon as possible. HE has displayed superior business skills with respect to his election budget and fund raising efforts.
One powerful lesson is the manner in which he was able to make the White Americans feel at ease about the race issue. This will go down in history as the most brilliant political campaigner. A lot of people around the world will be learning more about how he did it and I dare to predict that he will write another book which people will use as a reference for navigating adverse waters of opposition in the pursuit of a winnable goal.
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