On Tuesday, America elected Barack Hussein Obama as the 44th president of the United States. The news came just after 11 p.m., when the state of Virginia voted Democrat, ensuring Obama’s presidential victory.
The self-professed “least likely candidate for [this] office,” Obama’s campaign saw the death of public spending, an unprecedented voter turnout, Obama Girl, and Joe the Plumber. The American people have allowed the junior senator from Illinois a chance to deliver on his promise of hope and change.
To get there, Obama had to compete with a Mayor of New York, a Mormon, and a maverick. And let’s not forget the Clinton Political Machine—the mightiest machinery in American politics until today. Yet even to the veterans, Obama’s campaign was immaculate—free of the mistakes that often plague such operations. The precision with which he responded to his opponents’ attacks, the manner in which he was able to identify and exploit his rival’s flaws and slip-ups (while committing hardly any himself) provided the best answer to the accusations that he had no leadership skills or experience.
To skeptics who questioned his foreign policy credentials, he demonstrated his grasp on the use of power. This became ever more prevalent with the Jeremiah Wright controversy, but reached its pinnacle with the onset of the biggest economic crisis since the Great Depression. While McCain teetered in between policies and messages, Obama stayed true to form and, most importantly, remained presidential.
To be sure, winning the election will be the easiest part of the Obama presidency. The to-do list is long, and after the longest and most expensive campaign in American history, Obama now carries the burden of great expectations. Over 130 million Americans reportedly voted in this presidential election, with certain states claiming an 80 to 90 per cent registered voter turnout.
As Obama mentioned in his election victory speech, the challenges will be great. Obama faces two wars, an economic recession, a defunct healthcare system, and a “planet in peril.” Many projects may serve as foreign policy tests, as America’s enemies angle to challenge the newly elect—just as JFK was challenged with the Cuban Missile Crisis.
Facing such immense challenges with the pragmatism that has become the trademark of his campaign, Obama remarked to a crowd of over 100,000 at Chicago’s Grant Park: “I will always be honest with you about the challenges we face. I will listen to you, especially when we disagree…to those Americans whose support I have yet to earn—I may not have won your vote, but I hear your voices, I need your help, and I will be your president too.”
What breath of fresh air. Not only was his speech free of partisan rhetoric, it stayed humbly away from basking in the glory of the electoral college landslide, and the triumphant victory of the Democrats gaining control over the House, the Senate, and the White House. During his eloquent and thoughtful speech, not once did he draw attention to his own personal successes. “I will never forget who this victory truly belongs to—it belongs to you,” he told his supporters.
Having spent the better part of my childhood in Southern California, I recall partaking in a mock 1996 Clinton-Dole presidential election in our elementary school. We had voting booths, pre-election rallies, and if I recall correctly, election fraud when a few upper years decided to get creative with their paper ballots. I was in grade three, and I voted for Bill Clinton mainly because I didn’t want to cast my vote to a fruit processing company.
So much has changed in such a short span of time. And for the first time in a long time, the American people can proudly carry the unyielding hopes that a “government of the people, by the people, and for the people, has not perished from this Earth.” A president whose name means “he is with us” has promised to heal the divide and to remake the nation that once stood for liberty, to restore its moral authority, “block by block, brick by brick, calloused hand by calloused hand.”
According to transcripts provided by the White House, Mr. Bush called Mr. Obama to congratulate him and to promise a “smooth transition.” Mr. Bush added, “You are about to go on one of the great journeys of your life. Congratulations, and go enjoy yourself.” We might as well do the same.
