PostHeaderIcon Barack Obama: Elected First Afro-American US President


There will be no long night in the US elections 2008. As soon as the polls in California and other western states closed at 11 PM eastern time and without waiting for the initial results from the area, Wolf Blitzer of CNN projects that Barack Obama has garnered enough electoral votes and called the race. Barack Obama becomes the first Afro-American elected president of the United States.

CNN's announcement was greeted by emotional cheers by a sea of Obama supporters at Grant Park Chicago. A crowd of 4000 students from a nearby university, rushed to the gate of the White House cheering for Obama while demanding immediate eviction of President George W. Bush. Cheering crowds were also noted in Wall Street and Dr. Martin Luther King's church in Atlanta.

The world too rejoices. As far as Obama's root country of Kenya, huge crowds celebrate.

Shortly after, John McCain delivered his concession speech before teary-eyed supporters and promises support for an Obama presidency. A couple of times, McCain had to control boos from disappointed supporters. McCain 's "extraordinarily gracious" words after running a bitter, often venomous, campaign is now a footnote to history.

Obama's victory is self-healing for America. After electing the like of George Bush twice, America fights back by choosing a leader who promises to transform not only America but the world as well. It is classic battle between message of hope and change on one hand and experience on the other. It is also a repudiation of negative campaign tactics, personal attacks, stunts and gimmicks. It is also a triumph of ethical journalism over propagandist media like the FoxNews and News Corp. Millions of bloggers in the Web proved effective in flagging down lies and falsehoods. Incidentally, McCain's loss is the fifth time that American voters refused to elect a decorated war hero to the presidency. This is also the first time that an anti-war candidate wins the US Presidency while America is at war. It is expected that under Obama's leadership, America will self-correct previous mistakes and failures.

The Obama-McCain race is for the ages. It is the stuff that songs, poetry and epics celebrating the triumph of the good guy who takes the high road are made of. Americans and non-Americans will certainly remember where they are on this historic moment. The whole world embraces Barack Obama and see him as the leader of the world. A British news headline even calls Obama's victory. " one giant leap for mankind," a direct quote from John F. Kennedy referring to the first human landing in the moon in 1969.

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