Do you remember the day Obama was elected President?

Without wanting to write an essay on the history of being black in America, or the more recent history of the last 8 years of George W. Bush, this is a defining moment in time that deserves to be highlighted as much as possible.

By all the information of polls and pundits, along with the record low approval rating of President Bush and the non-stop endorsements of Senator Obama from disaffected Republicans, it seems a no-brainer that in less than 24 hours Obama will be president! (or will beat McCain to be president after Bush leaves in January)

I’m British, though now living in New York, and as most Brits will agree there’s an affinity we feel with America. Our history has been tangled in the past and will no doubt continue to be tangled in the future.

I’ve been watching the presidential campaigns every step of the way for what must be 18 months of the best drama there is. One eye’s been on CNN and the other on MSNBC, with intermittent breaks for small doses of Fox News and The Huffington Post website. It’s safe to say I know more about US elections than The UK’s.

So why is this this election so important and why does it need to continue to be highlighted?

1. The first African American President in the history of The USA
2. A candidate that seems to have broken through many of the divisions that exist in The States
3. The new pesident in the post-Bush era will inherit a gloomy economy and a foreign relations reputation that’s in tatters
4. Obama has demonstrated the ability to inspire and mobilise people, and is proving to so many Americans that the reputation of their country can be restored

This being a ‘defining moment in time’ was one of the cliches heard so often from Team Obama, another being that ‘nowhere else on this planet is a story like Obama’s even possible’. The latter does deserve to be thought about.

Barack Hussein Obama (white mother, Kenyan father who he only met once) – being elected as president shows that more than half of the voters are open minded enough to weigh the candidates up on their true strengths. What is a little disturbing is that there are still many people who think that he is a ‘dangerous choice’, not ‘one of them’, ‘a Muslim’… and so on.

From what is clearly apparent is that to be president of America you must be a Christian (which Obama is and has been for more than 20 years). But what else is also clear is that there is still an ignorant belief that Muslim is synonymous with terrorist or at the very least someone you cannot trust to be president despite what they say!

America’s an odd place. I love NY and the other places I’ve traveled to but there is something a bit strange. The people? The media? There is division of people. Messages are blasted at people through different media and often there is an unquestioned belief of the message by large numbers of people.

I think that the election of Barack Obama is one step to overcoming the devisive politics that exists in this country. It’s also one step closer to fixing the reputation of America around the world. Plus one step closer to restoring human rights (eg. GITMO: Human rights #5 and #10)

Now if only Obama could reduce the number of mind-numbing ads that eat into every episode of CSI or Heroes and any program for that matter, then I’d be happy.

Tags: America, Obama, Politics, USA

Category: Featured, Politics