It strikes me as a victory for hope and optimism lets hope the politians dont let us down.

Speaking from across the pond and as someone who has very little interest in US politics, (or any politics if it comes down to it) I thought, as have several other people that I have spoken to, that Obama is, possibly, the most 'Presidential' candidate since Kennedy. It might be 'PR', it might not. I don't know. He just seemed to come across as a genuine human being.

Quote:

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Embrace the new order and pray to God Barack is protected from assassination attempts.

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This is also something that several people have said to me over the last couple of days. Let's hope that he doesn't need to hide himself away behind bullet proof screens.

I had not heard the entire speech until the day after as I do not have TV at home.
I listened to it and frankly the words that got to me the most was his tribute to his wife: "the rock of our family and the love of my life, our nation's next First Lady , Michelle…"
Especially since his last parent had just been lost who raised him, this just made me lose it.

I wish him all the strength he'll need for this journey.
I hope that those who were disappointed and fearful of the job that he'd do will be as accepting as the people here at FT. McCain was truly dignified in his response.

A beautiful portrait of our new First Family

The First Family

As Sam Fox,the US Ambassador to Belgium and a friend of George Bush, emphasized : the great news is that America again proved its status as the Land of Opportunity by showing that the old opposition between Whites and Non-Whites can be overcome.Is not politics always the art of overcoming to some extent the inevitable oppositions of Us vs. Them?
The good news to me is that now I may hope that, among Europeans, more constructive thought will replace the "America-bashing" of the last decade. And I noticed that many European politicians were aware of it that President Elect Obama was also going to ask a more substantial contribution from them to the work that lies ahead. The road to progress is never an easy road, and the attitude of blaming the state of the world on the others has never been very helpful.
We all hope that President Obama will take on board a sufficient part of the rest of the world to carry out the task that we all are facing: getting the world on the right track again after all the financial and other crises.
And no we do not expect heaven on earth. That's why we need faith in more than just our politicians. Neither optimism nor pessimism is the answer. But hope is better than cynicism.
And no, John Mc Cain did not come across to me as "the loser" of these elections. He too gave stature to American Democracy.