Obama\'s Acceptance Speech
What was in Obama\'s favour? He was not White. He was not Anglo-Saxon. No one who is not part of this elite had come anywhere near a house called White in 234 years. He was a rookie Senator. A first time Senator with two years of experience. Last time there was a Democratic convention, he did not even have a pass to enter. And he was 46.
On top of that he was Black African American, and his middle name was Hussein. In the entire history of the United States, only half a dozen Black people have ever become even a Senator. Then there was talk of his unsavoury connections, his questionable patriotism. Lethal stuff for an opponent like even Hillary Clinton, forget a true genuine pan-American hero like John McCain.
Add some experiments with marijuana and cocaine during the wasteful years, and where is the recipe for becoming the President of the United States in times as challenging as these and with a Depression looming large when you need skills to handle economy but there is a man accused of being a Socialist who wants to take your money and distribute it?
They just overlooked a minor detail, a detail just about the size of the cosmos. Barack Hussein Obama was not made of the stuff that he was fighting against. That was a key difference. If it starts with Self and Society, then Barack had got his priorities right. He had started with Self. Once you do that, Society has little choice. Have faith in mankind\'s ability to save itself.
African-American Barack Hussein Obama was elected the 44th president of the United States on Tuesday, crossing the huge racial hurdle in American politics with an ease that was a tribute to the way the American democracy has evolved. The US of A now has a black chief executive, and Obama\'s success will lie in making his colour meaningless, irrespective of the huge meaning his colour will have for aspirational, grassroot movements everywhere in the world.
SIKHS: Change We Must
America went through a national catharsis, casting aside the highly unpopular Republican president and his economic and foreign policies, and embraced the message of hope, change and a call to change the tone, content and direction of American policies and its engagement with the world.
At one stage, race seemed to be fraught with potential losing point. Even Hillary Clinto campaign was accused of inducting it as a pawn.
Mr. Obama, 47, a first-term Democratic senator from Illinois, defeated Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, a former prisoner of war who was making his second bid for the presidency.
Obama Race Speech, delivered in Philadelphia
In his gracious concession speech at the Biltmore Hotel in Phoenix shortly after 11:15 p.m. Eastern time, quieting his booing supporters more than once when he mentioned Mr. Obama's name. "Senator Obama has achieved a great thing for himself, and for his country," he said, adding that he was sorry that Mr. Obama's grandmother, Madelyn Dunham, who helped raise him during his teenage years, had not lived to see the day; she died on Sunday.
"These are difficult times for our country, and I pledged to him tonight to do all in my power to help him lead us through the many challenges we face,"
Barack Hussein Obama promised change. The United States of America realized he IS the change that was needed immediately. As a nation, as a democracy, as the hope of the free people, America went through a national catharsis and paid tribute to the hope that the world has always reposed in its people. bama crossed the huge racial barrier with an ease that testifies to the way the American democracy has evolved.
Aspirational people\'s movements all around the world seek inspiration in Obama\'s win. May the world now see abetter, compassionate USA in its engagement with the challenges facing us all.
"I urge all Americans who supported me to join me in not just congratulating him, but offering our next president our goodwill and earnest effort to find ways to come together."
Obama was hardly a candidate against McCain. The Republican campaign and candidate were up against a phenomenon, a man who just will not stay politically correct. So people believed when he took on Race as an issue in Phildelphia. That was the turning point in most people\'s minds. And if God was to send a signal, the economic recession was the size of the Indian Ocean as a signal. McCain had read it, he knew it was slipping away, but it is also a tribute to an evolved democracy that gave him the space to fight on.
Obama's victory speech in Grant Park in Chicago was heard by millions.
\"We are not the Change, we have been given a chance to bring about Change,\" he said. The world heard. The man meant it. The world knew it.
Sikhs should endorse Obama
As results trickled in, Obama was jumping through, over and above the milestones: Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, Iowa and New Mexico. Some states that had not been blue for 40 years! Exhilaration was understandable in a country where just 143 years ago, Obama, as a black man, could have been owned as a slave, the NYT noted.
For Republicans, especially the conservatives who have dominated the party for nearly three decades, the night represented a bitter setback and left them contemplating where they now stand in American politics.
7 November 2008
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