McCain 159, Obama 338
I never thought I would cry with happiness at the result of somebody else’s election, but here I am doing just that. Maybe it’s the result of sleeping for just a couple of hours. Goodbye, Sarah Palin. Hello, the first black president of the United States.
Now John McCain is on television. His valedictory is dignified, recognising that this is a historic election, and that it has special significance for African-Americans. That was the only slip he made, because it has special significance for white Americans too. It has special significance for the rest of the world. But McCain’s words are unifying. He says that the size and extent of Obama’s victory commands respect for his abilities and for who he is. Obama’s campaign, he says, filled people with hope. He drives home the point of how far America has come from the bigotry of the fairly recent past. He reminds his audience that when Theodore Roosevelt invited a black man to dinner at the White House, it provoked national outrage. Now there’s a black man in the White House, and they’re going to be calling him Mr President.
It is really the perfection illustration of the great American dream: the outsider whose father is from a sub-Saharan African village and whose mother was a wandering eccentric white woman, who was brought up by his grandparents in Hawaii, and now here he is. No wonder people are going wild. It’s a celebration of all that’s possible. The present has broken, finally, with the past. And it’s strange to think that, somewhere in a sub-Saharan village, there are men and women who can say that their half-brother is the president of the United States.
Our own homegrown racists have had their arguments about the genetic inferiority of Africans rubbished completely. All sensible, decent people knew those arguments were rubbish, but it’s so wonderful to have their noses rubbed in it. The son of an African villager is the leader of the free world, the 44th president of the United States, and around two-thirds of electors aged below 60 voted for him. Two-thirds.
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The USA may not be perfect and has managed to attract a lot of hatred towards it around the world, but one thing is for sure though – democracy does work there like in no other state.
The only losers are the people of Alaska because they are stuck with that Sarah Palin as their Governor! Serves them right, you betcha!
Yes Daphne I cried too. I do not believe in the god that was thrust down my throat in my childhood;
but, OMG
bless the United States of America.
Yes, we have just witnessed another important historical fact unfold in front of us; the first American black president. And only forty years ago we had the black civil rights movement. The freedom riders etc. I wonder what Martin Luther King would have said if it were to be mentioned to him that in 2008 a black president would be residing in the White House. And Franklin Roosevelt; who caused a furore by inviting a black man to dine at the White House. I am sure not everyone is happy, especially in the deep south, where the Klux Klux Klan still breathes. I just hope Mr. Obama doesn’t end up like JFK.
[Daphne – I’ve just seen Jesse Jackson crying at the back of one of the crowds, and it looked as though only the CNN reporter recognised knew who he is.]
Change has come to America…….and the world. Thank you Lord. We have got rid of the Cowboy at last.
Now if Drjowey had to paint his face black……maybe it will happen in Malta!
The ANR must be struggling to compose their letter of congratulations to Obama.
Without wanting to sound like Soviet Kev, I cannot understand what this cacophony is all about.
Yes, Obama has won the black man prejudice. That’s a non-issue for me. Time shall judge Obama on the policies adopted during his mandate.
The USA is not perfect, you say, damn right. Let’s see whether Obama shall can rectify any of the glaring issue-
1. Hypocrisy and self-righteousness, including any of the following-
Nagasaki & Hiroshima
Biological Weapons
The Land Mine Treaty
The Arms Trade
The Kyoto Protocol
Abstinence and Intelligent design policies
Short-sighted foreign policy – Afghanistan, Iraq (both former allies).
Heavy handed commercial aggression
UN criticism of the United States’ Children’s Rights
Rape and violent crime statistics, capital punishment
Foreign Aid: USA is stingiest of the 22 most developed countries
Support of obnoxious regimes – S. America, particularly Chile, Guatemala, Liberia (US-backed forces helped overthrow many democratically elected leftish governments – Pinochet anyone?)
International discord and contempt of the UN – Iraq again.
Inflammatory foreign policy – Middle East / Iran.
And that’s just for starters.
Min jaf Lowell, x’jibla lumi u ilma zaghar :)
Obama has more in his little finger then all Viva Malta put together 10 times over!
I had always wished Colin Powell had run for president!
I would love to hear a Norman Lowell interview as of now
@Amanda Mallia
These people have to understand that it is
the melting pot of humanity that makes
any nation great.
[Daphne – That has actually been a crucial factor in making Malta what it is, rather than just another rock in the Mediterranean.]
Please guys. Yes, Obama’s victory is very important. But don’t say change has come until it has really come. Keep in mind that for all Obama’s inspiring rhetoric, he still represents a governing elite. The Democratic Party is hardly the people’s party. Plus, the middle east is not about to become the Garden of Eden just because Obama is in the White House. The same people will be calling the shots. But having said that, yes, Obama in the White House is great news.
“I had always wished Colin Powell had run for president!”
Would never get anywhere. The Democrats see him as a warmonger and the Republicans as unreliable. He had his moments of shame already and during a presidential race I’m sure more would be dug out.
What a relief!
@ Pat – what moments of shame are you referring too? Because he stated that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction? What fault does he have if he was fed this information by the military? Or are you referring to other ‘moments’? I think Powell would have made a great President – read his book and you will see that his qualifications are first class.
So Martin Luther King’s DREAM has at long last become a reality.
Great man great visiion.
Good luck to Mr Obama and hopefully he will strive and succeed into getting the USA out of the mess cowboy Bush got it into.
As for all racists now we have a coloured F1 world champion, an Afro American President next a coloured Pope and one day also a coloured King of England.
Amanda, I suggest they get in touch with Thomas Robb, he will sure help them.
Jack: You *do* sound like Soviet Kev. Obama’s election marks a seachange in the way race and political participation are viewed and you need to be wilfully blind not to see the potential of the moment. Beyond sentiment and euphoria there are difficult issues that Obama-the-president must face, yes, but whatever the issues there are to resolve, a world of possibilities has opened up. His election signals optimism that problems, challenges and divisions can be overcome. Will that optimism be fulfilled? It’s anyone’s guess, but optimism and the opportunity to heal divisions are a good starting point. Why be such a misery grouch?
@Alex
No nothing will change overnight, if it ever does, but it proves true the
last sentence of the American Constitution’s bill of rights:
‘We hold these truths to be self evident that all men are created equal ‘
A perfect declaration if ever there was one. The last time I had the same feelings was in 1974 when Richard Nixon had to resign over Watergate. Yes the American constitution works.
@ Jack
Agreed. We could add the corporate dominance of public life in the USA, plus its insidious take over of most facets of private life. Companies like Monsanto, Halliburton, those private security firms running amok in Iraq, etc.
I have my doubts that Obama will exert any influence on these things.
Plus perhaps a more convincing explanation of what really happened on 9/11 would be more than welcome.
I couldn’t agree more with Daphne than I do now. But I wish those commenting in this blog would have the guts to give their names in full and not hide behind a pen name.
I still feel sorry for Al Gore, 8 years ago. The world would have been totally different today. Lets hope Obama will start fixing George Bush’s mess.
I’m glad to see that Ms. Caruana Galizia cried with happiness. I did as well on my way to work early this morning, I heard the news on the radio and on my PC but hearing Obama’s speech made me cry – I never thought it would happen to me for someone else’s election. Frankly, I thought it was hormonal :)However, I’m sure it was not.
Bloody hell! He was quick:
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20081105/local/joseph-muscat-writes-to-obama
It is a major moment in history but I wouldn’t cry over it since it (Obama’s election) will have little or no direct impact on my life despite the huge direct and indirect affects on a national and global scale.
I’m no macro-economist at all, but I would expect Obama’s promise to withdraw from Iraq within 16 months, if he can keep it, to be hugely beneficial to the US economy and consequently the global economy, with the trillions saved becoming available for more productive investment. At least, with my limited understanding of the global economy, I hope for that, if not expect it.
Good luck Dr Obama
It was very crucial that Obama won this election, but for different reasons.
First, had McCain won, the GOP would not have been expected to dispel its neo-con hijackers. As it is, with the warmongering, big-government McCain down and out, the party could return to its old roots of non-interventionism in both foreign and domestic policy.
Secondly, had Obama not won, the Dems would have thought that he was a missed opportunity and in a year’s time they would still have believed that there exists a fundamental difference between the two parties forming this duopoly.
As it is, in less than six months, more Americans will wake up to the fact that these ‘differences’ are just irrelevant nuances.
For let’s face it, the empire will not fall without a fight. And by April 2009 the insolvency of the federal government will become evident, including the collapse of the dollar (and the insolvency of the debt-ridden people).
What Obama has in common with the McCain doctrine is bewildering:
1. None of them addressed any changes in foreign policy. While McCain sings “Bomb, bomb, bomb – bomb, bomb Iran…” to the old sixties tune (forgot the name, sorry, but it’s on Youtube), Obama has called for more troops in Afghanistan and said he would not shun invading Pakistan or bombing Iran (all options on the table, incl. nuclear). But what about peace and non-interventionism, Obama? Nada!
2. None of them addressed the fundamental problem that the Federal Reserve is a privately controlled institution governed by bankers for bankers and huge corportions. Whoever controls monetary policy controls the people’s lives, yet the Federal Reserve, in collusion with the Treasury Department, connive without any democratic oversight whatsoever, bailing out bankers and large corporations for their errors, but not the people. Don’t forget that when the Federal Reserve creates new money and lends it to the federal government the taxpayers pay not only interest on those loans, but also the inflation tax. Counterfeiting is a crime because it dilutes the purchasing power of the currency and steals from people’s savings, yet the Feds can counterfeit as much as they like and get paid interest on those amounts.
I say ‘counterfeiting’ in a near literal sense, even if not technically illegal. Since the Bretton Woods agreement collapsed in 1971, the dollar became the world’s reserve currency, fully replacing gold. Introducing new money into the system became as good as creating gold… you think about that, then commit yourself to some research.
3. None of them is addressing the huge federal debt, now at 10 trillion dollars and counting… And none of them have addressed the balooning budget deficits – in fact they both promise to spend more on welfare and warfare.
4. None of them is addressing the creeping Police State and the serious erosion of civil liberties, not just on paper, but in practice too. The snooping federal government has now fully grown to Big Brother.
These four issues lie at the core of the US financial and democratic collapse that will fully materialise next year.
Meanwhile, two more army battalions have been deployed for Homeland security, added to the one deployed last September. Note the word ‘deployed’ – this is the first time in living memory that the US armed forces are being used to quell the population, something which was highly unconstitutional with the Posse Comitatus Act and which has now been compromised by George II.
Will Obama abuse the presidential powers decreed by the Bush regime? Will Obama take on the Military Industrial Complex? Will he take on the proponents of the fascistic “New World Order”? Is Obama free to pursue his ideals?
The last president to remotely try had his skull smashed by bullets.
The real test for Obama will be the looming crisis that will materialise before spring of next year. What seems certain is that the wars will escalate and the financial crisis will mushroom. Obama, it is said, will face huge crises in his early days after January 20. Joe Biden, Colin Powell and many more are saying this, not just Kev.
But on a local note, I am trilled to see Daphne and Joseph agree on the Obama factor. Both are enthusiastic to the point of bliss. Both have no idea what is really going on in the US, being taken in by irrelevant flukes, such as the inconsequential Palin, or Obama’s skin colour and his oratory skills and rhetoric.
Enjoy this short lull in the rollercoaster ride. The beginning has hardly begun. There could be lots of surprises, though, such as the abandonment of the Israeli state in preference to the higher Zionist worldy causes… but that’s yet anohter story.
Daphne,
I bet Athena is sure that he bribed his way to for the presidency! So much for her ‘black non-achievers’.
You may love them or hate (envy) them ; but they still make a great nation. They have bettered Martin Luther King’s wildest dreams. They made sure the best man won. In so doing all prejudices went with the wind. They put their country first. They always do. Good luck and God Bless the guarantors of freedom everywhere – the USA.
I, like you, stayed up all night watching the US coverage on BBC World and am delighted with the result.
But are we not expecting too much from Obama? He is president for America and will put the US’s needs before anyone else’s. The world is expecting Obama to be the solution for everything, and I think we will be sorely disappointed.
An example: on a recent survey Dutch people were asked if Obama was for gay marriage, against capital punishment and against the right to keep a weapon. A huge majority of respondents answered that he was for gay marriage and against the other two. In actual fact he is against gay marriage, and for the right to keep a weapon and capital punishment.
Are we in for a disappointment? Hopefully not – and a welcome end to Dubya’s era.
Here’s what I think is a very original analysis of the event:
Darren it was Theodore and not Franklin Roosevelt who invited W.E.B. Dubois to the White House :) But McCain was so wise to mention that in his speech. Pity most of his support came from the Deep South who voted for him for all the wrong reasons.
[Daphne – McCain made the same reference in his valedictory, but apparently yes, it was Theodore Roosevelt but the guest in question was Booker T. Washington.]
I think the time has come for this type of leader all over the world. The great battles on ideology, religions, cultures are thing of the past. We should now unify and make this world of ours even better than it is now. Obviously Obama will not be perfect but the significance of his victory is huge. Obama has given hope to people from all over the world. Today, together with my wife, we watched and we cried with happiness of great hope of unity amongst different people.
Obama must be overjoyed! He received CONGRATULATIONS from Dr.Joseph Muscat! WOW!
That was Teddy not Franklin Roosevelt. The guest was Booker T. Washington.
Mr Obama’s election has become even more legitimate and important now that Joseph has congratulated.
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20081105/local/joseph-muscat-writes-to-obama
Here in the U.S. there is a collective sigh of relief (at least among those who voted for Obama) and even a state of surreal awe that it has finally happened. For someone who remembers the 1980s in Malta, it’s almost like when Eddie beat KMB in 1987.
[Daphne – That’s how it came across to me on television, too – not just the aftermath, but seeing all those people queuing for hours to vote.]
How refreshing to see the Left finally get politically savvy and storm to electoral victory. During the electoral campaign Obama was called a socialist after explaining to that fake “Joe the Plumber” (an obvious set-up by the Republicans) that he wanted to “spread the wealth around”. Socialist! Communist! Screamed the neo-cons. “The last one to talk about spreading the wealth was Karl Marx”, they said.
Yet this “socialist” will reside at the White House in two months time. The American people do not fall victim to such right-wing scaremongering so easily, it seems.
May this leftist wave spread to Europe and infect the Old Continent’s Social Democratic Parties who are so talented at shooting themselves in the foot instead to dealing mortal blows to their political adversaries. Pity.
@Alex. Don’t expect a sea change. Obama has his work cut out for him – a nation in the grip of the worst depression in 80 years and a military engaged in a conflict that has turned out to be a quagmire. However, if anyone can bring about change, it will be Obama. McCain, for all his personal qualities, had no real solutions to the health care crisis (a $5,000 tax credit and a tax on employers who provided health insurance?!) and was committed to keeping U.S. troops in Iraq for a 100 years if necessary. Change vs. More of the same.
I have never seen Americans so excited about an election in 16 years of living in this country. My brother happened to be visiting from Malta on election day and was amazed to see people circling the block around polling booths and signs everywhere. When the results came in from the West coast putting Obama over the magical 270 electoral votes the election night party I was attending exploded in jubilation and car horns blared out for blocks around. It was just like being back in Malta at election time – only no lemon trees and dead rabbits.
Let’s hope the industrial military complex that Eisenhower warned about in his farewell address to the nation will not snuff out the winds of change.
Daphne abd Gerald: I apoligise for my mistake; I should have checked the facts before committing to ink, rather than rely on my memory. Thanks for pointing out my inaccuracy.
[Daphne – I made the same mistake myself, and so did McCain.]
I don’t know if any one on this blog was watching the election on the BBC as I was. For me this was one of the highlights of the evening: David Dimbleby interviewing Gore Vidal.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2L8iUHZ2sY
[Daphne – “The Republican Party is not a party like the British Conservative Party. It is a mindset.” Yes, just like the Labour Party back home.]
@ Darren and Jean Paul Fiott – I can’t wait to see Obama, midway in his second term in 2014, meet our Joseph.
Someone will have a lot of scribbling to do.
Daphne
I am not that informed about USA politics but what was so bad about Sarah Palin (apart from being white) and what is so good about Barack Obama (apart from being black with a white mother). both of them are inexperienced
[Daphne – In your next breath, you’re going to tell me that you support Muscat.]
This moment is all about hope and optimism……and it’s so ironic that some of you are praising Obama and having a go at JM at the same time.
Some things will never change, I wonder if some of you actually believe in democracy as such, why bother following politics when you know how you are going to vote in five or ten years time? What is the point of that? Just get a prime minister from one party, an unelected president and speaker from the same party and abolish elections. There is no way in hell that I would vote Labour if elections were held next month in Malta, but willing to give the man a chance, first to turn his party around, and then to come up with policies that convince me that he is the better man for Malta, if I knew how I was going to vote in 5 years time,I would not bother reading and listening.
You speak of your admiration for Obama and yet deep down, you can’t be further away from what he is all about.
[Daphne – You just don’t get it, do you? Politics isn’t about labels and deciding what to call yourself. It’s about facts, and policies, and intelligence, and the lack of it. The factors which make me admire Obama are the very same ones which make me laugh at the sheer idiocy of Joseph Muscat. He’s not Obama. He’s Sarah Palin. You have to be willfully blind not to see it.]
My hope is that this election serves to deliver the message to the droves of anti-american ‘opinionists’ – especially those in our midst – that today and once again, we should be grateful that the World has a Nation as great and courageous as the United States of America.
Stanley Cassar Darien: “why bother following politics when you know how you are going to vote in five or ten years time?”
That’s funny. I thought politics was about daily life, not just voting in elections.
I never mentioned labels actually, and I never actually said that JM had anything to do with Obama, I have no idea where you got that from……
It’s ironic for other reasons, and I’m afraid that in this case, it’s you that just can’t get it.
Settle down, Martin. And the United States of America should be grateful they had the great and courageous Maltese sailors of Toulon squadron what….
Stanley Cassar Darien
“. . . . willing to give the man a chance, first to turn his party around, and then to come up with policies that convince me that he is the better man for Malta . . .”
Nobody is stopping Joseph Muscat – he has all the chances in the world but you have to admit that, up to now, he hasn’t provided much cause for hope that something is changing. Even the promised earthquake turned out to be less than a hiccup.
To give an example, Joseph Muscat stubbornly refuses to admit any wrong-doing by the MLP in the past and has no intention of rectifying injustices which still exist, such as the requisitioned houses used as party clubs.
Although Muscat does not have experience as an MP and party leader he is not as ‘new’ as Obama. Don’t forget that he has a history of unwise (to say the least) political stands such as his long campaign against EU membership. Incidentally, he also libelled Daphne and, as far as I know, has never apologised publicly for it. That too is part of Muscat’s CV.
Are you suggesting that we should erase all this from our memories and pretend we had never heard of Joseph Muscat before last June?
Obama is new but mature. Muscat is immature but not new. That is why someone who admires the former cannot admire the latter.
ok guess that I did not make myself clear. I was not having a go at the host. If I addressed her, I would have used her name. I respect and admire her enough to be polite on her site. I was referring to the little puppets from both the PN and MLP that are using this moment to spread their little agendas. I found that very ironic, personally. I also find it ironic that some Labour supporters are trying to compare JM with Obama….che centra?
I was writing about this moment being one of unity, and how Obama’s spirit seems to have united so many people, all over the world. Sometimes, it’s all about timing.
Stanley Cassar Darien: It isn’t ironic. They really think he’s in the same league.
Corinne Vella Thursday, 6 November 0054hrs
Stanley Cassar Darien: It isn’t ironic. They really think he’s in the same league.
whilst his predecessor thought he was a Maltese version of Tony Blair.
Sybil: This one does too.
Funny how no one took any notice of Kev’s comment. Perhaps its a bit over your heads? Perhaps since BBC, CNN and the rest don’t mention the issues Kev brings up, they don’t exist?
Alex: Who says no one took any notice of Kevin Ellul Bonici’s comments? He alternates between being long winded and snappy. In either case, maybe everyone finds him too tedious for words. You see, not even you had much to say about his posts except to comment on everyone’s non-reaction.
What’s so tedious about the issues he mentions?