A clear message was made by Americans as Democratic nominee Barack Obama clearly took the election and the White House away from Republicans yesterday. Obama not only reached the ‘magic number’ of 270 Electoral College votes, based on state voting, but obtained a whopping 349. In the popular vote, with 96 percent of the votes counted (Missouri and North Carolina were still uncounted at the time this article went into print), Obama led McCain by 52 percent to 46 percent.
It is safe to say that the United States is presently in a sorry state of affairs – it is knee-deep in a serious economic crisis, faces a tarnished image throughout the world and it is still involved in 2 costly, never-ending wars. So it should come to no surprise that the American youths (18 to 26 year olds), hopeful for a better future, were the ones who sent out the strongest message; the ‘youth Vote’ leaned heavily towards Barak Obama, giving Democrats the lead by 66 percent to 32 percent.
This election gives Obama and Democrats a strong position in the White House; they have gained at least 5 Senate seats and 25 seats in the House of Representatives, giving them an authoritative majority in Congress.
The result of yesterday’s election does not only denote an important change in the American government – the populace clearly rejected George W. Bush’s eight years in power and any Republican follow through – but this also denotes a clear change in the American attitude and a possibility to snuff out their reputation as racists by moving them beyond a history of cruel racism.
"It's been a long time coming, but tonight, because of what we did on this day, at this defining moment, change has come to America. […] The road ahead will be long. Our climb will be steep. We may not get there in one year or even one term, but America, I have never been more hopeful than I am tonight that we will get there," Obama said yesterday to some 240,000 supporters in Chicago’s Grant Park.
