For Obama

Any election is “historic”, according to most of the candidates competing for an elective post in any circumstances and anywhere in the world… But the one on Tuesday in the United States is really an historic one, and in a degree rarely reached. No matter what the outcome is, indeed, it will determine the direction that America will take – and, for good measure, the whole planet – at this disturbing moment in history.

We hope that Americans will bring the Democrat Barack Obama to the White House.

It is desirable for them, for us who are their neighbors and their most close partners, and for the rest of the world that, almost without exception, awaits liberation from the end of Bush era and the entry to the oval office of a man in whom, for convincing reasons, a lot of hope is already invested.

The very long American campaign at first raised from the ranks both candidates that we know, then subjected them to the pressure of the hardest political joust which can be conceived in democracy.

John McCain, a brave, experienced, devoted man, collapsed under this pressure. Already weighed down by the terrible Republican inheritance, he was incapable of advancing the slightest new idea at the moment when it was most needed. Refusing to break with old and execrable traditions of petty politicking, He authorized the use of deceit and lies against his opponent. He grievously erred many times, until he appointed a running mate, Sarah Palin, not only devoid of skill, but terrifying to imagine in a situation where she would reach in a panic the presidency.

On the contrary, the campaign and the pressure matured Barack Obama.

He made an enlightened choice by placing his confidence in Joe Biden. He showed a remarkable knowledge and a boldness with regard to all the stakeholders in the economic crisis and in the diplomatic crisis, which confront the world. He remained deserving in any circumstances.

Not only he did not evade the racial question that could have been fatal, but he used the distressing episode involving his ex-pastor to offer a brilliant call to reconciliation and hope: his famous speech, “A More Perfect Nation”, given on March 18th in Philadelphia, is already considered a classic of the American political history.

But Barack Obama offers more still: he offers inspiration, a thing bigger than the charisma, more inviolable than intelligence, more essential than experience.

In a head of state, it is this quality which galvanizes a nation, allows him to tear away from its past when necessary, makes him accept the sacrifice, gives him the necessary energy to accomplish big things. Because we are speaking about the United States, the image of John F. Kennedy necessarily comes to mind. And, actually, what we expect from Obama is, half a century after the other one, the exercise of a type of comparable leadership, decisive but socially just, and forward-looking. This time it is not a question of going to the moon, but of reforming capitalism and of domesticating the energy resources of the future. Not to win a cold war, but to repair the damages caused by true wars. Not of showing power, but of opening to others.

On Tuesday, the United States can again become this big audacious, optimistic, creative nation that they were in past. They can answer in the, “indestructible faith in the propriety and the generosity of the American people, a nation which is more than the sum of its parts,” as pleaded Barack Obama in Philadelphia.

On Tuesday, the whole world will watch them.