Obama’s Monster Triumph

New York- Barack Obama posted a great victory over his rival John McCain to become the 44th President of the United States.

The American people show, with the election of Obama after eight years of Republican control, that they want a new direction. The hope is that Obama will work to repair international relations which have suffered heavily under the frequently one-sided operation of the Bush Administration.

The reaction to the choice of Obama was crazy. In Chicago where he lives, more than half a million people met in Grant Park. Many bursting into tears when it became clear that their candidate had clinched the election. In Harlem, the predominantly black district of Manhattan, spontaneous street festivals arose.

The election of Obama holds great symbolic value. More than 40 years after the assassination of Martin Luther King, one of his dreams has come true. What many Americans until recently had thought impossible, Obama has accomplished. For that reason alone, he will shape the changing face of the United States in the coming years.

On January 20th, Obama will be sworn in as the successor to George Bush. He will have to work with a Democratic majority in Congress. The eventual election of Obama took longer than was thought because the expected landslide did not at first occur. It was only when the west-coast polling stations closed that he could count on an Electoral College majority. That paled too when it became clear that the Democratic victory was in fact very wide.