Victory for Barack Obama

[Dave A]

What a milestone!

Barack Obama wrote a new chapter into US history on Tuesday becoming the first African-American elected president, capping a stunning rise which in just four years propelled him into the Oval Office.

In his acceptance speech to supporters in Chicago, Obama said that a new dawn of American leadership was at hand and stressed the shared destiny of the United States and the rest of the world.

"It's been a long time coming. But tonight, because of what we did on this day, in this election, at this defining moment, change has come to America," he said in front of a crowd of 65 000 people.
full story from IOL here

May it inspire changes around the world.
Well done Barack and well done America.

[Morticia]

I'm a bit sad though - no more village idiot in the White House - who will entertain us now?

[Norri]

I'm a bit sad though - no more village idiot in the White House - who will entertain us now?

Our local breed of village idiots in parliament

[duncan drennan]

May it inspire changes around the world.
Well done Barack and well done America.

And you didn't even think he would beat Hillary Clinton

May our next election also herald the winds of change for SA politics and the progression of our democracy.

[Norri]

And you didn't even think he would beat Hillary Clinton

May our next election also herald the winds of change for SA politics and the progression of our democracy.

Hear hear!

[Dave A]

And you didn't even think he would beat Hillary Clinton

I am so chuffed I was wrong

It also goes to show just how impressive Barack really is. Hilary is no walk-over.

May our next election also herald the winds of change for SA politics and the progression of our democracy.

Absolutely. I'm afraid to say there is a new rainbow nation, and it ain't here. It would be really cool to get a slice of that title back one day.

[Morticia]

And even babies knew which candidate to support...

[Dave A]

You've got to love this!

Anti-arms activist Terry Crawford Browne wore a T-shirt bearing "1-20-09" - the date of Obama's inauguration in 2009 - and the words: "The end of an error."
from America's Mandela moment on IOL here

[Dave A]

Oh my! The world can be a cruel place. I just got this in my inbox.



It's started already...

[Dave A]

I've got a sneaking suspicion the high expectations of Africa around the Barack Obama victory are going to be shortlived. I believe a significant cause of Barack's success is because he ran as a true American, not an African-American. He also ran on high principle, and it shows in his short history of involvement with Africa so far.

This story headlines with

Barack Obama would probably not be the United States' next president if he had not met a group of exiled ANC members in New York when he was still a college student.

On his visit to South Africa in August 2006, when he was still the junior senator for Illinois, Obama told the South African Institute for International Affairs in Cape Town that the meeting in New York had inspired him to go into politics.

But a little attention to later history shows Barack's roots are not going to mean an easy ride for Africa.

Obama's acknowledgement of debt to the ANC is rather ironic because, when he was in South Africa, he could not get an audience with then president Thabo Mbeki.

It is widely believed that the reason was because he publicly criticised Mbeki's quiet diplomacy on Zimbabwe and his dissident views on Aids.

While visiting the Aids ward of a Cape Town hospital, Obama said he was waiting for an audience with Mbeki to tell him that "the first place to start solving this is finally acknowledging the scope of the problem". The meeting with Mbeki was cancelled at the last moment.

This week President Kgalema Motlanthe warmly welcomed Obama's election as US president, saying he hoped it would "indeed contribute significantly to efforts in the continent of Africa to help bring about 'change they can believe in' to create a better life for all".

The contrast between then and now was not as great as Obama's mixed reception from President Mwai Kibaki's Kenyan government.

Obama, whose father was born in Kenya, visited that country after South Africa in 2006 and was greeted as a messiah.

But, after he lashed government corruption in a public speech, Kibaki's spokesperson called him an "immature opposition puppet" who "doesn't understand Kenyan politics".
full story from IOL here