America’s finest hour

Oh my god ! What happened ? It’s still feels so surreal. It is undoubtedly a history-in-the-making moment for America. A once in a millenia type of event and I’m glad I’m alive to witness this. In 1 fell swoop, the elections have now accelerated the process of healing the racial divides and sought to erase centuries of discrimination and bigotry. In 1 election, it has fulfilled Martin Luther King’s “I have a dream”. And in 1 momentous night, it has completely challenged old stereotypes and mindsets in people the world over, that the color of the skin means less than the value of the human being. Even if President Obama’s can’t deliver on his campaign promises, just by his election to the highest office in the land, America is already once again the land of incredible potential, the beacon that once again shines a righteous path into the future, embodying the ideals of a better world. Once again the world can rely on America’s democratic system and its people to do the right thing. All Americans are the winners in this election and so is the world. There are no losers in this election only those who are now plotting against the tide of history to turn us all into cynics once again. But I have faith in the good sense of the people of America. They will rise to the occasion when called upon and they will again prevail. This is the real foundation of America’s power and strength, not in its military might nor its economic size.

As Bill Clinton once said that America should be “a power in its example, than an example of its power”. The expected goodwill that will come from the Obama presidency will have enormous effects on how the world is going to be structured in the next decades. No one knows how it will look like but like what Colin Powell said, it’s going to be transformational, it’s going to be powerful. No amount of military persuasion can have an effect as large as this and the irony is that it will fulfill what the Republican party’s neocons have been planning all along. Their strategy is to use hard power to exert the predominance of the US but it is doomed to fail in the 21st century. Firm but soft and compassionate power advocated by President Obama is the way forward. It will indeed be a new world order but fortunately not the 1 envisioned by the neocons. This is what I am boldly predicting prematurely because if there’s anything President Obama has taught us, it’s to keep dreaming and hoping for the best.

Once again, I congratulate President Obama and the people of America and thank you for renewing my faith in this great nation on planet earth. God bless America.

The Economist endorses Obama

A sober and balanced endorsement by a magazine for Obama. The Economist has been pretty critical of Obama but it has turned around and endorsed him instead after weighing all the factors. It says that if McCain had been running based on his usual self instead of pandering to the Republican far right, it would have been a very different story. Obama is still untested and that would already have been enough to nail his presidency hopes. But

There is no getting around the fact that Mr Obama’s résumé is thin for the world’s biggest job. But the exceptionally assured way in which he has run his campaign is a considerable comfort. It is not just that he has more than held his own against Mr McCain in the debates. A man who started with no money and few supporters has out-thought, out-organised and out-fought the two mightiest machines in American politics—the Clintons and the conservative right.

This feat alone shows he is far more competent than so-called old hands in politics. In a way, I think being experienced in Washington’s ways is a baggage in this election because of how Obama has defined the battle. Obama refused to let his campaign be defined by those of the past which is based largely on character assassination, mud-slinging and pandering to the electorate. Instead, he chose to run a very different campaign strategy and it takes a lot of courage to do that. He stood his ground staking his campaign on his message around ordinary Americans and their aspirations, their frustrations. He skilfully deflects all the smears and barbs thrown at him by chiding them of resorting to low-handed tactics instead of trying to address the fundamental problems faced by the country. It is simply brilliant the way he and his team has conducted his campaign which has moved even the skeptical Economist’s editors him to throw in their support .

As the election looms near, here’s some Matrix nostalgia :

Agent Smith: You hear that Mr. Anderson?… That is the sound of inevitability… It is the sound of your death… Goodbye, Mr. Anderson…
Neo: My name… is Barack Hussein Obama.

Yes, the sound has changed since 2 years ago and we all know which way the sound is going now, the only question is how loud will it be.