Long Live America

All America is looking at President elect Barrack Obama. He represents the dream of every black American to rise up from racial discrimination. He comes from the slaves of old and is now the master of the future of a great world power. He leads America and the world will definitely follow.

As the nations of the world extend their greeting, they expect him to do some drastic reforms that would put the US economy back on track. Some investors’ anxiety about the reforms has resulted to a slide in the trading in Dow Jones the day after the victory of Obama. However, the majority of the American people are optimistic that the new president will deliver.

Previously, mud-slinging campaigns marked the start of the election fever in the United States particularly between Barrack Obama and Hillary Clinton of the Democratic Party. Even people outside America seem turned off with the kind of politics the American candidates displayed. However, who is clean? Even here in the Philippines, mud slinging had been the normal breakfast for politicians.

One thing I really like about the elections in the United States aside from the quick result is the seeming political maturity among candidates particularly after the elections. The presidential candidates may be at war against each other but they reconcile after the election. I do not remember any fiercely battled electoral protest except for former US Vice President Al Gore’s protest against former US President George W. Bush, which the Vice President eventually drops.

I would like to congratulate the American people for a peacefully concluded election but I would like to express my full respect to presidential candidate John McCain. His speech after accepting his loss has been touching and praise worthy. I believe it is one of the greatest speeches in American political history. Ironically, it comes from one who has lost the election. He says that they have done everything but they have fallen short. Yet it is not the failure of his supporters, but only his personal failure. He has called for support for the man who used to be his opponent but now has become his president… for the sake of America that they both love…

I am not an American but I have felt the warmth of those words. It has deeply struck my heart and I envy America for having such a political leader in their democratic government. McCain may have lost the election, but he should have earned a place in the heart of American democracy.

For Obama and McCain, long-live America!