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HE DID it. Could a newcomer in the major league only four years ago really storm the White House gates as its first black incumbent? Yes, he really could.
Not by a whisker but with the biggest bang in democratic politics since the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, and with the same aura of an event with a vast and unpredictable impact on the world beyond it.
This was a day with everything to recommend it except suspense. Many years of covering US elections accustom those of us who relish them to the prospect of a long, nail-destroying finish, adding up tallies of blue and red states until dawn and flicking anxiously between the networks in search of a reliable result.
Not this time. Obama swept all before him, from Florida in the south to the north-eastern industrial belt and the Midwest. Whatever the fate of his presidency, it cannot be said that he is a partial leader. What we saw was a countrywide vote for change from an America unsure of its role in the world and fretful about its future at home.
When populous Pennsylvania, the Republicans' main target, turned from red to blue in the early evening , the electoral map began its metamorphosis. Ohio, Virginia and the strongholds of the Bush election of 2004 went down one by one. It was as if Karl Rove and his famously successful strategy of expanding the Republican base had never been.
The whirlwind of Obama said goodbye to all that. In the popular vote, electoral college and senate, it was a Republican rout.
Two young black women, working late in a store in a capital otherwise whooping it up in bars or adhered to their television sets, screamed with joy as the Virginia result turned Senator Obama into President Obama. "I wish my grandfather could have seen this," said one.
It was the theme repeated by one black American, trying to grasp the scale of what this presidency means for a country which carries slavery and oppression of its black population as the original sin it is only slowly expatiating
An hour before midnight, John McCain gave a markedly gracious concession speech recognising "the special pride of African Americans" and recalling the "cruel and prideful bigotry" of a time when a distinguished black American could not dine at the White House, let alone rule from it.
Mr McCain showed his finest qualities in defeat, serving only to highlight those the outgoing President Bush has sorely lacked: breadth of vision and an understanding of sensibilities different from his own. His stunned party will have a bitter reckoning with the scale of this failure and its consequences.
But this was the Democrats' night to remember. When the new leader of the nation emerged at midnight in Chicago, holding his smaller daughter by the hand, the sound was of a sea change.
The indelible strength of Barack Obama at a confused and fearful time is his ability to symbolise the variety of his country and feel comfortable with it, and his speech, his trademark mixture of the elevated and the casual, reflected that.
It has become a benign cliché of the Obama campaign that he is set to heal the divisions in America which have echoed across the world since 9/11. We do not know if that is possible, even under a President of the evident charisma and reach as this one, though he sounded ready to try.
One the worst consequences of Bush's failures in Iraq and his mistaking of leadership for arrogance towards the outside world, is that the genuine difficulty of deciding which wars America should fight and which it should avoid - and crucially after Iraq, on what terms - has been only superficially contemplated.
Contradictions in a post-Bush foreign policy are already bewildering. A new President has spoken of his desire to bolster and improve the mission in Afghanistan, where the same fundamental tensions apply as in Iraq - can the West improve its security by military involvement in countries where its presence soon becomes an irritant obscuring its strategic goals?
Iran may prove Mr Obama's even more urgent test. An Obama administration will be more open to negotiation with regimes it disapproves of but he has adopted a harder-edged tone in the past few weeks in anticipation of a clash over Tehran's nuclear ambitions. To say nothing of the pledge finally to bring Osama bin Laden to book. The war on terror continues, even if the name is out of fashion as Mr Obama conceded by sounding a cautious note on the need to be "prudent" about the pace of Guantanamo's closure.
The Bush administration is an unpleasant memory for many. That does not mean that a successor, however well- intentioned, will make America's role as global leader any easier or less fraught. Tacitly, that is accepted in the expectation that Robert Gates will remain as defence secretary for a transitional period and that there will be bi-partisan elements in an Obama cabinet
If there is a curse over this extraordinary day it is that of the mountain-high expectations which now await the freshly minted President at home and abroad. One of the major factors which propelled the outcome of this race was a feeling that a proud country had lost its bearings and allowed its judgment to be clouded,
What to do about this is more difficult than the Democrat textbook allows. The credit crunch, banking crisis and revulsion at the cupidity of Wall Street created an opportunity for a candidate of little economic experience to emerge as a symbol of hope for many working and lower-middle-class people facing hardship for the first time in two decades of prosperity. Pressure to deliver on that will be intense.
In a diner queue on election day in Virginia, the conversation about voting was secondary to people complaining about having to take lower-paid jobs than the ones they had lost in recent months.
Mr Obama has his political roots in the labour movement in Chicago, which makes him inclined to bend towards its interests in appeasing the teaching unions and promising to revoke restrictive legislation on union activity. How feasible that will prove in the present employment climate is dubious.
His other major policy plank - a wider social healthcare net - is expensive at a time of sharp contraction in public funds.
What he has yet to spell out (even if he knows it himself), is how to address the magnitude of his task in leading America through its most severe slump since Ronald Reagan on a "cure our ills" ticket in 1980.
In the cold light of dawn, all of this will come home to roost: bliss is a brief commodity in politics.
And yet, the pictures tell it like it was, an unforgettable day, when a new president was elected because of his race and in spite of it, and the moment America did what it does best - embody the hopes of millions for better things to come.
Reader views (7)
Nice mention of the Berlin Wall. If Obama had been President, then under his kind of 'benign' non-interventionism, the Berlin Wall would probably still be there.
It took a hard stand against the Soviets by Reagan to bring it down. He was not popular in Europe either at the time.
- Stephen Rothbart, Prague, Czech Republic
Obama has made history indeed. This goes on to prove that nothing is impossible. For Obama, it began with a dream... So whether he is black, white or mixed, America and the whole world needs a change. Let us hope and pray that the presidential seat is not too hot for Obama to sit on.
- Kate Chukwu, London
Many OBama supporters expect their personal bills like mortgage to be paid by him. Some even expect him to give them a job. This is what is being said on our C-span call in shows and public radio. It's hard to believe but true. There might be some disappointments.
- Matt Habinowski, Salem,NH,USA
I think Obama can clear the mess up that George W.Bush has made. But if is can be a great President of the USA remains to be seen. Bill Clinton was good president, but never lived up to expecations and I think too many people especially African Americans will expect too much from Obama. I hope will be a great president, but at worst he will be an effective president which is still a good thing.
- Ben S, London
He's done all he needs to posterity-wise just by getting elected. So long as he doesn't 'fumble the ball' 'on his watch' he'll live up to expectations. So no instigating foreign wars and no pressing the button by accident and he'll do fine. Let's face it a judiciously shaved monkey couldn't do a worse job than big 'W'.
- Squiz, Islington
He hasn't done anything yet and won't start work until next January.
- Adam, Harrow, UK
The proof, of course, will be in the pudding...perhaps when all the euphoria has died down, we will see what benefits the new President will bring? Let us hope we do not have another Kennedy...
- Jonathan Montmorency, cooden, uk
