Why America is the most fabulous country in the world

Many times, foreign friends of mine have criticized me about only writing in Romanian. Well, it seems like I finally have a subject to write about in English. The name is Obama whose being elected is probably the most significant moment in the US history I have witnessed during my life so far. Yes, they could, and I'd call it a landslide. I did believe it, but the reality is better than the projections.

Barack Obama is first and foremost a symbol. He is also a promise and I hope he will deliver. But I'd like to focus on the symbol. Barack Obama is the impersonation of change and the symbol of the greatness of the United States of America. Nowhere else in the world could a person with his ethnic background be elected president. Can you imagine the president of France being a black person with a French white mother and a black father/family still living in Africa? Can you imagine that for Germany? Or for any other country in the world? Can you predict how much time is needed for that to happen? Well, these kinds of things are only possible in America. Obama is the epiphany of the American dream.

The demographic data of his electorate shows that he is the president of a united America, just as he was depicting it in 2004. Race was not an issue in this race, in the sense that it didn't hurt him, on the contrary. Obama was voted by 95% of African-Americans, and by 43% of the white, the latter being a higher score than most democrat candidates achieve in presidential elections. Obama is the delegate of the young and new America, being voted by two thirds of people under the age of 30. Actually, Obama only lost by 6% to McCain in the over 65 segment of the population, taking or tying all the other categories. He is a new president for a new world. To me, he brings as much hope as Mandela and Gandhi, not only to America, but to the world. The amount of optimism is tremendous, and America's image in the world has changed instantly, I guess. The world salutes this victory and expects changes in the geopolitics through Obama's mere presence.

So what does this say about the racial issue in America? The tune of discrimination will surely subside given this powerful counterexample. Who will dare to say that blacks are still discriminated against if the president himself is black? Well, unfortunately I still expect to see paradoxes. And if a sparrow doesn't make a summer, I'm not sure that Obama can bring an end to racial tensions. But surely he has the best chances to do it. And what a role model he is for the people of the world!

And what about the victory speech? Simply marvelous! A speech to be studied alongside The Gettysburg Address that it quotes. Obama was as graceful in victory as McCain was in defeat (got to give at least that to the Republican candidate). The example of the 106-year-old woman summarized perfectly the long way the already evolved democracy in America has been through. It doesn't get better than that in the rhetoric and public speaking.

What's next? A time of great expectations and great challenges. Obama starts with the energy of a leader elected through a democratic revolution. And in this moment, the world in Obama trusts (well, it's more logical than to put your trust in God, anyway). Hopefully this black velvet revolution combined with over 200 years of experience in democracy will bring the change we want to see in the world…