Anyone not moved to tears at some point last night, is not an American. I can't offer much insight, but I know that never in my young life have I felt like an American more than I did at 11pm last night.
The entire world is in awe of us as a nation, and it gives me goosebumps to look at headlines from around the world:
Brazil, Quebec, Colombia, Prague, Ecuador, Paris, Berlin, Athens, Reykjavik, Dublin, Torino, Jamaica, Amsterdam, Lisbon, Johannesburg, Barcelona, Stockholm, Damascus, Istanbul, Brussels, Bulgaria, Rome, Krakow, Romania, Madrid, Beijing, Tehran, Jerusalem, London. And Nambia.
The world is a big place, and there's one word that does not require translation on any of these pages: Obama.
In retrospect, RollingStone magazine led the charge for this man, endorsing him last March. They know progressive politics better than anyone, and relish this moment: Obama is McGovern, McCarthy, and Carter for them, and we are all in for a remarkable journey.
Obama's speech here. And McCain's here. I felt so humbled by McCain, too. These two gave us an election for the ages, and it's just as much a victory for McCain as it is for Obama.
Tom Friedman's Tuesday night column.
Way to go, America.
*Photos from the Chicago Tribune
2 comments:
As Lloyd Carr would say, "Tremendous."
There were 150 of us packed into a cafe in Beijing where the owner had a hookup to US CNN and had promised free Tsingtao beer if Obama won. Almost all of us were Americans but a few British, French and Germans made their way in as well, building the crowd as the morning (for us) went on. Other than the two drunken frat boys in back who kept getting shushed, the room was dead silent as both McCain and Obama delivered their speeches, breaking to applaud a line only once or twice for each. We were all really moved by McCain's speech and especially the sad sight of him quieting the crowd as they attempted to boo Obama. But when Obama came out it was like a whole other world. I can't tell you how it felt to stand in a foreign land, in a country where the people have no national voice and are taught nothing but cynicism about democracy, where I have heard for the last two month how the only thing that matters in America is how much money someone has or whether "the rich and powerful" support them, and surrounded by that context watch Barack Obama deliver the speech that he did. At the end the black Americans in the room were jumping out of their chairs, the Indian Americans were high-fiving the white Americans, the British were laughing over a beer with the Chinese Americans, and for the first time in a long time I felt the power of those universal values. Democracy, liberty, opportunity and unyielding hope.
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