Editorial
Obama makes history
Time for US to turn corner
Senator Barack Obama has finally clinched the Democratic party presidential nomination, crossing the threshold of 2,118 delegates needed. Obama's capture of the nomination, the first African-American candidate to be nominated for president by a major party, is a historic event that reflects gloriously on an America that has struggled with the legacy of slavery and race relations since its independence.
Obama's achievement was even more impressive as he had to overcome a formidable field, including Senator Hillary Clinton, who, by all accounts, would have been an excellent and indeed historic nominee herself.
But let us not limit Obama's appeal or achievement to considerations of his race alone; there is far more to his candidacy than merely the fact that he is the first African-American to have a realistic shot at standing at the pinnacle of American politics in November.
Obama's candidacy is historic in other ways as well, not least for the way in which an unheralded first term senator, whom many Americans are still getting to know, could unseat the high-profile favourite for the nomination who had the backing of the entire Democratic party establishment.
Obama's candidacy, which raised incredible amounts of money from small, individual contributors, seems to promise a new, more participatory era in American politics.
His policies, too, promise change. At a time when America's image around the world has fallen so precipitously, a candidate who cares about world opinion and promises to abandon the arrogance and high-handed unilateralism that has marked the last eight years, and who specifically pledges to bring an end to the US occupation of Iraq, is a breath of fresh air.
Similarly, on the domestic front, Obama has shown that he is no longer willing to let the political conversation be dictated by the tired, right-wing framework that has been dominant for the past four decades, and is willing to take on the conventional wisdom and vested interests in Washington.
Obama has run a superb race: disciplined, principled, tactical, and smart, and shown that he thoroughly deserves his party's nomination. Win or lose, he has made history. And if the changes that are being wrought in the American body politic are sustained, both America and the world will be the better for it.
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