In my 29 years, I have been witness to several where-were-you-when moments in history. I sat in a school assembly on a cold January morning when an O-ring failed on the Challenger shuttle, creating the indelible forked, now iconic, vapor trails that haunted so many school children that day. In 1997, late night reports of a fateful car crash in France told me that Princess Diana was dead. In 2001, looking out from the skyscraper in which I worked, I contemplated the horror and spectacle of planes flying directly towards me; of a leap from terror into terror at an altitude more than twice that of my dizzying 45th-floor view. In all of these cases, I can tell you where I was, what I was doing, how I felt, and often who I was speaking to. How sad that all these events etched deep in my memory involve pain and death; evoke fear and sadness. This Tuesday, my newest where-were-you-when moment, like so many millions of people across America and around the globe, involved looking at the television screen and hearing the words, "we can now project that Barack Obama, 47 years old, will become the President-elect of the United States."
How glad I am that I will be able to share at least one happy, historic moment with my unborn children. They can ask me where I was, and I can tell them exactly. I can tell them what I was watching, and can describe the people around me, but I won't be able to describe that tingle, that thrill of hope and imagination, that comes from standing at the edge of a new moment in history.
This is an historic moment for everyone, and while many political and ideological opponents to the President-elect are not as elated as I am, many have been gracious about his win. My instinct is to condemn the sore-loser attitudes of the cat calling crowd in McCain's gracious and eloquent concession speech and the like, but I cannot say I would feel or react differently. So I won't gloat, but I will appreciate the comments of people around me who, though disappointed, prayed for Obama's blessing and throw their support behind their newest president. No doubt these people will offer rigorous debate in the coming years, but this kind of gracious attitude is most welcome as we enter a new political climate.
And now to the future. While the inevitable negative buzz of the campaign lingers in the air, it is natural that all this bad air will take some time to work its way out. We've focused so much on the negative attention, it's natural to hear the echoes of old arguments in our heads. He's inexperienced. He's a radical, he won't govern from the middle. He pals around with terrorists. These kinds of arguments, a cornerstone in any US campaign, are likely to hang around for a while. But like day-old doughnuts, these will get stale and it will be time to move on. I understand the apprehension about this iconic, yet unknown man from Chicago. Or is it Hawaii? Or is it Indonesia?
Although this is a steep uphill climb, and Obama has already begun managing expectations (perhaps the only page he'll take from the GWB playbook), there are three reasons why I think Obama will be good for America and, by extension, the world:
For starters, Obama will restore dignity to the office of the President. That dignity that has been lost through sexual cigar antics, and the ineptitude of one squinty-eyed Texan. Obama has a charisma. He has grace. What was pejoratively called his 'professorial manor,' we will realize is intelligence, thoughtfulness, restrained action, and a cool, level head.
In addition, Obama will restore (or at least increase) the good will towards the American people throughout the world. His election brings him more in line with the global political climate, and although America has always been its own man, so to speak, we are now in a global community. The world is smaller and America is a large part of it. I think Obama's very presence in the office can further this goal, and I think his commitment to diplomacy will command the respect and admiration of those around the world. His promise to pull America out of Iraq, if properly and carefully handled, will go a long way towards putting America on the right side of history.
And it will be an important step to solving the economic woes facing the country and the world right now. Pulling out of Iraq will plug the drain and provide some financial cushion as we figure out what to do. The economy will be Obama's chief worry and occupation, and as much as full blame cannot be sidled on George W. Bush, nor can full credit be given the Obama Administration if and when we pull out of this tailspin. My left-of-center instincts (not to mention a host of economists) tell me that supply-side economics do not work. At least not as a sustained economic model. One can only stimulate the economy so much, but at the end of the day, things must be paid for. I can only imagine Barack's calculated, basketball-playing hands will deftly work that scalpel on the things which need cutting. I don't think people have much to fear, unless they fear a repeat of the economic prosperity of the 90s. Obama is a student of history. He has shown a commanding grasp of many issues, and will approach things carefully. I think it is telling that he is looking to the Reagan and Clinton models- both leaders who began their administrations in difficult times and helped propel the country through those difficult times.
I don't think he will be assassinated, as a few macabre, and melodramatic people out there think (and sadly, some hope). I don't think he will pull the country into full-bore socialism, either. I think he will, given the opportunity, lead in the best way possible. He will make mistakes. He will make enemies. He will make some proud, and some ashamed. He will make some roll in their graves (Thomas Jefferson comes to mind). But on Tuesday, November 4, 2008, with friends all around, faces lit with the glow of the television, I watched Barack Obama make history. And that's where I was.
I keep hearing about the beating drum of the left. But then I see pictures like the one shown here, I hear the fire-breathing rants of sore-loser clowns like Rush Limbaugh, I notice the boos during McCain's gracious concession speech (and the conspicuous absence of boos during Kerry's 2004 concession speech), and I absorb the rhetoric about a permanent conservative majority, or the "real" America vs... well, whatever the alternative to the real America is. And I wonder to myself, who's really beating the drum here?
