Obama's elected: now what?

For the first time ever, I stayed up most of the night to watch the US election results unfold - like many, I felt like I was living through history in the making. Once it hit 4am my time, Obama was confirmed as the president of the United States. It didn't really fully strike me until I was going to sleep: Bush is gone in 100 days, Obama, the first African American president EVER will be in charge - again, I do not wish to jump on the news and media bandwagon, but I agree with them when they say that it is a moment in history, and 40 years ago the idea of a black president would have been unimaginable. I felt excited about the chance of a prosperous, improved America...and it especially rings true

As I mentioned last night, Obama seems to have a cult of personality around him - similar in the vein of JFK, and, dare I say it, Mussolini, Stalin, and Hitler. Watching his victory speech made me happy and excited, but also rather concerned. I was closely analysing his body language, his general speech nature and how he got the crowd going. When he started talking about "yes we can", ending every sentence with it, one was reminded of a black Baptist preacher doing the same thing, instead "praising the lord" or whatever he is doing. Sure, he might be influenced by black preachers, that's only natural deeming from his religious and racial background, but, he has the charisma of the aforementioned. I just, at times now, question WHY people voted for Obama - I'm sure a lot of people voted for him because of his policies, perhaps his race, and because he seems young and refreshing, compared to Bush.

But, I also think that his campaign was very well funded, the largest US campaign budget in US history - and it makes me worry; with a high media presence and money, the people might be voting for him because he was everywhere, and might not even be aware of his policies - and if it takes money and media presence to get people to do something without fully thinking about it, think about what power this might have for future presidential candidates, and of course Obama himself.

Obama's backdrop during his victory speech at first reminded me of a Nazi conference speech - big outdoor park, thousands of people in attendance, and flags everywhere behind the leader. I also noticed during Obama's speech that he paused a lot, which again reminded me of Hitler's speeches, where he would make a big point, and pause...not just because of his applause and cheering. Of course, it'd be ludicrous of me to compare Hitler with Obama, but at these early stages of Obama basically winning by a landslide and having a big backing and media campaign, almost to the point of propaganda, one has to be suspicious a little.

Still, if Obama is as true as he says he is going to be, I wish him luck for the future - it was fairly obvious where this election was leading, especially after McCain alienating independent voters with the nomination of Sarah Palin as his VP. As I will soon be an American citizen, I can say right now that I will gladly vote for him if he does not mess up, do anything freedom restricting, and does not turn into another Bush, just because he'll have the same sort of people that Bush had around him.

A new generation of politics I feel is about to begin, I just hope that everything is not being over-hyped and that Obama brings about real change to the United States, and the world.

Iain