HAVING, in the past, been to only Scottish Conservative election parties, I can honestly admit that few of them were victory celebrations – and the last of those was in 1992.
So when I attended a Democratic election night party in downtown Denver, Colorado, on Tuesday night it was a like meeting an old friend in a bar.
Such was the enormity of the occasion I found the crowd just a little overawed, even subdued. I've j
umped higher and cheered louder when the Hibees have scored against the Jambos. But when their own state, Colorado, swung to the Democrats, they finally let rip.
A great deal was being made by media pundits about the energising of America's youth, and yet the early evidence that was coming in suggested that the difference in their turnout was at best marginal, and in some areas actually less. This left the self-assured American pollsters scratching their heads.
The other odd statistic was how 96 per cent of black Americans had voted for Obama, as if this was a revelation. It left me cold, wondering as anyone might, who were the other four per cent and how did they find the courage to admit it?
No, the more telling statistic was that in state after state Obama was polling far higher amongst white working class electors – the blue collar vote – than the super-affluent John Kerry did four years ago against Bush. It was this group of voters – that Democrat strategists had earlier thought only Hillary Clinton could speak to – that really swung it for Obama.
Forget all the young people and the voter registration drives, it was Obama's ability to offer hope to a people that are already experiencing the recession, losing their jobs and their homes or fearing that they will, that this old dog of politics recognises as his greatest achievement. Inspiring and moving people, often to switch parties, is no mean feat.
John McCain's concession speech was graceful, generous and full of humility – as well it might be from a man who so clearly puts sacrifice for one's country as his highest goal. He pointedly argued that an African-American winning the Presidency was a retort to all those critics of the American ideal and asked for his fellow citizens to get behind the victor. Most Democrats at the election party applauded him and recognised his attempt to bring the nation closer together again.
But McCain's address was then trumped by some soaring rhetoric from Obama that spoke not just to the crowd in that Chicago park, nor the American public huddled around their TV screens, but to the masses across the world that have invested so much hope in a new American leader solving not just the US's problems – but those in their own country too.
For all the platitudes we hear about the world not needing the US to be its policeman, or to rescue the global economic crisis, or to lend a hand to a tsunami here or a famine there, the truth is the world does want American leadership – it just didn't want George W Bush's leadership.
Obama has been going around asking if the US can change, saying he can make it happen and answering in the call and tell style of a gospel preacher, saying: "Yes we can."
By winning on Tuesday, Obama has already achieved a significant change. If he should harbour any fear politically, it is that too many people, inside and outside of America have had their expectations raised so high that they can only be dashed.
It is a challenge he must relish. Our futures, even here in Scotland, might rest on him rising to it.
A missed opportunityWhile the election of Barack Obama will be in the history books for ever, the SNP's chance to create history has been squandered – now it shall only be a mere footnote, soon to be forgotten. Is it the turning point for Gordon Brown? No, that began with his confident performance at the Labour conference and him strutting around saving the world's financial system. Or so his cheerleaders like to claim.
It also helped that Alex Salmond and David Cameron have allowed Brown to look good when they should have been putting the political boot in. I'm sorry, politics is a tough game and sometimes to make a point you kick your opponent when he's down. Cameron especially may rue the day he didn't tell the public how and why it was Brown's fault.
The full article contains 759 words and appears in Edinburgh Evening News newspaper.
