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Obama reclaims american dream

Barack Obama trounced Republican rival John McCain on Tuesday to become the first African-American to win the United States’ presidency.

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NEW YORK: Democratic candidate Barack Obama trounced Republican rival John McCain on Tuesday to become the first African-American to win the United States’ presidency after pushing a reformist message of change that resonated across America and well beyond its shores.

Obama, 47, the son of a Kenyan father and a white mother from Kansas, led a tide of Democratic victories in a string of battleground states - Ohio, Florida, Iowa and Pennsylvania. The magnitude of his victory shocked Republicans as Obama captured Virginia and Indiana, too, the first Democrat in 44 years to win either state. He blew past the magic 270 electoral votes needed just after 11 pm on Tuesday with victories in California and Washington.

“If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible, who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time, who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer,” Obama said in his acceptance speech at midnight before a crowd of 125,000 supporters gone wild at Chicago’s Grant Park.

McCain congratulated Obama in a phone call and then delivered the traditional American concession speech before his supporters in Phoenix. “We have had, and argued our differences, and he has prevailed. This is an historic election, and I recognise the special significance it has for African-Americans and the special pride that must be theirs tonight,” McCain said.

The election is a referendum on two-term president George W. Bush in deep disfavour because of his handling of the teetering US economy and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Benefiting from a visceral reaction to Bush and the enthusiasm for Obama, Democrats picked up five Senate seats on Tuesday without losing any of their own.
Democrats also took over 14 seats in the House with 37 still undecided. 

Democrats had seized control of Congress two years ago, but its razor-thin margin in the Senate had allowed Republicans to stymie Democrat-desired foreign policy changes on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Riding on the crest of the huge Obama wave, Democrats have now expanded their majority to at least 56 seats in the 100-member Senate. This means Obama will be able to make widely anticipated adjustments to the US economy, energy blueprint and foreign policy.

Analysts say Obama is likely to shift policy on South Asia and adopt a tougher line on Islamic terrorism emanating out of Pakistan. Obama views military-dominated Pakistan with deep distrust and, in this area, his impulses are completely in sync with New Delhi. Among the first to oppose the war on Iraq, Obama has promised to bring US soldiers home and has indicated that the focus of his war on terror will be Pakistan’s tribal areas and the neighbouring areas of Afghanistan.

Obama stirred controversy in August last year when he said he would attack terrorists in Pakistan with or without its government’s consent if he had actionable intelligence. “It’s not something you talk about,” his running mate Joe Biden chided at the time, sounding a bit like McCain during the campaign. But Obama has since said that he will look to Biden to take a lead role on foreign policy. That suits New Delhi as Biden championed the nuclear deal and has been India’s good friend long before world leaders started courting India because of its growing economic clout.

The enormous significance of Obama’s election has also finally begun to sink into the global landscape. Raised in a variety of cultures, Obama has a flexible image that allows the world to project on him their own American dream. Rais Yatim, the foreign minister of mostly Muslim Malaysia, echoed what a lot of people are feeling when he said an Obama victory sent out a positive signal as the world needed to see the “US represent a more cosmopolitan or universal political attitude.”

The French for one expect Obama to engage in multilateralism and the warm and fuzzy principle strikes a chord with countries like India which refused to send troops to Iraq.

“The election of Barack Obama not only renews America’s belief in its best self, a self we have rarely seen over the past eight years, it restores the faith of the world in America,” Mira Kamdar, a fellow at the World Policy Institute and author of ‘Planet India’ told DNA.

President Bush leaves the White House with America’s moral leadership and image at all-time lows among allies in Europe and even lower in the Muslim world. Not surprisingly, France, which first condemned the war in Iraq, has taken an instant shine to Obama and a Pew survey found the French supported Obama over his Republican rival McCain by 84% to 33%. Even Russia, which has been butting heads with Bush, will be relieved to see change in the White House.

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