Congratulations to President-elect Barack Obama!

Although I wasn’t in the US to vote for the next president, I’m very delighted to see Barack Obama elected as the next president.

Although I think either Obama or McCain would make a good president, I think Obama will be a more effective one. He is exceptionally bright, understands issues on a deeper level, has foresight and conviction, able to work with different people, and can assemble effective teams and task forces. These are some qualities that I think that the next president must have to deal with the huge mess left by the current administration.



You get the feeling that Obama’s presidency will succeed from the way he came from behind to beat Hillary Clinton and overcome racial barriers in the general elections to win it all. In the end he was the best candidate because he was able to gauge the prevailing social, cultural, economic, and political conditions of the country more accurately than any other candidate. He had skillfully dissociated himself from black militancy and used a John Kennedy-esque charm to appeal to people’s hopes and optimism. I think good leadership is about accurately understanding the situation and making the right choices, and Obama has made all the right calls in his campaign. Hopefully, he will continue to do the same as the leader of the world’s sole superpower.

Perhaps the most significant aspect of Obama’s victory is that he is the first black president in America’s 232-year history. This election has exposed that the country is deeply divided by race, and racism was not done away with by Obama’s victory. But it shows that the country is willing to change to accommodate the demographic shift toward greater ethnic and cultural diversity.

My family immigrated to the U.S. when I was only nine years old. During the 27 years that I lived in America, I never felt that I was part of the country. This feeling continued until my adulthood when I decided recently to move back to Cambodia.

Michelle Obama echoed a similar sentiment when she stated that for first time in her life, she felt proud to be American. Cindy McCain indignantly countered that she had been always been proud of her country. I think it’s easy for Cindy McCain, a white woman who was born to wealth and privilege, to declare that she has always loved her country, whereas it’s not so easy for a minority to make the same declaration. This exchange illustrates the deep racial divide that still exists in America, a challenge the Obama presidency will be burdened with, not to mention two disastrous wars abroad and current financial crisis. I think if anyone is capable of solving all these problems, Obama would be the man.

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