FCLLI10_obama_election

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Obama’s Election 
 
The election of Obama represents the merits of American democracy, in a society 
deeply characterized by slavery and prejudice. He recruited to his candidacy voters 
of all stripes: black, white, Hispanic, southerners and northerners, educated and 
non-educated, the politically engaged and those who had previously stayed on the 
sidelines, which means that Americans placed their faith in Obama and turned their 
backs to the past. 
Right after he was elected, he made a victory speech in which he conveyed a 
message to all the American people. In that speech he talks about a woman, Ann 
Nixon Cooper, who was 106 years old at that time (she has already died) and who 
hadn't been able to vote for several years just because of the color of her skin and to 
the fact that she was a woman. 
But now things are different and she has seen America being through several changes 
during the last century. 
The whole speech is all about hope and faith, and although there have been 
progresses, Obama says "there is so much more to do". He holds a promise of uniting 
the country to bring all the races together and to look toward a common future, and 
finally begin the healing process that centuries of discrimination and oppression have 
inflicted. 
Obama was a unique candidate who faced a new American electorate. Also, the 
times in which we live played a huge role in his election. Obama made himself the 
candidate of change just at the right moment. 
In my opinion, this human dimension of his triumph is more important than the 
details of his election program. This victory opened a new door of possibilities for 
America and for the world. People in other countries see America differently now 
and Americans have a chance to think again about who they are.