On November 4th, 2008, 47 year old Barack Obama was elected to serve as the 44th President of the United States. Obama has been labeled the messiah, the chosen one, and has an astronomical burden of getting this country out some of the worst predicaments in American history. With that being said, Obama has the chance to go down as one of the greatest Presidents in US history if he pulls the US out of this recession, the war, and 'cures' racism. Ok, curing racism is impossible, but how about create 'tolerance'. Although I am fairly young, I can not ever remembering so much pressure on the shoulders of one man. Sure their was Jordan with the Bulls (before Pippen), Kobe after Shaq, maybe Bill Gates. But those are not nearly as important to leading a nation. It is like the unknown Doug Williams leading the Washington Redskins to the Super Bowl. Sure Williams wasn't the first black qb to ever play the game, but he was the first to the highest pinnacle. Like Tiger Woods and the Masters, Jackie Robinson and MLB, Bill Russell and the Celtic Dynasty, Tony Dungy and the Super Bowl, Obama is not the first to play the game, but he was the best candidate to bridge the gap. I use a lot of sports references because during my lifetime, the great accomplishments and firsts that are truly notorary have been through sports. Throw in entertainment and academics, all the first have already occurred. That was until we got Obama. This was my Dr. MLK moment. Hopefully this story has a better ending that MLK, but this was the event of a lifetime, one of the few first that cannot be duplicated for this nation. The historical value of this event was significant for a number of other reasons as well. For Black Americans (African-Americans, Black, etc), this marked the first person to consider themselves as Black to be named to this great honor of running our nation. For Biracial Americans, the pride of potentially becoming accepted by both sides of the aisle. But for America, the fight for equality and race relations just took a giant step forward. The bar has been raised. Personally, it was a game changer to me. The awkwardness of being first will not apply to the next generation. My child will not need to have the aspiration to be "the first black president", he can just aspire to be "president". I thought that during my lifetime, this accomplishment would happen. But I thought that it would be later in life, after the Generation X and Y were of age and had children of voting age. For this to happen so fast is amazing. And how it happened is even more amazing. I stood in line for 2.5 hours where it had previously only taken 10 minutes to vote, but it peaceful and no one was clock watching. Not to say everyone was unanimous in there vote in my polling place, but it was just a calm atmosphere. Calm...just like the Obama acceptance speech. (below)
By the Numbers:
Obama - President
Electoral Votes: 349
Popular Votes: 64,030,409
McCain
Electoral Votes: 162
Popular Votes: 56,494,802
