A Night For America

John's been the Obama enthusiast on this site, so if he'll pardon me for a moment I'm going to write a bit about this moment in American history, and it is a bi-partisan moment that should be recognised by all Americans whether they agree with Obama's policies or not.

June 3, 2008 will be one of those dates my children will learn about in history class, the day a black man became the first person of colour to be the nominee of a major political party. It must also be remembered that if circumstances were different, it would be the first woman nominee of a major party, an equally historic watershed that will have to wait a little longer.

The roads paved in blood and sweat that have led to this day cannot be appreciated, I think, right now, in the thick of a marathon election that has captured the nation's and world's attention. It is fate's fortune that some of the same men who preached and marched alongside Dr. King are still here, witnesses to a lifetime that began with the black man not equal to the white man and all forms of violence and degradation being just a fact of life and has evolved from that reality to one where an American boy of a black father and a white mother, growing up in Hawaii, Indonesia and the Northeast before making his life on the South Side of Chicago, can run for president and actually earn the right to be a nominee in our two-party system. And it is a credit to Obama and this country that at the end of the 18-month Democratic campaign, the deciding factor for voters and the substance of all the questions coming his way aren't about the colour of his skin but what he believes is the best way to make the United States better.

Perhaps fate has also stepped in to bring John McCain and Barack Obama together, for the Republican nominee may not be shattering any glass ceilings but he has also battled and broke through barriers to get the nomination. Whether it was his willingness to legislate regardless of the party agenda or his upstart run to the front of the 2000 pack when party fathers were grooming the son of a former president or the hostile rift he has had with the GOP's religious and conservative wings or even his age, McCain defied odds and a large field to come back from the wilderness - if it weren't for his unfortunate skin troubles, I'd say he's 'tan, rested and ready.'

To the credit of both nominees, theirs are campaigns heavy on the issues and if this man of colour becomes the next president, there is every chance it will be because Americans will choose his views over his rival's and not because he is a 'first.'

On this night, Republicans too should celebrate even though they and Obama agree on little and everything. Without Republicans like Senator Everett Dirksen (IL), Barack Obama could not have given the speech he did tonight. Without a Republican, one of the first, like Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King Jr. couldn't have had his march on that president's memorial. The blood-soaked road from 'all men are created equal' to 'I will be the Democratic nominee for the President of the United States' is one that is built upon an American foundation, Democrat, Republican and all those parties that have come and gone over a 232 year history. And it has taken every one of those 232 years and every life given, every life made harder in the name of equality, to arrive at this moment.

And on this night, the legacy of what has become belongs to all but if there is one - of many - who deserves special recognition it is Abraham Lincoln, Republican, whose legacy transcends politics and is a direct link from the greatest of the unfinished work by the men of 1776 now one step closer to completion.

I would hope I can appreciate this night so that my children and grandchildren can hear a story that adds a bit more than the textbooks. Now, however, the real game begins. Americans know who the next president is, they just have to decide which one it will be. And it is my firm hope that no one looks back on January 20th, 2009 and questions its authenticity, whether it's Mr. McCain or Mr. Obama putting his hand on the bible.

Reilly