I have a dream. That the President-elect of the United States should be judged not be the colour of his skin but by the content of his character. When Margaret Thatcher was first elected Prime Minister the initial focus was how interesting it was that she was a woman. In retrospect it was one of the less important aspects to her premiership. If President Obama is mainly remembered as the first black president that will mean he will have failed. (Aside from the point that he is no more black than he is white. He is mixed race. What would his mother have made of it all?) I see the symbolic value for black Americans suffering from what the current President has called "the soft bigotry of low expectations" of this election result. But tangible change (such as Education Vouchers) could mean more.
If I was an American I would have voted for McCain - partly out of enthusiasm for Sarah Palin. (Darn right, we need to cut tax for the Joe Sixpacks and Hockey Mums. You betcha.) I hope Palin stands for President in 2012. She did seem a bit plunged in at the deep end this time round. But will have plenty of time to swot up on the intricacies of foreign policy and supreme court verdicts in time for next time.
But let see what Obama does. His programme promises overall tax cuts. On the other hand his anti free trade proposals would be pretty damaging. If he is foolish enough to go ahead with them. Obama has been described as a left winger because of his views on health. Not in British terms. He wants to stick with private sector provision but make it more affordable: "On health care reform, the American people are too often offered two extremes - government-run health care with higher taxes or letting the insurance companies operate without rules. Barack Obama and Joe Biden believe both of these extremes are wrong." Also I wonder if all the swooning Guardianistas realise Obama supports the death penalty.
