History made as US elects black president

Alexander Cockburn writes at 4.30 am: A country with a terrible history of racism and violence has elected a black president. Looking at the ecstatic crowd in Grant Park, Chicago, the moment Obama was officially declared the certain winner, one sees with vivid force the fact that many Americans haven't had a chance to feel proud of their country for a long time, a point that Michelle Obama made several months ago and that got her into a great deal of trouble with the right wing.

There in the crowd in Grant Park we saw Jesse Jackson, his eyes streaming tears. It was Jackson, back in the late 1980s who first envisaged and cemented the Rainbow Coalition, manifest tonight in one public place after another.

In terms of political landslides one can invoke 1932 and 1964, but the strongest parallel here is really with the much closer election of 1960 and John Kennedy, repository of so many youthful hopes. Of course it wasn't long before reality caught up with the hopes, and overtook them, with deepening involvement in Vietnam and the disaster of the Bay of Pigs.

There will be similar bruising engagements with reality in the months ahead, and with America in a weaker condition. But for the moment triumph for Obama and his supporters is unalloyed. John McCain's concession speech was generous.

In the whole of the New England states not one Republican congressman or senator remains. In the upper Midwest the Republicans have also been routed. Their last loyal enclaves are in the south. In terms of political power equations, it's now far from clear whether the Democrats will command 60 seats in the Senate and thus be veto-proof, but the Republicans have had a really terrible night.

"I don't know what more we could have done to win this election," John McCain said in his farewell remarks. Actually there was a lot he could have done. He ran an awful campaign. Obama is now enveloped in an aura of inevitability, but let us raise a final toast to that vital ingredient, luck. Never was there a luckier man in the timing of economic collapse, the ultimate October surprise.

FIRST POSTED NOVEMBER 5, 2008