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Obama Victory : View from The Big Apple

by Carol Wallace

I left Aberfeldy and returned to New York earlier than usual this year because I wanted to get home for the presidential election. Many of my friends in Aberfeldy were always asking me for my thoughts on the race; I couldn’t remember a contest that caused more buzz or passion among my friends. Not even Bill Clinton's.

In New York, like elsewhere around this country, election day was chaos. There are polling stations every few blocks to accommodate the huge population, and some people waited hours and hours to vote. I was lucky and was able to walk right in and cast my ballot. Then, like everybody else, I went home, turned on the TV, and awaited the results.

Sorely jet lagged, I missed the big announcement around 10:30 p.m. that Obama, whom I supported, had won. But I managed to wake up to see the remarkable words blaring across the TV screen: Barack Obama Elected 44th President of the U.S.

When it counted, despite lingering racism and bigotry that can flare here, the country had finally turned color blind.

I had supported Obama because, like many Americans, I felt as if the country had had a pall over it through the Bush presidency. Never had a president in my time had a lower popularity rating. The economy was (and still is) in freefall, we were entangled in a war most people no longer cared about and the rest of the world no longer looked up to us. Any time Bush was mentioned in a conversation, people I knew in Scotland railed against him. Sadly, there was no hope that any of that would change. Republican McCain, I thought, would bring more of the same.

Obama promised fresh ideas. I told a friend that I thought America would elect a black man before a woman as its president. For me, Hillary Clinton, who lost to Obama in the primaries to be the Democratic candidate, promised more politics as usual. She is smart and capable and definitely better than McCain and I would have voted for her had she been the nominee. But I really wanted someone who could think outside the box, bring fresh ideas to government and hopefully lift America’s sagging reputation around the globe. He was smart, savvy and could write speeches that gave you goose bumps.

But beyond the numbers, the emotional moments of the election were stunning. The media carried story after story of black voters whose ancestors were slaves, or whose parents weren’t allowed in through front doors of restaurants and who never thought they would live to see a black president. A friend who lives in downtown Manhattan said that after Obama was elected, people just ran out into the streets and began honking their cars and dancing in celebration. “This is just so damn exciting,” another pal said when she called the morning after. A friend in Chicago, where Obama was born - and is my home town - reported that he got into an elevator with a young black professional he didn’t know. The young man turned to him and beamed, “This is the happiest day of my life.” “I am so proud to be a Chicagoan,” another friend told me. It was historic, emotional and inspiring.

Everybody underestimated the impact Obama’s win would have on the public. In New York, people lined up for hours in front of the New York Times building hoping to purchase another copy of the historic edition whose headline simply said OBAMA. (They’re selling on ebay now for more than $1,000—about 650 pounds.) Yesterday, at my news agent, a clerk was putting up notes that said Sold Out, Sold Out, Sold, Out, Sold Out next to all the major newspapers, something I hadn’t seen in all my years in New York. And on the internet, the reports were that 8.5 million viewers a minute logged on to the major news websites to check for results throughout the night. (Anyone wonder now about why print advertising is dying?) Everybody wants a piece of history. The last time I saved a New York Times front page was when Richard Nixon resigned.

None of us who supported Obama are naïve. We know what awaits him. He knows it too. We know the honeymoon glow will fade as, come January, he takes over a battered economy, unpopular war and skyrocketing joblessness. He will make mistakes and he will lose some battles. He will anger some and let down others. Compromises he hadn’t dreamed about will be made. The expectations will be impossible to live up to.  I remember in the UK how much promise there had been for Tony Blair in 1997; 10 years later you couldn’t wait to get rid of him.

But this amazing election has left New Yorkers and Obama supporters hopeful that we have elected someone who can bring clarity and brains in approaching the problems that have gripped us around the throat for the past 8 years. New York hasn’t felt this good since before Sept. 11, 2001

Carol Wallace is a retired American journalist who lives

in Aberfeldy and New York.