Kuwait Times

Published Date: November 06, 2008

WASHINGTON: Democrat Barack Obama, fresh from a historic election win as the US' first black president, turned yesterday to the sobering challenge of steering a new course for a country grappling with two wars abroad and the threat of a prolonged recession at home. Obama easily defeated Republican John McCain in a triumph that reflected Americans' weariness with eight years of Bush administration rule.

HH the Amir of Kuwait Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah sent a cable of congratulations yesterday to Obama. In his cable, the Amir wished Obama success, and lauded the historic ties and partnership between the two countries. He emphasized his keenness for continuing to work together in different areas in the interest of the two nations. HH the Crown Prince Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah and HH the Prime Minister Sheikh Nasser Al-Mohammad Al-Sabah sent similar cables of congratulation to Obama.

His first task will be to begin building - over the next 2 1/2 months - a Democratic administration that will help him make good on the promises of change that carried him to the White House. Obama will name Illinois Congressman Rahm Emanuel as his chief of staff, aides told the AP on condition of anonymity ahead of the announcement. Today, top intelligence officials are scheduled to begin meeting with Obama for classified daily briefings. Obama's speech before 240,000 supporters on election night clearl
y acknowledged the difficulties - domestic and international - he will face.

We know the challenges that tomorrow will bring are the greatest of our lifetime - two wars, a planet in peril, the worst financial crisis in a century," Obama said. "There is new energy to harness and new jobs to be created, new schools to build and threats to meet and, for us to lead, alliances to repair." In electing Obama, the son of black man from Kenya and a white woman from Kansas, American voters broke with the country's sad history of racial divisions. It was an accomplishment recognized both by
supporters and by McCain who, in conceding defeat, acknowledged the "special pride" black Americans must be feeling Tuesday night.

Change has come to America," Obama, the son of black man from Kenya and a white woman from Kansas, told cheering supporters in Chicago's Grant Park. "The road ahead will be long. Our climb will be steep. We may not get there in one year or even one term, but America - I have never been more hopeful than I am tonight that we will get there," Obama said.

Obama tore up the US political map in triumphing over McCain, a veteran Republican senator who was saddled with President George W Bush's legacy. Toward the end of his presidency, Bush was almost as unpopular at home as he is abroad.
Key American allies were quick to welcome Obama's election, which some in Europe compared to man's first steps on the moon and the fall of the Berlin Wall. "At a time when we have to confront immense challenges together, your election raises great hopes in France, in Europe and in the rest of the world," French President Nicolas Sarkozy said in a letter to the president-elect. Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel said she expects "closer and more trusting cooperation between the United States and Europe" un
der Obama's leadership.

Obama's choice as vice president, Sen Joseph Biden, predicted during the campaign that as president, Obama would be tested by a foreign power. Russia on Wednesday signaled that it may be first to do so, with President Dmitry Medvedev saying his country would deploy short-range missiles close to its borders with NATO countries Poland and Lithuania, in response to US plans for a missile defense system in Europe. Medvedev, in a speech, blamed the US for the global financial crisis and for allegedly provokin
g Russia's war with Georgia in August.

He also sent a congratulatory telegram saying there is "solid positive potential" for the election to improve strained relations between Washington, but only if Obama engages in constructive dialogue. When Obama takes office Jan 20 as the 44th US president, he may face more difficult challenges both at home and abroad than any new US president since the Great Depression. But he will do so with many allies in Congress, as the Democrats expanded their majorities in both the US House and Senate. And he will
take office with broad popular support.

With most US precincts tallied, Obama clinched 52.3 percent of the popular vote compared to 46.4 percent for McCain. That made him the first Democrat to receive more than half of the popular vote since Jimmy Carter in 1976. In the state-by-state contest that, under the US constitution, determines the presidency, Obama needed only 270 votes to win. He sailed to victory with 349 to McCain's 147, with three states still too close to call. Voter turnout, still being counted, was expected to shatter records.


Supporters welcomed Obama's victory with delirious celebrations in cities across the US and abroad. In Washington, hundreds took to the streets near the White House, carrying balloons, banging drums and chanting "Bush is gone!" Prominent black leaders were overjoyed, weeping unabashedly in public. From Hong Kong, retired Gen Colin Powell, a black Republican, called the senator's victory "a very, very historic occasion", and predicted that Obama would be "a president for all America".

Obama's victory marked the rise of a new generation of American leadership, after 16 years of presidents who came of age during the Vietnam War era. Obama. 47, was still a child when most US troops came home. It was also Americans' final, symbolic rejection of Bush's presidency. Bush's popularity soared after the Sept 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, then collapsed with his administration's bungled response to Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the war in Iraq, and to the regulatory lapses that many think led to the
US financial crisis.

The race was the longest, most expensive and most riveting in memory. Both Obama and McCain had been on the campaign train for almost two years. McCain called his former rival to concede defeat. "The American people have spoken, and spoken clearly," McCain told disappointed supporters in Arizona. But, after a fiercely negative campaign, he pledged to support Obama and "do all in my power to help him lead us through the many challenges we face". "Though we fell short, the failure is mine, not yours," he to
ld supporters in Phoenix.

Bush stood in the White House Rose Garden yesterday and promised to cooperate with Obama on the transfer of power. He called Obama's election was a historic breakthrough, in a country that struggled for racial equality. "No matter how they cast their ballots, all Americans can be proud of the history that was made yesterday." Obama is expected to bring a new style and tone in American foreign policy.

He has said he will try to withdraw US troops from Iraq in 16 months and has called for reaching out to adversaries, such as Iran and Cuba. He has urged the closing of the Guantanamo Bay prison and favors cap-and-trade systems to reduce global warming. Internationally, Obama is hugely popular. Part of his appeal is his multicultural heritage: Besides his Kenyan father, he has a half-sister who is the daughter of an Indonesian.

In his campaign, Obama mined a deep vein of national discontent with the status quo. He promised to heal divisions and end the partisan rancor that marks American politics, while building a phenomenal political organization and waging a nearly flawless 21-month campaign for the White House. He first soared into the national spotlight with his electrifying speech at the 2004 Democratic National Convention, when he made his first run for the Senate. He offered a message of unity to a country mired in partisa
n anger.

Throughout his campaign, Obama was the target of false rumors about his religion, his ethnicity and his patriotism. McCain, 72, was a tough rival for Obama. He is widely admired for his enduring 51/2 years as a prisoner of war during the Vietnam War. His reputation as a maverick gave Republicans hopes of winning over independents and moderate Democrats. But McCain had an uphill fight. He tried without success to portray Obama as too radical and inexperienced, casting him as an advocate of high taxes and so
cialism. McCain's choice for running mate, Alaska Gov Sarah Palin, energized much of the Republican base, but her lack of experience and poor performance in interviews worried many voters.

Obama's inauguration will complete a stunning ascent to the pinnacle of US and global politics from national obscurity just four years ago. Obama is promising to renew bruised ties with US allies, and to engage some of the United States' fiercest foes such as Iran and North Korea. He has vowed to tackle climate change and ensure healthcare for all Americans.

Forty-five years after civil rights icon Martin Luther King laid out his "dream" of racial equality, Obama's election broke new barriers and may have helped heal some of the moral wounds left by slavery and the US civil war. When he launched his campaign on a chilly day in Illinois in February 2007, Obama forged a mantra of change which powered him through the longest, most costly US presidential campaign in history.

His success looked likely after he captured Pennsylvania, a key battleground which was McCain's best hope of winning a Democratic state and keeping his rival from the White House. And in a sweet moment for Democrats, Obama also seized the key midwestern states of Ohio, Iowa and Indiana as well as the southwestern state of New Mexico, all states won by Bush in 2004. He later added Ohio, the decisive state which swept Bush to victory in 2004 and another Republican state, Virginia, which had not voted Democra
t since 1964. He also won Florida, scene of the 2000 recount debacle.

McCain had argued Obama was too inexperienced to be US commander in chief and would pursue "socialist" redistribution policies that would leave the economy mired in recession. As of early yesterday he had won 28 states, including the district of Columbia. McCain had won 20 states but had not broken out of the Republican heartland and the south. - Agencies