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HERALD WEEKLY ISSUE 432 : 05 November 2008

Yes he did – Obama wins!

The Obama campaign slogan “Yes we can” became “Yes we did!” tonight as an estimated 240,000 people cheered on the Chicago Senator to become the 44th President of the United States of America. What an incredible experience to be amongst the thousands upon thousands to celebrate this historic occasion. Truly, a once-in-a-lifetime event.
The massive crowd, which converged over the inner city grounds of Grant Park, had already begun to assemble in huge numbers by 8pm. And although the evening started slowly, it swelled like an enormous wave, energised by each CNN announcement that was beamed around the park on nine, strategically-placed ‘jumbo-tron’ screens.
By 11pm. the victory eruption was both emotional and uplifting. Strangely, I felt like an American. Everything I had believed would happen – happened. Eleven months ago, a stirring victory speech in the Iowa Primary made such a huge impact on me, I became convinced very early on that Barack Obama would wipe Hilary Clinton out of contention for the White House. With each passing day, the more I learned of this transformative candidate and his campaign team, the more convinced I became he would take the US presidency in a landslide. I even knew from the outset that he would never pick Hilary to be his running mate, and that Obama would ride above all the negativity to clinch a final victory. And yes, he did.
The key was the amazing effort to forge a new coalition of American supporters – not divided by race, political ideology, class, or gender. To build this nation-wide coalition, the Obama team held firm to a very smart, rigidly disciplined campaign that built its support from the bottom up, mobilising and motivating community networks of young people, newly registered voters, African Americans, Latinos, working class people – both men and women, and conservative republicans to boot. They absolutely embedded themselves in the technology of the internet to build record numbers of registered voters as well as donors, raising over US$700 million in campaign funds and smashing all the records in voter turnout across the country.
Sure there were key factors primed to propel Obama forward, such as the financial collapse in September and worsening economy, the Republican’s ludicrous pick of Sarah Palin, and the ‘albatross’ of George Bush policies around the neck of McCain. But there were other factors too, which only served to reinforce how much smarter the Obama team was in its strategic thinking. King-makers David Axelrod and David Plouffe will be remembered for a long time to come. Above it all, and through 21 months of rigorous campaigning, Barack Obama remained cool and rock-steady – unflappable amidst whatever chaos was thrown his way.
When victory came, Obama had raced past the 270 electoral votes needed to win, and settled on 338 by the end of the night. His victory speech, given several minutes after McCain had graciously conceded, carried a somewhat sombre tone – almost as if he was on the job already. But the central theme was there, as it always has been. America is ready for change. All we – I mean Americans – have to do is seize this opportunity to make it happen.

Herald Issue 432 05 November
- Yes he did – Obama wins!
- New political party to be launched
- DEMO and CIP in Disarray!
- Briefing omits other relevant points
- Mortgagee sales - woes and alleviaton