Well, “a-wop bop-a loo-mop, a-lop . OBAMA-boom!!!!!”
What a relief to wake up to the news of Obama’s victory!
I really feared for the future of America and the world had Romney been elected.
Writer Dave Eggers and music manager Jordan Kurland , two guys originally from Chicago, set up a website to compile 90 Reasons why Americans voted for Barack – these included : “Because this is an election with existential implications” (Paul Simon) ; “Obama still has some respect for the truth” (John Sayles) and “Thanks to President Obama, nearly 50 million American women have access to contraception and preventive health services” (Isabel Allande).
My personal favourite came from David Lynch who wrote : “I have noticed something in Mitt Romney’s name, which I think speaks to what he is about. If you just rearrange a few letters, Romney becomes R MONEY. I believe Mitt Romney wants to get his Mitts on R Money. He would like to get it and divide it up with his friends, the Big Money Bunch”.
In his acceptance speech, Obama was right to emphasise that the future of America depends a lot on self government – on people taking responsibility for their own actions. But they also rely on governments and politicians and Obama has the mandate to prove that politics is not just “a contest of egos or the domain of special interests” but about helping, not hindering, ordinary people to realise their hopes and dreams.
In the last four years I think he has been too cautious – there’s nothing to be gained form being reckless but he now needs to take more risks and show that the vision of the truly United States of American so eloquently expressed in his victory speech in Chicago is more than just rhetoric.
The vote today is as he said himself , “a vote for action”.
