The Americans do have an unnerving habit of killing their presidents. How many assassinated? 4 out of 44? and that's not counting the attempt on Reagan.
Looking at which states voted which way is like a replay of the American civil war. The South and the mid-West voted Republican/Confederate and the East and West coasts voted Democrat/Yankee.
I do hope also that he's not another Blair...full of promise, short on innovative policy.
However, just the fact that he is half African-American means that his win is revolutionary.
Does anybody else find it disturbing that the Republicans are represented by the colour red and the Democrats, blue? In Britain, the Right are blue and the Left are red. Perhaps the Democrats are linked to blue because the Yankee soldiers wore blue while the Confederates wore grey or butternut. According to this wikipedia link, this assignment of colours, blue for Democrats, red for Republicans, was only recent, in 2000, although I remember Nancy Reagan wearing 'Reagan red' in the '80's.
This wikipedia link explains the association of red and Left-wing politics:
It has been associated with left-wing politics since the French Revolution. The red flag became a symbol of communism as a result of its use by the Paris Commune of 1871. The flags of several communist states, including China, Vietnam, and the former Soviet Union, have red backgrounds.
There is still debate about whether Obama is actually American which is an obligation to be eligible to run for the presidency. See here for the proof. Strange that for the first time both candidates were not born on the mainland of the USA (McCain was born in Panama, on an army base). But the way that Obama's 'Americanness' is continually disputed seems related to his race. Does white America not see black Americans as properly American?
