Well this blog is supposed to all about Lebanese politics, but let’s face it, who wants to hear about Hariri or Nasrallah today… Today and probably the next couple of weeks will be all about the new guy in the White House, even more so (if that is at all possible) than the previous weeks have been about who the new guy will be.But this blog is also about my perspective on important issues, and in the spirit of this blog, I want to go all out and describe how I feel today to see, four to eight years from now, how right or wrong I was.
Experience has told me not to get excited when a new president is elected in the US. Many Lebanese and Arabs insist that all American presidents are the same; they only differ in how they choose to screw us. I remember eight years ago when we were hoping for a Bush victory against Gore, in fear that Gore will continue the pro-Israel policy of the Clinton administration. Until we realized, a few years later, that there is worse than a pro-Israel White House, and that’s an anti-Arab White House.
So experience tells me that I’m going out on a limb here when I say this: I am not only relieved Obama won in the sense that I’m glad it’s not McCain, I am actually genuinely happy, optimistic and downright cheerful. Some may think this is naïve, but I’m afraid I’ve been swept away by Obamania…
I had a hard time sleeping last night, waking up at 4 a.m. unable to bring myself to sleep until I turned on the TV, only for a minute, to see preliminary results showing Obama leading with around 200 electoral votes, McCain trailing behind with 90. I woke up in the morning and watched Obama’s 17 minute victory speech. I think this is the first time in my life I’ve ever gotten goose bumps listening to an American president speak.
How refreshing it was for me to hear from a US president (or president-elect in this case) a speech that spoke directly to the non-Americans offering a message of hope, and not in a do-what-I-tell-you-and-everything-will-be-fine kind of way.
“To all those watching tonight from beyond our shores, from parliaments and palaces to those who are huddled around radios in the forgotten corners of our world - our stories are singular, but our destiny is shared, and a new dawn of American leadership is at hand.”
My message to the new Obama leadership is this:
I often hear of a time when America was a nation admired rather than feared, when American democracy was a source of inspiration rather than concern, when American values were sought rather than imposed. But I’m too young to remember any such time… I only hope I am young enough to see it happen again.
