The 44th President of the USA

Barack Obama has just become the President-Elect of the USA. For the first time in the 232-year history of this land where "all men are created equal," an African-American man will be the President. He will be sworn into the highest office of the land, a position often equated with the leader of the free world, on January 20, 2009, just a few days shy of the 100-year anniversary of the NAACP, one of the oldest Civil Rights organizations in the USA. This organization finally formed out of the Springfield Race Riot of 1908. President-Elect Obama announced his intention of running for President in Springfield, where Abraham Lincoln delivered his "House Divided" speech. The importance of this move in American History and Politics cannot be understated, and the symbolism, from that which has been stated here, to President-Elect Obama's references to Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "I've Been to the Mountaintop" Speech, to things that I have missed, is more than noteworthy.

Now that we have attained this important step in politics, we must move forward. We must leave these two years of campaigning behind us. Regardless of where your vote fell on November 4th, 2008, we are looking at 4 years of President-Elect Obama's leadership. If we want it to succeed in the ways that we hope it will, we, Democrats, Republicans, and every other party, must move forward together. If we hope that President-Elect Obama will fail, he will. But if we hope together for success and something better, than it can be achieved. But we must face it together as citizens of the USA.