Archive for November, 2008
Poised in the moment
It’s finally here. After nearly two years of waiting, watching and hoping, the general election in the US is upon us.
I’m married to an American, and our children will be joint citizens. Who knows, one day we may even live there, and I may one day cast a ballot in an American election. I have no vote in this epochal moment, 2008, where the Democrats had to choose between the first woman candidate with a real chance and the first African-American candidate with a real chance. They chose Obama, and he has gone from strength to strength.
I know good people on both sides of the political line in the US. I know people voting for both candidates. I’ve watched both campaigns and I understand the arguments. For me, Obama is the clear choice.
If you only knew America, the way the rest of the world feels right now. You have been a unipolar power in a complex and dangerous world. We crave good leadership within and from your country. Not least the United Kingdom, which has been tied to your fortunes, for good and more often in the last eight years for ill.
There’s a moment, in a crowded bar or a stadium, when we watch amazing athletes strain for the finish line or the final kick or the last ounce of power they have in their muscles, and we gasp with them and will them across, pushing them with our minds and feeling the ghost of the strain in our own hearts and muscles.
The rest of the world is the stadium, and the runners are the American voters. Push for the finish and vote.
