An indisputable victory.

McCain was gracious in defeat, unlike several of his supporters. I hope that all of America now gets behind their new President.

Indeed Al; and let me be the delighted second.

Now it's fingers crossed a) that he survives and b) that he can do it.

How long before disillusion sets in?

Bush was not just a disaster - I think his work was evil, even if he was not.

But I remember cheering on Tony Blair (we do like young, handsome, charismatic leaders) in 1997, never thinking his era would see myself convicted of crimes that never took place, my taxes used to murder innocent people in my name, and the global economy put on the road to collapse.

It's a moment of hope but where will we be in a few months, let alone a few years?

In his victory speech Obama warned that there might be difficult times ahead. Things will not suddenly become perfect because he has won. Change was definately needed, but that change also brings hard work for everyone before America can seen genuinely better times.

I think he gave a good, balanced, down to earth speech.

Of course things acan go wrong, JK.
I personally believe thet Blair was full of good intentions, but power corrupts. Once he realised that he could, he did, regardless of whether it was right or wrong. The difference with Obama is that he is taking over from Blair's evil twin. I'm sure he'll make mistakes, but let's give him a chance to show that he's worthy of office.

I was quite disturbed to read on another forum some American guy asking which calibre of weapon he should use against Obama. Very distateful - but we know his kind exist, and I'm sure Obama knows it too.

The positive thing is that many white Americans voted for a black President. Race was not an issue for them, and that's a giant leap forward.

Congratulations to Obama.

Yes Denise but was anyone else disturbed that such a huge majority of "blacks" voted for Obama? Why? I would have voted for him but shouldn't it have been a more even split?

Racism comes in many forms.

It's been established that most non-white Americans are Democrats. No real surprise that they voted for Obama. It might have been remarkable if they had voted for a black Republican.

We can't just assume that they voted for Obama because he was black, although it's likely that some did.

Yes, my friend who works in USA was telling me that some of his black work colleagues voted for him because of his colour and vice versa with McCann.

However, I would have voted for Obama because I believe he was the best choice for the White House, not because of colour.

I just hope that he is allowed to do his job and nothing does happen to him. For the record, I did think McCain was a good candidate and he was very supportive of Obama.

Ironically according to my friend, Tony Blair is popular in the US purely because he was supposedly responsible for stopping Bush declaring war on every terrorist country.

Is he as potentially good as Bill Clinton in the White Hous (forgetting about his less than discreet affairs), only time will tell.

I think Mcain's age lost him the vote more than colour issues. He seemed a good bloke to me.

I think OBAMA is the right person at the right time.

I agree with JK - Bush has almost destroyed the World with his idiotic policies. Both militarily and economically he has acted like a deranged cowboy - and we sit on the edge of unpleasant times.

It should not be forgotten by the UK voters that it was BLAIR and BROWN who have been the ONLY world leaders to JUSTIFY the policies of BUSH...............crazy.

Before I read this post I actually said to myself that if JK doesn't retain a little cyncism about Obabma and the 'change' that he is going to bring then God help us all. So thanks JK for not spoiling my day!
About the 96% of blacks voting for Obama thing. It is true that normally around 90% of blacks vote for the democrats anyway...but still you could argue that there is racism there if nearly every black person always votes simply for the party that is percieved as being best for black interests. Can you imagine if 90% of white voters always voted Republican?
With the rapidly changing demographics in the USA and the fact that minorities seem to vote invariably for tribal self-interest (including that 'minority' women, who make up 53% of the electorate), it is not entirely impossible that George W Bush might be the last white male to lead western civilisation.