The Right joins the celebration - for now
Fraser Nelson 9:17am
Rather than stay up very late, I got up very early and have been watching the American networks. Any leftie tuning in to Fox looking for a dose of schadenfreude will be sorely disappointed. There is no sense of the anger that the left had when George W Bush won. Bill O’Reilly describes Obama as “brilliant and personable”. The commentators on the right are saluting Obama’s campaign, and sharing a sense of patriotic pride that America is so capable of renewal that it has elected a black man to be president. Here are a few quotes that have jumped out at me.
“He fought a brilliant campaign, beginning with his total befuddlement of the supposed sharpest operators in the country, the Clintons. As for us losers, there's no point going down the right-wing version of Bush Derangement Syndrome. Any shrill vicious ad hominem invective would be much better directed at each other. The Republicans lost this election” – Mark Steyn.
“There are about 1,460 days until the next Presidential election, and I assume that I will spend approximately the next 1,459 of them opposing Barack Obama. But I’m spending today proud abut what my country has overcome.” – Jim Manzi in NRO
“I expect to be one of the most severe critics of the Obama administration and the Democrats generally… but Obama ran a brilliant race and he should be congratulated for it. It is a wonderful thing to have the first African-American president. It is a wonderful thing that in a country where feelings are so intense that power can be transferred so peacefully. Let us hope that Obama succeeds and becomes a great president, for all the right reasons.” – Jonah Goldberg.
“This is the most meaningful thing that has ever happened” – Oprah Winfrey
Okay, the Oprah quote (though real) doesn’t quite count. And one can argue that the right would be bitter had the election had been as tight as it was eight years ago. No hanging chads this time. But to me, anyway, the dominant feeling is “only in America” and this eclipses partisan sympathies. And not just the racial issue, but the sheer audacity of what has just happened. A man who was spanked on his first attempt to run for office eight years ago is president-elect today, after sweeping away the old guard of his own party. As James said earlier, it’s been awesome – and, for British politicos, humbling – to watch such energetic, raw, dramatic, democratic politics in action. For a bunch of reasons I may blog on later, we can only dream of it here in Britain.
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Big Alec
November 5th, 2008 12:07pm Report this commentI concede it's a historical moment, but I'm already getting bored by the whole Obama phenomenon. What's really awful is the way the British media (especially the old liberal elitists at the BBC) seem to drool over him. Did anyone else see Simon Schama's sycophantic analysis on BBC1 this morning? These are the same people who drooled over Blair not that long ago...and look how that turned out! I say give him (Obama) a chance, but can people in the media stop portraying him as some sort of messiah, and concentrate a bit more on what the man done stands for and what he's actually done.
Paul B
November 5th, 2008 3:36pm Report this commentI think it shows that generally speaking those on the right of the political spectrum have a far more generous spirit than embittered, mean spirited ,chips on shoulder lefties. Looks at the lefts vile reaction to the election of the blessed Margaret, which in some ways was as much a watershed election as Obamas. This visceral hatred continues to this day, and on the day of the ladies demise, I predict there will be many who will be dancing in the street at her passing.
Bob
November 5th, 2008 3:56pm Report this commentI assume you're boycotting the BBC because they were so mean to that nice Mr Osborne and therefore missed John Bolton talking about Obama's extremeist instincts?
David Lindsay
November 5th, 2008 5:55pm Report this commentThere si Right and Right, just as there is Left and Left.
Hillary Clinton is on course for the Supreme Court, where she cannot make abortion any worse, because it could not possibly be any worse.
Since 1974 no Republican has won state-wide office in New York without the endorsement of the Buckley-founded Conservative Party of New York State.
So the Democrats should be looking for someone who can win that endorsement on family values, on strictly limited and strictly legal immigration, on fair trade, on constitutional checks and balances, on national security, on energy independence, on Second Amendment rights and responsibilities, on America as an English-speaking country, and (one trusts, now that Bush is out of the way) on foreign policy realism, as surely as winning the endorsement of the Working Families Party on the protection of workers and consumers, on fair tax, on constitutional checks and balances, on universal health care, on Social Security, on environmental responsibility, on Civil Rights, and on foreign policy realism.
Steve
November 5th, 2008 6:56pm Report this commentThere is no sense of the anger that the left had when George W Bush won. - I can remember the headline of the Daily Mirror the day after Bush was reelected in 2004 - 'How Can America Be So Stupid?' As there is now an African-American President the headline should be - 'How Can The Left Still Be Racist?'
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