Flicking between the news stations just now, I came across a channel showing the episode of the West Wing in which Matt Santos, a Latino candidate, is elected president. But when you think about Obama’s story it is more remarkable than any TV or film script. Indeed, in fiction it would seem implausible.
Four and a bit years ago, a black Senate candidate with an usual name addressed the Democratic National Convention. The sheer power of his rhetoric transformed him from an aspiring local politician to a national figure. He spoke to a widespread yearning for unity.
A couple of years later, after a book tour in which he had drawn crowds that would be the envy of candidates running for any office, he decided to take on the most powerful machine in the Democratic party and run for the party’s nomination. For months, polls showed him far behind Hillary Clinton. But the Obama campaign didn’t panic and he pulled off a remarkable win in Iowa. Then, Hillary came back from apparent political death in New Hampshire. Obama responded with possibly the best speech of his career and kept on keeping on with the strategy he mapped out. This moment seems more significant than ever this morning; it was the time when Obama displayed the calm temperament and the ability to handle a set back that are so essential for a president.
A historic and thumping win in South Carolina, a state where the scourge of racism has taken a particularly vicious toll, set the stage for Obama’s February run which was born of brilliant organisation and left Hillary with too big a gap to close.
As the Democratic nominee in the political environment of 2008, Obama was always favoured to win. The financial crisis put rocket boosters under the Obama campaign and killed off McCain’s chances. There can be little doubt that Obama needed to demonstrate more political skills to win the nomination than the White House. But he also deserves immense credit for an election strategy that identified pick up opportunities—for instance, Indiana—that no one saw.
With his election, Obama has transformed America. Never again will it be credible for anyone to tell a little black boy that he cannot grow up to be president. This does not mean that racism has disappeared from American life. But no one can say racism has a veto on political change. Indeed, in the key swing states of Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia, those who said that race was a factor in their vote went for Obama by significant margins.
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