Barack Obama Wins the Battle But the War is not over Yet!

Finally the 16 month old suspense is over and now we actually know who will be the Democratic nominee for the US presidential election in 2008. Every body seems to be very happy ,specially the Blacks as they finally have a nominee with whom they can relate to. But they should not loose the focus as Mr. Obama has only won a battle of a long WAR. The road to White House is still a distant dream and even if He makes it to the Chair of President, fulfilling all the promises he has made will even more be difficult.

The cat and mouse battle between Mr. Obama and Mrs. Clinton came to a rather surprising end. Surprising, because a Black being nominated as the presidential candidate in a country where apartheid prevailed not so far in history; and even today the Blacks find it difficult to place themselves at par with the Whites, is a surprise. But I would thank Mrs. Clinton for putting up a brave fight and coming this far which made the contest even more interesting and thrilling from the neutral point of view. Every time Obama looked certain to win, she came back! This is reflected in the margin of victory also. In 56 Primaries Obama won 1767 to Hillary’s 1640 , which is narrow by any standards. This narrowness of the margin is even making things harder for the Clinton camp to accept defeat. But it would be wiser for Mrs. Clinton to accept defeat and support Obama gracefully. But the Real War begins now !

The war between Mr. Obama and Mr. McCain. But the real war will be within himself and his self belief that He CAN do it. Given the condition of America be it The war with Iraq, The economic gloom, and the flow of current behind the Democrats , a win in November will be quite easy. But before that he has a great work at hand of uniting the Democrats supporters who have been divided due to the battle with Mrs Clinton. And this , mind you, will not be easy. Many Democrat supporters who were routing for Clinton have decided to vote for McCain instead if Obama becomes the Democrats nominee. More over Mr. Obama’s own past can come between him and White House. If he can overcome these and put aside the rumours floating on Internet about him being a Muslim and sympathiser of terrorists, he can surely make history of opening the gate of “WHITE”house for the Blacks.

 The road ahead of Obama is not an easy one. He has made it this far and awakened the hopes of millons accross the country. People , who have long been supressed are looking forward to their moment of glory. If Obama does not succeed in making the cut, a million hopes will come crushing down. The “Change” he has promised will again not come and most importantly it will be like a hammerblow to the selfbelief of The Blacks.

Myself being an Indian, my heart routs for Mr. Obama as my own countrymen have also faced the same menace of apartheid in the pre-independence era. Come on Obama bring the CHANGE you have promised , The world is waiting to see the emergence of new America.