Riding into a storm

If I had to pick one word to describe the culmination of the US Presidential race it would be “electric”. From the 240,000 who gathered to hear Obama’s address in Grant Park, to the parties that are still going on in Washington, New York, London, Paris, Berlin, Wherever, there is – and has been – an electricity about this campaign that current British politics can only dream of replicating.

As Fraser and James have noted, that America has elected its first black President is a point for celebration.  But tomorrow – tomorrow America needs to concentrate on the challenges facing the 44^th President. I’m reminded of the final shot of John Ford’s magisterial Young Mr. Lincoln (1939), which shows a pre-Presidential Abe Lincoln riding over a hill, towards a brooding storm cloud in the distance. Obama, now, is riding into his own storm cloud – one of recession, financial crisis, terror threats, and anything else that may be unleashed over the next four years. Will