“It has been a long time coming, but tonight, because of what we did on this day, in this election, at this defining moment, change has come to America.”
When Ohio had swung to the Democrats hours earlier that November 4th night, Barack Hussein Obama quietly turned to his campaign manager.
“So it looks like we’re going to win this thing, huh?” All year, he promised his country, “Yes we can,” and throughout 2008 the world waited to see if the “skinny kid with a funny name” really could.
Many thought it profoundly unlikely. “Barack” is Swahili derived from Arabic; Hussein was a grandson of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him); and “Obama” rhymes with “Osama.”
“That’s not a name,” marveled The New Yorker, “it’s a catastrophe.”
But in a year that would make history for economic catastrophe, they turned out to be the happiest three words.
During its early months, it seemed as if the year was holding its breath, aware that something was coming, but not sure what. George Bush would be gone, but who would take his place?
In the calm before the storm, one wondered what would happen with the credit crunch, and whether the wealth the world had known would survive.
When the financial storm finally hit, it struck with such pitiless force that no one yet knows what will be left when it subsides.
But it blew a wind of change through the White House that was celebrated all over the world.
