In winning today’s Presidential election, Barack Obama has provided the world with the opportunity for a new beginning and his country with the opportunity to put the disastrous Bush years behind it.

Under George Bush, the world had become confused, stalled and disillusioned.

George W Bush misled the world about his reasons for invading Iraq, betrayed the moral authority of the free world with his endorsement of torture and the establishment of Guantanamo Bay and abandoned his own people during Hurricane Katrina.

And, if you recall, he undermined democracy by stealing the 2000 election and undid decades of progress for gay and lesbian rights by using the issue of gay marriage to turn out the Republican base in his 2004 re-election effort.

Bill Clinton left Bush with a budget in surplus, a strong economy and a relatively peaceful world.  W’s legacy will be a global recession, two mismanaged wars and a collection of rogue States on the rise.

The 43rd President of the United States was a dud.  We knew he would be eight years ago, and we were right.

It is no secret that I wanted Hillary Clinton to become President today.  I am a child of the 1990s and Bill represents something better than Bush – the prosperous dot.com era that brought us Middle East peace (albeit briefly) and plenty of reasons to celebrate the millennium. 

However, there is a quality to Obama’s victory that Hillary couldn’t have delivered and that is the amazing sense of global unity and purpose that we have witnessed today

I had a hint of this earlier this year when I was in the United States.  I was participating in a study tour with 20 others, each of us from different countries.

We were studying US trade policy, but we were in the US during the primary season (Hillary merchandise had just been reduced to half price) and, naturally, we talked a lot of politics.

Something that surprised me at the time was the fact that, while we all wanted a Democrat to win the Presidency, only I wanted Hillary to be that Democrat – everyone else wanted Obama.

To much of the world, the Obama ascendancy represents far more than left defeating right, Democrat defeating Republican or the end of the Bush era.  To much of the world, Obama’s election signals a new America, a more outward looking America and a more tolerant, compassionate and believable America.

For much of the world, the fact that an African American can become President of the United States makes it possible for them to engage with the United States, on equal terms.

For much of the world, Obama’s election is validation.

Hillary Clinton would have been an outstanding President who would have got down to work on her first day in the White House, knowing exactly what she wanted to do and how to do it.

However, despite all of her qualities, it is unlikely that Hillary’s election would have elicited the same emotional outpouring that we saw today.

A successful politician needs to be able to do two things.  First, they need to be able to do the job; and, second, they need to be able to bring people with them.

Barack Obama has shown an unprecedented capacity to inspire and mobilise political support and this is the quality that has given the world this amazing opportunity of a fresh start.

However, it is Obama’s capacity to do the job that will impact most on all of our futures, and, in this era of geopolitical and financial instability, let us hope that he is up to it.

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