For a nation that gave its black population the right to vote just 44 years ago and for a nation that found it hard to digest the civil rights movement, to overwhelmingly elect a leader who is half black, has the middle name of “Hussein”, and just one term as a senator, is to my mind a turning point in US politics and perhaps its future.

President Bush’s approval ratings are the lowest for any president at the end of his term, so President-elect Obama will have very high expectations to meet. Obama’s surfacing on the national scene and his campaign has been a fairytale story of sorts. The tougher battle has no doubt been to win the nomination in the Democratic primaries. To have been able to take on the might of the Clinton electoral machinery itself was a sign that Barack Obama had it in him to go all the way. Now that history is made, the world’s attention will be on the first few steps he will take once he formally takes the oath of office in January 2009.

Obama has got resounding support from the Indian community in the US, both in raising election funds and getting votes. While not too much has been said by him about India specifically but he has repeatedly said that he will continue to support better relations with India. With eight years of Clinton and eight years of Bush as president, in spite of both presidencies being remarkably different, the one issue that remained unchanged and perhaps only got strengthened was the Indo-US relationship.

... contd.