So Barack Obama was elected as the 44th President of the United States of America yesterday evening and everyone seems to be really happy about it across the globe.

I’m pretty happy as well for some strange reason that I can’t explain. I think it has to do with the fact that things are looking bleak these days and all the blame for this has fallen on the current President, George W. Bush and his government. I read a stat yesterday saying that the state of the economy has been a decent guideline for predicting the election outcome for 80% or so of the past elections. The idea being that if things are going well, the current President (or the person running on behalf of his party) is re-elected. If things are going poorly, the party in control is flipped. Considering that things are the bleakest they’ve been in a long time, it’s no surprise that the country decided on their new leader they way did.

Another big issue was the race of Mr. Obama. I honestly had my doubts regarding the outcome. Would the United States of America actually elect a black man as their President? Have things really come far enough from the days where people of colour weren’t even allowed to use the same washroom as others or sit at the front of a bus? I think reports are showing that there was record voter turnout yesterday. Chances the educated people of America are the ones that made up the difference this time around. I doubt other parts of world really care. Silly Americans.

Anyway, we’ll see what Barack Obama and his government can muster up starting January 20th, 2009.