Opinion round up of historic Obama win

November 5, 4:06 PMPolitics RoundupJay Keller

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Obama supporters celebrate at the White House on November 4 after news of the president-elect's victory is announced. (Copyright Peter B. Forman Photography)

There's no doubt that President-Elect Barack Obama's sweep in Tuesday's presidential vote is historic on so many levels. Every American, no matter the party affiliation or point of view, has an opinion about the impact of such a wide margin of victory or having the first African-American elected to the White House. Moreover, the world reaction is stunning as well.

That said, here's a round up of editorials from across the U.S. and other foreign news agencies, courtesy of Real Clear Politics:

Chicago Tribune: "On Feb. 12, Americans will celebrate the birthday of their most important and most beloved president. Abraham Lincoln entered the world on that date in 1809 in a cabin near Hodgenville, Ky.

His bicentennial would be an important occasion under any circumstances. But it will carry even greater symbolic significance because of something scheduled to happen three weeks earlier: the inauguration of Barack Obama as president of the United States."

Chicago Sun-Times: "As we absorb the significance of this election, bleary-eyed from staying up late to witness history in the making, we are not naive. We know that one election, monumental as it is, has not transported us into a post-racial America, lovely as that might be. But we do find ourselves, in the phrase of culture critic Stanley Crouch, in a "post-simplistic" America. All the old ways of thinking about race are called into question."

Washington Post: "Like so many millions of Americans, we savor the phrase, and congratulate the winner, and celebrate the momentousness of the occasion. It is momentous for the generational change it heralds, the geographic realignment it reflects and the racial progress it both acknowledges and promises. Most of all, Mr. Obama's victory is momentous for the opportunity it presents to put the country on a new and better path, imbued, as he said last night, with a new spirit of patriotism, service and responsibility."

New York Times: "This is one of those moments in history when it is worth pausing to reflect on the basic facts:"

Wall Street Journal: "Hearty congratulations to President-elect Barack Obama. The American electorate has handed him and his fellow Democrats the kind of sweeping victory they haven't had since at least 1976 and in certain respects since 1964. We'll now find out if the Democratic Party has learned anything since the last two times it held all the levers of power in Washington."

Los Angeles Times: "With victories in Democratic strongholds and historic Republican redoubts -- Virginia, of all places -- Barack Obama can rightfully assert a national mandate, one he will need to confront the difficulties ahead."

New York Post: "This is a tribute to how far the nation has progressed since the days of Bull Connor's fire-hoses and George Wallace's ugly rhetoric.

But it's even more a tribute to Barack Obama, who began this campaign as a longshot even for the Democratic nomination."

USA Today: "President-elect Obama has already moved the nation forward in a way that would have been almost unthinkable in the not-too-distant past. It's appropriate to pause today to savor how far both he and the United States have come. But the real test is just beginning, for Obama and for both parties in Congress. Where they move the country in the months ahead will be crucial; just as important is whether they manage to do it together."

Boston Globe: The election of Barack Obama as America's 44th president ushers in not just a new and decisively different direction for the United States, but also a new kind of politics: more decentralized, entrepreneurial, and grassroots, and with a reconfigured electoral map that lays waste to old notions of red states and blue.

Detroit News: "You don't need to have cast a ballot for Sen. Barack Obama Tuesday to appreciate the enormous significance of his victory in the presidential contest."

Philadelphia Inquirer: "The election of Barack Obama as the nation's first African American president is a dramatic step forward for sensible leadership, for national unity, and for America's improved standing in the world."

Times of London: "The election of Barack Obama, the son of a Kenyan goatherd, as the 44th President of the United States of America is a moment to savour, proof that the promise of a better day, expressed in prose that rises like poetry, can still carry an electorate."

Daily Telegraph: "President-elect Barack Obama. A year ago, few would have thought it possible. Mr Obama needed not only to defeat Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination, an immense task in itself, but overcome prejudice about his race and concerns about his lack of experience to take the White House. In doing so, he has evinced the sort of self-confidence and level-headedness that he will need in abundance in the four difficult years that lie ahead."

Globe & Mail: "It will be an enormous, almost impossible task for Barack Obama to meet the expectations that greet his election as the 44th president of the United States. But whatever his achievements in the White House, he has already achieved something remarkable in his path to it. Against all odds, he has restored lustre to American democracy, making it once again an inspiration to the world."

National Post: "As Americans wake up on Wednesday, they will be making their acquaintance with a new country. We honestly do not know what kind of president Barack Obama will be, but we do know that just by attaining the presidency, he has breathed fresh life into the American project. The stain of racism — the original sin at the heart of the world's pre-eminent nation — is now that much closer to erasure."

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