Oh yes they did!

I remember waking up on the morning after Labour won by a landslide in the 1997 election and feeling like everything was all going to be different. I got that same feeling yesterday, that somehow things aren't going to be the same.

It is an exciting new world we're in. But, to be honest, I'm less excited about Barack Obama being black. I'm much more excited about the stature of the man, indeed by the content of his character. I won't deny that during the Primaries I wanted Hillary more. I like her and I think she'd make a decent President. But Barack is also pretty hard to disagree with, if you're of the centre ground.

The smartest person I have ever met is someone I worked with in America. Hands down he was it. He listened before he spoke, and when he spoke you knew he had listened. When I hear Obama I am reminded of him, nevermind that they were about as different as you could get - in appearance, politics, age, the works. But I think that's what  it is about Barack Obama too, he seems listen. I have watched my fair share of political punditary over the last few days and that seems to be what they are saying too.

But back to the colour issue. In these last few days, it has sometimes come across that we are surprised that America has voted for a black man, as if somehow a black person couldn't do the job. It shouldn't be the issue, it shouldn't matter. And yet, somehow it can't go unmentioned.

I watched Oprah a while ago when she re-united the cast members of 'The Cosby Show' (I know, talk about high brow). But what Bill Cosby said was interesting, he said it was the first show in America that put a 'normal' middle class black family on TV. In the 1980s?! 

If you saw any of the people in Grant Park on Tuesday night, in the emotion in their faces and in their interviews with reporters you'll have seen what this should mean to every American. It is the ultimate example in showing that there is no limit to what someone can achieve, and that it will not be determined by the colour of your skin. And I guess if you've gone through the hard years, these next four look pretty good.

I hope that in four years time, Americans won't have the same feeling I have now when I hear the words 'New Labour', or (so help me) D:ream's 'Things Can Only Get Better', when a little bit of me groans and my eyes roll skyward because it didn't turn out how we'd hoped.