After Obama's victory, we're all American cheerleaders now

Nov 9 2008 Elaine C. Smith

AS the legendary Sam Cooke sang, A Change Is Gonna Come...and on Tuesday it did just that.

I couldn't stop crying when I heard Barack Obama had won the US presidential election.

It was an amazing feeling that lasted all day.

I was so proud of America, a feeling I never had during the Bush years.

The Calendar Girls opened a bottle of champagne after the show to toast Obama with a "Yes we can" cheer.

I only watched the election coverage until 3am because I had a matinee next day.

But I was terrified things would be like the last time.

I went to bed four years ago thinking the Democrats had won and woke up to find George W Bush was still in the White House.

I cried that day too, but for a different reason.

The enormity of what American voters have done is still sinking in.

The land of opportunity, of freedom and dreams, is back on track. America and the rest of the world have hope again.

By no means do I think Obama is the new Superman - as some seem to believe.

Nor do I forecast that things will work out fantastically well for him any time soon.

He has a huge task ahead with wars on two fronts and an economy in tailspin.

But the feeling is the USA is no longer going backwards. No longer looking to the ways of the past to solve the problems of the future.

The election of a black man to the Oval Office is something I thought I would never live to see.

I was 10 when civil rights leader Martin Luther King was killed - and the tragedy stays with me.

So what must it mean to ordinary African Americans to see one of their own become the 44th president of the USA?

For the young it must be transforming.

In a world still run by middleaged white men they must have felt they would never succeed.

But Obama has smashed that view.

For older people this must be the realisation of what seemed an impossible dream.

The dream of Martin Luther King has been fulfilled...that people would transcend race and vote for the man or woman, not for their colour.

What must these older people feel like today?

Many of these black voters had taken photos of their parents and grandparents into the voting booths with them. I found that so moving.

But make no mistake, it was white people who made the difference and they voted for Obama in their millions.

They voted for hope and only in America can that sort of dream come true. Dreams are not just for the white people or the rich.

And America has recaptured its ability to dream.

As Churchill said: "Americans can always be counted on to do the right thing.

"After they have exhausted all other possibilities."