Who won?

Despite the convincing victory of Barack Obama, the question, "who won?," remains.

This victory was not only of President-Elect Obama, nor of the Democratic Party, nor of African-Americans, nor even of dark-skinned people the world over -- and I say that knowing that in each of those cases, the victory was immense and, for each, uniquely so. The victory was also one of all Americans, whose credibility in the world had been severely damaged by 8 years of poisonous leadership. For, at the end of the day, it was the American people who had failed twice to prevent Bush from reaching the White House. It was the American people who had failed to give Bush and Cheney the sound beating in the polls that they deserved. This fact hits hard those like myself who live abroad and who have to brave the opinion of "America" and of "Americans" before it is ever a question of winning anyone's opinion over with one's own personal merits. This, and many other things, account for the fact that I busted a tear not only when the news of Obama's victory was announced, nor only when Obama made his acceptance speech, but again and again: when I watched the videos of many spontaneous celebrations in the cities of America (gathered at www.michaelmoore.com on Nov. 5), when I read celebratory opinion pieces from different points of view, when I viewed photos of others crying in joy, when I scanned a series of political cartoons relating to the event, and, at times, when I sat back and pondered what had happened. There was something in that election victory that surpassed not only expectations but that could not be fully anticipated. The elation could be somewhat imagined, abstractly, but the joy was too great for foretasting or prediction. The fact that so many people, for so many different reasons, could rightly feel victorious in this one man's victory created a global vibration of hope and optimism. I know from my own experience of seeing spontaneous joy on the faces of normally reserved Japanese as soon as the victory of Obama was mentioned.

So, to the question, "who won?," I do not pretend to know the answer. It is clear, however, that many did, and that the reasons for which they see themselves as having triumphed are themselves many in nature.

Of course, this is a post of celebration; and in celebrations of victors there is something forgetful and cruel. However, as celebrations come and go, somewhere, the eye of conscience remains fixed. It's my sincere hope that President Obama greatly reduces the numbers of those who for so long have been on the losing end of blind American military power. Some of his policy statements have given hope in that respect; others have done the opposite. May he be something other than a dark-skinned version of the military belligerent and slayer of innocents that other US presidents have been before him.