History made, Obama faces his toughest test
Published 7:59 pm Tuesday, November 4, 2008
President-elect Barack Obama.
The joining of that title with that name represents a turning point in U.S. history that few Americans over 40 ever expected to see. An African-American has been elected president of the United States.
It’s a breathtaking accomplishment to John Lovick, who last year became the first African-American to be elected Snohomish County sheriff. On Tuesday, Lovick recalled that it was just 38 years ago that on a trip back home to Louisiana after joining the Coast Guard, he visited a small movie theater — in his military uniform — and had to sit in the segregated section upstairs.
Lovick also noted, with understandable joy, that his 97-year-old grandmother is alive to witness this historic event.
At the same time, though, he marveled at the relative absence of race as an issue from the presidential campaign. “(The pundits) have tried to make something of it, but America is settling down and looking for competence, not what we’ve focused on before,” Lovick said.
Surely John McCain deserves some credit for proactively rejecting the use of race a campaign issue, but Lovick’s point is well taken. And Obama’s competence will be tested mightily as he takes on some of the greatest challenges America has faced: a financial crisis accompanied by a smothering national debt, two wars, the continuing threat of terrorism, a broken health-care system, the urgency to shape a new national energy strategy.
Obama must work quickly to make good on a central theme of his campaign: ending the partisan bitterness that has paralyzed the political process in Washington, D.C. The problems our nation faces are far too thorny to be solved solely from the left; Obama must govern from the center, surrounding himself with the smartest, most capable men and women the nation can offer. An important way to start will be to bring some leading Republicans into his administration, and commit to taking their counsel seriously.
To be sure, America turned a significant historical page Tuesday. But Obama’s success as president, or lack of it, will have nothing to do with his race. It will have everything to do with his ability to solve problems, to build bipartisan consensus and to inspire the best in all of us.
All Americans have a huge stake in his success.
