However, while the world awaits the next President of the United States, the history of presidential election of the country is already recording great changes and history. In the Republican Party, for instance, two of John McCain’s rivals would have made history had they beaten him. Rudy Giuliani, the Mayor of New York is an Italian American and would have made history as the first Italian American candidate in a U.S presidential election.

Mitt Romney, the former Governor of Massachusetts was vying to be the first candidate of the Mormon faith. But Sarah Palin’s nomination as the Vice Presidential candidate  makes her the first woman to be so nominated on the platform of the Republican and the second in 24 years after Geraldine Ferraro who was nominated on the platform of the Democratic Party in 1984.

Of all the major contenders in the Democratic Party, Governor Bill Richardson of New Mexico vied to become the first Mexican American candidate, while Hilary Clinton nearly became the first woman to be nominated as the flag bearer of a major political party. However, Barrack Obama is one candidate that has made the 2008 U.S presidential election extraordinary.

It is not just that no black person had  ever been a serious contender  before Obama; it is even more historic that he is not the son of an  African-American. Obama is the son  of an African who was brought to America in the 1960s by the Kennedy Airlift, set up to give young Kenyans an American college education.

Another historic twist is that when Obama declared his interest, more African-Americans, especially among the political leadership, supported Hilary Clinton than him. While most believed he could not win, a few thought he wasn’t black enough since neither of his parents was descended from those who had overcome the stigma of second class citizenship.

Also, he, as rightly pointed out by Ambassador Carrington during his lecture tour of Lagos and Abuja organised by the United States Embassy in Nigeria was that Obama was going up against the wife of the man whom the black American Nobel Laureate novelist, Toni Morrison had declared the first President because of Bill Clinton’s record number of black appointees to high offices. Ironically, and historically again, Obama’s campaign had been launched in a nearly all white State of Iowa. Only when Obama proved that he could win white votes and might be a viable contender, after all, did African-Americans sway to his side.

The 2008 presidential election is the first time two sitting Senators will run against each other. It is also promising to be the first time since the election of John Kennedy in 1960, 48 years ago that a sitting Senator will be elected President of the United States of America and the third time in the U.S history after John Kennedy and Warren Harding.

It is the first time candidates of the two major parties were people born outside the continental United States of America. Obama was born in Honolulu in Hawaii admitted into the Union as the 50th State on August 21, 1959, while, McCain, a natural American, was born in Coco Solo, in the U.S Naval base of Panama Canal Zone. With the last consecutive two-term administrations being the Democratic-Republican succession triad of Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and James Monroe from 1801 to 1825, the new president will be the first in 184 years to take office after multiple consecutive two-term administrations.

Again, with 24 years and 340 days separating relatively young Obama and 72 year old McCain, the 2008 election has the largest age disparity between two major candidates, surpassing the 23 years and 28 days that separated Bill Clinton and Bob Dole in the 1996 election. Furthermore, it marks the first time since 1928 that no incumbent President or Vice President ran for their party’s nomination and the first time since 1952 that that none of them is a candidate in a major election. Incumbent Vice President, Dick Cheney is content with serving his country as the second most powerful citizen. On the presidential race he said:  “If nominated, I will not run; if elected, I will not serve.”

On the Republican side, John McCain has already made history as the oldest man ever to run for the United States presidency. The closest was Ronald Reagan, another Republican, who was 73 years old when he ran for the second term. If elected he would become the oldest person to occupy the White House in his first term. 

He would also become the first prisoner of war  since Andrew Jackson as well as the first person from the State of Arizona to be elected president. His running mate, Sarah Palin, would become the first female Vice President, hence keeping the hopes and possibilities of an  American female President alive. She would be  expected to realise the dreams of Victoria Claflin Woodhull in 1872 and Belva Ann Bennett Lockwood in 1884 and 1888 that both ran unsuccessfully on the platforms of the Equal Rights Party.

On the Democratic side, an Obama victory would make his Vice Presidential candidate, Joe Bidden, the longest serving Senator in U.S history to become a first term Vice President, having served for the last 36 years and the first Roman Catholic to be elected Vice President. But most important is that an Obama  presidency would rewrite the U.S history in a most profound way. With a Kenyan father of the Luo ethnic group and a white mother the American Heartland State of Kansas, Obama, if elected would become not only the first African American but the first biracial President of the United States of America.

The bottom line, however, is that irrespective of how the election turns out, the history of the United States of America, and, perhaps, the world will never remain the same after 20th January, 2008 when the President-elect would be inaugurated.

Like none before it, this election drives home Martin Lurther King’s dream of a country that would live out the true meaning of her creed -that all men were created equal; of a nation where the sweltering heat of injustice and oppression would be transformed into oasis of freedom and justice. It is a great example for the world, especially racially, ethnically, and religiously divided democracies the world over, an historic demonstration and gravitation towards the brotherhood of humanity, especially the truth that all men are born  equal and deserve all the rights intrinsic in their humanity. The world should emulate this.


*The copy was sent in before the election.

 Mr . Anichukwu, a commentator on national issues, writes from Lagos.

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