THREE CHEERS...

.... for Barack Omaba - who else could be the choice in this historic week? The praise the world has lavished on his appeal still does not do justice to his exceptional personal qualities and political acumen. It is as if the whole history of the struggle of black Americans to win equality and respect has been compressed into a single man's story. The sight of the veteran black campaigner Jesse Jackson openly in tears as he listened to Obama's speech in Chicago after the race had been won told us everything about what the victory meant to generations past and will mean to generations to come. Yet Obama never made race an issue in his campaign; he stood as a representative of a new generation of Americans who wanted change from exhausted past politics. He also allowed his own concerns and character to show despite the discipline of an election campaign - the hurt he felt when his trusted Chicago pastor ran politically amuck, and his simple decision to visit his grandmother before her death.