Hope

Tonight as we have been watching the election results come in, there is the sense that for the American electorate, hope has won out over fear, that statesmanship has won out over isolationism, that forward movement has won out over the politics of the last eight years. There is much difficulty ahead, but America has voted a president into office who intends to restore our role at home and our place on the world stage as an agent for progress. There will be much to discuss and debate over what this means, but after one of the most brutal campaigns that my generation has been witness to, the message of hope has prevailed. That alone restores a great deal of my belief in the future of America and American policy on the world stage. The picture that that has triumphed in this democratic spectacle is one of hope.

After the presidential election in 2004 if someone would have told me that in this election I would be voting for an African American president, and one who shares my Kenyan heritage, I could never have believed it to be true.