The Results of the 2008 American Election

I first went to America in 1985, and the most haunting thing about my visit was queueing in the bar at Heathrow some time before the flight departure. For some reason there was a problem behind the bar, and the (black) barman had disappeared to sort it out. The man in front of me turned round, then looked at me and said, in an American accent: 'He's probably gone to climb up a tree.'

It wasn't just what he said that I found deeply offensive, but also the fact that this man should assume that I shared his views.

Fortunately the world has moved on a great deal since then, and last night is a major indication of that move.

Pre-Election Warm-Up, Main Street, Carbondale, Illinois, September 2004; or, Lionel Britton and Barack Obama

On this side of the road stand the Republicans, on the other the Democrats. The former hoped for a second Bush term; the latter (as the buttons yelled) hoped to 're-defeat Bush'. Many Democrats woke up with sore heads after the result.

On the flight back from Chicago to Heathrow, I sat next to a university librarian: my precious hand luggage was crammed with photocopies from the Lionel Britton Collection at Southern Illinois University, whereas he was hoping to bag a number of books by obscure Scandinavian writers. He was reading an autobiography by a guy I'd never heard of: Barack Obama. Senator Obama was wowing them in Chicago, I learned, but I was very dubious about the president thing. 'Do you really think America is ready for a black president?' I asked him. He did. I now believe he's right.

So let's hope that America gets it right this time. Although – as I've suggested way down below somewhere – I hope too that, after a possible two terms, history really will be kind to Obama and see him as far more than a symbol of change.