Editorial: Obama's elephant

Whether or not he makes it to the White House, Barack Obama has already made history as the first African-American to win the nomination of a major party for the presidency. The son of an immigrant, and a man whose grandmother still lives in a Kenyan village, Mr Obama has shown there is a reality behind the hype that the United States is a nation where dreams can be fulfilled.

However, it would be foolish to believe he faces no extra obstacles in his campaign or that all Americans embrace their founding creed that all men are created equal. Race will remain the elephant in the room in the presidential contest as it did in the Democratic primaries. Many Americans still believe the White House is no place for a black man. That view is seldom, if ever, expressed publicly, but may find voice in the polling booth, and it is notable that Mr Obama struggled in the primaries to get the support of Hispanics, white working- class men and ageing voters.

Nor will his observation during the primary season on "bitter" Pennsylvania voters clinging "to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them" have endeared him to the groups he needs to capture in the November ballot, groups that already find it hard to believe he identifies with their values.

Those are two reasons why, despite widespread disenchantment with President George W Bush, it is foolish to write off the prospect of John McCain doing it again for the Republicans. Mr McCain has much going for him. He is an authentic war hero, who, despite his unwavering support for the US invasion of Iraq has earned the image of a maverick with his advocacy of campaign finance reform and action on climate change.

Even his age – were he to win he would, at 72, be the oldest person to assume the presidency – is not the negative it could be, given that Mr Obama's inexperience is an issue. Americans may well decide that when the telephone rings in the White House at 3am they want a president who has been to war and who has served in, firstly, the Congress and then the Senate since 1982, rather than a man who has gone from the Illinois state senate to running for the White House in just 11 years.

What is certain is that the coming months will see millions upon millions poured into campaigning for a job that pays US$400,000 a year, plus expenses. It is that equation that goes some way to answering Americans who wonder why the rest of the world pays so much attention to their presidential contest.

Whoever moves into the White House on January 20 next year may not get as much money as even a mid-level US executive, but what he will get is the power to change not only American lives, but those of every citizen of every nation.

The world in 2008 would be a very different place if in 2000 Americans had elected a president who believed in multilateralism, who saw global warming as an issue to be addressed, who did not regard the use of torture and long- term detention without trial as acceptable and who had searched for ways to remain at peace rather than for excuses to go to war. It is Americans who chose the president, but it is the world that lives with the consequences of that choice.