The world is not enough

James BondJames Bond's family motto (from the eponymous film) is probably the least auspicious title for a post on the US election but there is a good reason for this. Less than ten years ago we all dared to look towards Christmas and the biggest party of the century because as all four figures changed in the annual calendar we hoped, yep hoped, that something bright, shiny and new would come of it. A fresh new century that would somehow allow us to spring into the future with a clean slate.

9/11 (and the conspiracy theories that have grown around it) put the first nail in the coffin of that notion. The lies surrounding the Iraq war and the reasons why it had to happen added the rest. So, why is the US election so important? We are in the grip of what may turn out to be a global recession, oil is running out and the word security amidst some of the most hi-tech surveillance methods employed by so-called democratic governments, has never been more than a misnomer.The 21st century has turned out to be a place where the challenges are bigger, slicker, bolder and more dangerous and the solutions are, so far, thin on the ground.

The reason why so much hangs on the balance right now is that the choice of mullet-wearing, gun-totting, lumberjack-shirted guys (and their girls) has the power to decide the fate of our world. The US election right now is not between McCain and Obama but rather between what America is and what it, possibly, might be able to be.

Obama, hype apart, seems to be the closest we have ever seen of a US Presidential candidate who sounds like he should be in the hit series 'The West Wing' and that is what most of us want of our leaders. A chance to feel that, for once, there is someone in charge who can try to make a real difference.

Many think that Obama can make history because he is going to be, if elected, America's first black president, one of the youngest presidents, a president who showed what can be achieved if people are allowed to hope.

Perhaps. He might make history because of all of this or some of it. For those of us who have listened to his message, though not even directly involved in the voting race, we dare to hope that Obama might be America's most intelligent president for some time. He might, in other words, bring to the Oval Office, the kind of leadership and reason that we have every right to expect from those we elect and which we very seldom get.

The 21st century, without a doubt, is going to continue to throw us curve balls from every direction. That's what happens when you live in the future. But, for once, should the results come right and should Obama win, we might end up with the kind of hope we all felt eight years ago, as the final months of 1999 span into the year 2000. That, in itself, might do more to change history than anything Obama, his age and the colour of his skin, might do.