News - Change has come

Obama, the Hawaiian-born son of a man from Kenya and a woman from Kansas, won an Electoral College landslide to capture the Republican-controlled White House and with it sent millions of people from throughout the nation and world into an emotional celebration on the historic night.

This same type of intensity could be seen here in Saratoga Springs on Tuesday as approximately 115 people from the group Saratogians for Obama gathered at the Masie Center to make phone calls to swing states across the nation and another 500 people showed up at the Gideon Putnam to await the highly anticipated results.

“I am proud of the country and the people in Saratoga who did an incredible amount of work,” Elliott Masie, local business owner and organizer of SaratogiansforObama, said.

Masie said he felt enormously proud of the result and relieved that the long election process was finally over. However, he did find the victory a sobering moment because of the tough times that face Obama, the next administration and the country.

“As much as we are all celebrating right now, Obama told the country some tough news Tuesday night,” he said.

Obama’s historic rise as the first African-American president was also a moment Masie said he had once doubted he would ever see in his lifetime.

“More than even being the first African-American president he is the first racially blended president, which is something that you see more and more in the American people of today,” he said. “He reflects a lot of what this country is about through his blend, his youth, his intelligence and his understanding of today’s America. He is a political athlete.”

Masie, who held federal roles in both the Clinton and Bush administrations, said he has already received calls to help out with transitioning Obama and the new administration into the White House. He said although he plans to help out with this period he is not interested in taking on a formal role in the administration.

In terms of how the new administration will look, Masie said you are going to see a mix of relatively unknown and familiar faces who were effective during the Clinton years, including roles for a few Republicans and individuals from the business sector.

“It is an exciting moment,” he said.

Masie believes the first thing you will see Obama do as president is appoint an economic team and institute a recovery plan. Next he will address not just how to get us out of Iraq, but how to gauge other countries so we can get out of the war effectively. And finally he will look directly and clearly at infrastructure, which will in turn help to create jobs for millions of Americans.

“He will tell us tough news and it will be a change to have a president that will speak the truth to the American public,” he said.

Saratoga County Republican chairman Jasper Nolan said he was disappointed with the outcome of the election, but that he and the rest of the party are now united behind Obama although they do not necessarily agree with the direction he may take the country.

“People will expect that he has the power and will to change America, but what kind of changes he will make are still a mystery,” he said. “He has raised the bar and I am counting on him to do the right thing for the nation.”

Obama’s historic victory comes just 40 years after Martin Luther King’s assassination and 45 years after the civil rights leader’s “I Have a Dream” speech. At the age of 47 he becomes the fourth-youngest president in American history. However, with two wars being fought overseas and economic pressures that have not faced the country in decades, the hope for change that he has instilled in millions of Americans throughout his campaign will now have to be transformed from rhetoric into action.