In the wake of Barack Obama’s victory at the US polls there have been a few annoying, but inevitable comments about Obama’s ethnicity. There are those who, when faced with the weight of popular sentiment around the globe voicing delight in the fact that the US people have finally found the courage to enact a real change in their country’s direction, have felt the need to play some kind of devil’s advocate, and with an unattractive huffiness have claimed that it shouldn’t matter what colour the man is, what matters is whether he’ll actually do a good job of running the country. Ability to govern should be more of a measure of his Presidency than his race. At first glance it’s almost a truism; obviously a person’s ability to govern will be the most important factor in their ability to govern – that doesn’t really need saying. Does it follow that Obama’s various ethnic backgrounds shouldn’t be a consideration? Is democratic government a purely meritocratic institution? Should it be if it isn’t?

There are a few points to make here. First, and by no means least is the presidency of the last 8 years. It would take a wild stretching of facts and leniency of perspective to look at George W. Bush and say he became President of the U.S.A because he was the best person for the job. The sad truth is that electing the best people for the job in any democracy is a precedent that is far from being set, it just doesn’t really happen. Firstly, there is more than a touch of truth in the saying that those who want power are the last people that should have it; then there is the often blatant corruption or inherent unfairness of democratic systems. Add to that voter ignorance and apathy and it’s clear that we’re very lucky to end up with an even vaguely competent leader, let alone a good one. Clearly both those marks were missed by some way with the election of George W. Bush, indeed much of Bush’s popularity apparently stemmed from the fact that he was the kind of bloke you wouldn’t mind having a beer with, rather than his ability to govern wisely.

So will Barack Obama prove to be a competent, capable President? Well, it doesn’t really matter does it? With the exception of accidentally destroying the entire U.S.A with his own nukes, it’s hard to see what he could do that could possibly be any worse than what’s gone before. He is also faced with a country wedged firmly in the economic u-bend, whilst the rest of the world is left to gaze bewildered at the rising tide of their own filth as it gradually spills over the edge of the bowl and onto their over-priced brogues. Barack Obama will not be able to fix this; the ridiculous thing is that some are expecting him to.

So he can’t fix his own country’s problems let alone the world’s, he may yet prove to be an incompetent, poor leader, and it may not even matter. If all that’s true, why, when I woke to the news on the morning of November 5th, did I well-up with tears whilst listening to his victory speech? Why did I feel a genuine tug of hope and optimism in the pit of my stomach? Why did I feel, for the first time in a few years, that humanity may not be doomed to suffer and die horribly and deservingly as a result of its own ignorance? Why does it matter that Barack Obama won?

It matters because his name is Barack Hussein Obama. It matters because he is black. It matters because, for the moment at least, the U.S. is still the richest, most powerful nation on earth, and it matters because the people living there decided to put him in charge. What happens now is almost irrelevant. It doesn’t matter if he’s any good. What matters is that with his victory one more nail was hammered into the coffin of prejudice, ignorance and hatred. That is far more important than any political policy.