ABSTRACT
While the results of US presidential elections are big news every election year, Barack Hussein Obama’s election in 2008 was greeted with an especially boisterous fanfare throughout the world. It was the fi rst time US voters had chosen a “Black,” or “African American” president of the United States of America. The fi rst sentence of a New York Times article published on Election Day captured the national enthusiasm:
Barack Hussein Obama was elected the 44th president of the United States on Tuesday, sweeping away the last racial barrier in American politics with ease as the country chose him as its fi rst Black chief executive.
