Scotland’s first black president

We woke up this morning to find out that yesterday was a historic day. Americans voted for Barack Obama to be their new president and of course the first ever black president.

The colour of the mans skin makes it a more important date for the history books, but I’m just hoping that under his leadership America can start to play a more positive and inclusive role in the world especially on the environment.

I wonder what it must feel like for Obama to wake up this morning? He’s got quite a lot to live up to. After 8 years of George Bush he’s being hailed as some kind of superhero (which he hasn’t really played down).

Well, I don’t think that he’s going to put on a cape, swoop into the oval office on his first day and send an email that brings peace to the middle east, but I am excited by the fact that we have a young and positive attitude in one of the most important positions in the world.

Anyway, I would have voted for him purely on the basis off his cool campaign posters…

Not wanting to feel left out, we Scots immediately took the chance to point out that the “First Black President of America (TM)” is in fact Scottish. The Scottish version of Barack Obama, Alex Salmond, welcolmed the president back to Scotland for the year of home coming in 2009.

The fact that the next president was going to be Scottish was a bit of a shoo-in as according to this piece in the Telegraph, both candidates are related to William the Lion, the monarch who ruled Scotland from 1165 to 1214.

We Scots are a bit funny this way. We like to say “Wha’s like us? Gie few an they’re aw deid!” and then point out all the top people who are actually Scottish (and then we go on to remind you that we invented EVERYTHING…)

We can do this because it’s true.