ELEICOES AMERICANAS: ESTARAO OS AMERICANOS PRONTOS PARA UM PRESIDENTE NEGRO?

Se ate ontem esta era a mais importante questao colocada por analistas do globo inteiro, a resposta parece ter sido inequivoca! SIM! Os eleitores do predominantemente 'branco' e Republicano estado americano de IOWA responderam em unissono! O democrata Barack Obama nao apenas venceu em Iowa como convenceu! A candidata 'natural' dos democratas, Hilary Clintou quedou-se pelo terceiro lugar, depois de John Edwards, um 'veterano' nestas andancas!

Sera desta vez que teremos um negro na Casa Branca? Ainda e cedo pois a corrida apenas comecou e faltam ainda 49 estados por percorrer! Mas como alguem dizia, as grandes caminhadas comecam sempre com um primeiro passo! E Barack ja deu esse grande primeiro passo, que certamente ficara registado nos anais da historia! A poderosa maquina Clintoniana conseguira dar volta a Iowa? Os Republicanos conseguiram limpar a nodoa Bushiana na governacao americana? A subida do preco do barril do petroleo influenciara o processo? E o Iraque? Sera a economia a grande determinante ou a politica externa?! Conseguira Obama mudar o mapa politico americano? Para quem votarao os Afro-americanos? Para Hilary ou para Obama? E as mulheres? Para ja a famosissima Winfrey Ophrah, entre a sua feminidade e africanidade decidiu pela cor da pele ou seja vota em Barack Obama! Tentaremos responder a estas e outras questoes ao longo desta caminhada! Estaremos aqui para acompanhar esta longa caminhada a Casa Branca! O proximo passo? New Hampshire!

Sera desta vez que o sonho do Reverendo Martin Luther King Jr. se materializara? A ver vamos.

Para ja ai vao mais pormenores do embate de ontem fornecidos pela Assocated Press:

Analysis: Obama shows a black can win
By NEDRA PICKLER, Associated Press Writer Fri Jan 4, 1:35 AM ET
WASHINGTON - Democrat Barack Obama has put to rest the question of whether a black presidential candidate can win in white America.

His victory in 95 percent white Iowa proved that he could appeal across racial lines and even draw women away from Hillary Rodham Clinton despite her push for them to make her the first female president. Next he'll try to build on his record in New Hampshire, which is 96 percent white.
Obama did not appeal so openly to make history as the first black to occupy the Oval Office; he rarely mentioned that he was black.
"You've got to have hope if you are a black man named Obama running for the presidency of the United States of America," Obama said during a late-night campaign stop two days before the caucus. It was one of his rare mentions of what he had to overcome.
Obama's candidacy has been dogged by questions about whether he'd be electable against a Republican. Pressed on that during a campaign stop in New Hampshire over the summer, Obama said his race would be an asset because it would bring blacks to the polls in record numbers and give the Democrats victories in Southern states that have been voting Republican for decades.
"I'm probably the only candidate who, having won the nomination, can actually redraw the political map," Obama said at the time. "I guarantee you African-American turnout, if I'm the nominee, goes up 30 percent around the country, minimum. Young people's percentage of the vote goes up 25-30 percent. So we're in a position to put states in play that haven't been in play since LBJ."
Lyndon Baines Johnson ran for president in 1964 and won in a landslide. But since then the South has turned into a Republican stronghold.
Obama's prediction about black voter turnout can't be tested in Iowa or New Hampshire, but young voters did come to the polls in larger numbers.
Nearly a quarter of Democratic caucus-goers interviewed in the entrance poll were under 30 years old, a jump from 2004. Obama got 57 percent of the vote from the under-30 crowd, compared with just 14 percent for 2004 vice presidential nominee John Edwards and 11 percent for Clinton. Twenty-eight percent of Obama's support came from the under-30 set, according to a survey of voters entering the caucuses by The Associated Press and the television networks.
Obama also won the greatest percentages of independents, first-time caucus-goers, self-identified liberals and, most troubling for Clinton, women. Obama got 35 percent of women voters, compared to 30 percent for Clinton and 23 percent for Edwards. This despite the fact that Clinton focused her campaign on bringing fellow women to the polls.
Rev. Jesse Jackson took note that "this is the 40th year since the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. Tonight he would proud of Barack, proud of Iowa and proud of America."
Democratic consultant Jamal Simmons said Obama's victory "proves that America is changing when it comes to race and politics."
"Winning in Iowa is not winning the nomination, but is very significant," Simmons said. "Tonight Barack Obama has made it more true that every black child in America can do whatever they want to if they work hard for it — really."