Lord Alderdice praises Barack Obama on Inauguration Day
"Not since John F Kennedy's victory in 1960 has there been a US election result even remotely like this. We have a thoughtful, intelligent, charismatic leader…but much more than this, by electing the first African-American to the White House, the people of the United States have signaled that they, like so many people across the world, want to see a new kind of politics. Americans have proven to the world that they are ready to cast off past intolerances; ready to create new possibilities for a better world than we have seen in the last tragic decade. The election of a man to the most powerful position in the world, who only a generation ago would have been considered an outsider in his own country, has proven that America is ready to embrace change and help us all move forward with hope into the 21st century. The inauguration of Barack Obama makes this the best day liberals and democrats across the world have known since the day the Berlin Wall came down."
Endorsed by the National Democratic Committee in August, at an event attended by Lord Alderdice, Deputy President Hans Van Baalen, Vice President Bi-Khim Hsiao and Secretary General Emil Kirjas, Mr. Obama is expected to represent a return to the traditional, liberal democratic values enshrined in the American Constitution.
Liberals and democrats around the world praised Mr. Obama as publicized in the Special Edition of the Liberal International e-news - http://www.liberal-international.org/editorial.asp?ia_id=1750
The foreign affairs arm of the Democratic Party, the National Democratic Institute, is a cooperating organisation of Liberal International.
