Obama Surges To Emotional Win In Historic Election Victory

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MICHEL MARTIN, host:

I'm Michel Martin, and this is Tell Me More from NPR News. One of the longest presidential races in American history is over, and history has been made. Barack Obama has become the first African-American to win the White House, the last racial barrier in American politics.

President-Elect BARACK OBAMA (Former Senator, Democrat, Illinois): It's been a long time coming. But tonight, because of what we did on this day in this election, at this defining moment, change has come to America.

(Soundbite of crowd cheering)

MARTIN: That was President-elect Obama at his victory celebration last night in Chicago's Grant Park. He won at least 338 electoral votes and approximately 52 percent of the popular vote, and Americans voted in record numbers. Estimates suggest that more than 130 million people cast ballots in this race, many of them braving the elements and enduring long waits in line.

To talk about the election results from this historic election, we're joined by syndicated columnist Ruben Navarrette. He's a regular contributor to this program. Also with us is Michael Cottman, senior correspondent with blackamericaweb.com. Gentlemen, welcome. Thank you so much for joining us.

Mr. MICHAEL COTTMAN (Senior Correspondent, BlackAmericaWeb.com): Thank you, Michel.

Mr. RUBEN NAVARRETTE (Columnist, San Diego Union-Tribune; Syndicated Columnist, Washington Post Writers Group): Thanks for having us.

MARTIN: Michael Cottman, you were in Chicago last night at the Obama rally in Grant Park. What was it like?

Mr. COTTMAN: It was - Michel, it was a defining moment in American history, a defining and profound moment in American politics. I just saw people walking around just crying, and that's - I was just struck by the tears rolling from the faces of this multi-cultural electorate that President-elect Obama assembled these last 20 months.

African-Americans, whites, Asians, Latinos all coming together to support this candidate, now president-elect. But it was a very moving moment. There were questions about what it means for racial politics in America. Even those questions were being discussed late into the evening after his speech. So, a lot to discuss in the weeks and months and probably years to come. But for the moment, there was just jubilation, a lot of joy, and a lot of anticipation about what an Obama administration will look like and the governing that's needed ahead.

MARTIN: Now, Ruben, Michael's job is to tell us what other people are thinking and feeling. But as a syndicated columnist, I kind of feel like it's OK to ask you what you were thinking and feeling. What was your - what were your impressions last night?

Mr. NAVARRETTE: It was almost, Michel, too big a moment to put into words. It's so - it's such an enormous idea and concept to grasp, and I think even if you're preparing for it, there's nothing that really gets you to that moment where you're experiencing it. There were people who said, well, maybe I saw this coming for weeks and weeks or months and months, and I hoped that this would be - the polls were accurate. But still, it sort of hits you at the very last moment. This is real, and this is happening.

I think that there - I have mixed feelings because I think that there are many reasons why somebody would have voted for Barack Obama or, for that matter, against John McCain. And I think, in a sense, that we should feel very positive and very good about the fact that we've elected the first black president and, frankly, a member of the post-boom generation. There's some debate about what generation Barack Obama falls into. But clearly, in his speeches, he sees himself as post-baby boom. Those are significant developments.

But, in terms of the individual, Barack Obama, he remains this gigantic question mark. So many people have so many questions about him, about his background, about his life. And I think that was something that he - was deliberate, was very deliberate on his part and certainly on his campaign. But I think it left many people, many Americans with a great sense of unease about who it was they were electing president.

MARTIN: OK. Let's talk what we learned from the exit polls. Obama did not win a majority of the white vote. McCain got 55 percent of the white vote. Obama got 43 percent. African-Americans, on the other hand, were 96 percent for Obama. Latinos, 67 percent for Obama. Does this suggest, Michael Cottman, that there still is a racial divide in this country?

Mr. COTTMAN: Absolutely, Michel. The line of demarcation with regards to racial tolerance starts at the dividing line in the South. McCain won - Senator McCain won in Georgia and Louisiana and Alabama and Mississippi and Arkansas. We've talked in great detail over the past several months, while I covered the Obama campaign on the plane and interviewed him a couple of weeks ago. But we talked in great detail about whether whites in the South would come out to support an African-American candidate. And now, we have an answer to that question. There's still work to be done with race and racial politics in this country.

So, it's - we've come a long way, there's no question about it, and again, this was a defining moment. But there's still so far to go because there are clearly, clearly racial divisions in this country, and many people, whites in rural areas, could not still bring themselves to vote for an African-American candidate for president of the United States.

MARTIN: Ruben, I want to hear from you on this, but I do want to point out that Louisiana does have a governor of South Asian background, a non-white governor, its first non-white governor.

Mr. NAVARRETTE: Right, absolutely.

MARTIN: Ruben Navarrette, what's your answer to that question?

Mr. NAVARRETTE: Well, listen. It wasn't that long ago, about nine months ago, that all these smarty-pant pundits in the media, me included, I guess, had said that Latinos would not support an African-American for president, the implication being that Latino voters were racists and wouldn't support a black man for president. And as you said, 67 percent of them supported Barack Obama. It was one case where that conventional wisdom fell flat, among many.

But you know, one group that I've really gotten to know very well in the last six months or so were a bunch of angry white liberals who've come at me every time I've said a critical word about Obama or a positive word about McCain. And I have to remind them that it wasn't that long ago that many of them in states like Pennsylvania were supporting - guess who - Hillary Clinton. And it's fine that after Hillary Clinton didn't make it, they put their chips on Barack Obama, but that doesn't necessarily mean that they were back at a lunch counter, and they're all former freedom riders who were at the bridge at Selma.

I think that a lot of white liberals never supported Barack Obama at the beginning. They went around to supporting him, and that's fine. That doesn't give them the right to be sanctimonious, I think. Because the folks who really deserve credit were the folks who were with Barack Obama from the very beginning. For Latinos, Barack Obama was their third choice. After Bill Richardson, after Hillary Clinton, here comes Barack Obama. So, as someone who - I like to think of myself as being on the side of African-Americans before it was cool and trendy, and so I'm not really, you know, interested in taking a backseat to liberals who tell me otherwise.

MARTIN: Well, I do want to point out to you, Ruben, that African-Americans did not wholeheartedly support Barack Obama at the beginning of this process. The African-Americans were, at the very beginning, evenly divided between...

Mr. NAVARRETTE: Good point. You got it.

MARTIN: Senator Clinton and Senator Obama. Let's talk about the role of education for a minute. Senator Obama nearly tied with John McCain with voters who have some college education. George Bush won this group by 11 points in 2004, and Barack Obama had very strong - was the very strong preference of those who have college degrees. What does that say? Any thoughts, Michael Cottman?

Mr. COTTMAN: I think that what that says is that he's reaching out to this broad base that he talked about, even just months ago, trying to go after, again, this multicultural electorate, going after the middle class, the working class. I think that he was trying to bring everybody under this umbrella.

And I mean, here's a man - what I was struck by, Michel, I just want to add this, that, you know, he got beat up a lot about being a community activist. And it's interesting that in his speeches and even last night, when you read between the lines, here's an old-school community activist who knocked on doors and walked the streets in Chicago.

But what he's asking America to do is, he's asking America, with his vision, to be a coalition of civic activists themselves, to go on doors and to uplift their communities. He's talking about it in an interview with me about fathers stepping up, African-American fathers in particular. So, I think it'll be interesting to see how the country responds to President-elect Obama's call for civic participation after the euphoria wears off.

MARTIN: And briefly, Michael Cottman, we only have a minute left, and I want to hear from both of you - a couple of minutes left. What is Senator Obama's mandate, now President-elect Obama's mandate for the next four years? Michael Cottman.

Mr. COTTMAN: Oh, Ruben - I'm sorry. I think the mandate is to work together on both sides of the House. He's going to have to bring these Republicans into the fold and make sure that he proves that he is the president for all Americans, as he says that he will be.

MARTIN: And Ruben, what do you think Senator - now President-elect Obama's mandate is for the next four years? And I do want to point out that the Democrats picked up at least 15 seats in the House.

Mr. NAVARRETTE: Right.

MARTIN: Looks like they picked up five seats in the Senate. Doesn't appear that they'll get to the 60 vote filibuster-proof...

Mr. NAVARRETTE: Yeah.

MARTIN: Majority in the Senate. What do you think the Senator - President-elect Obama's mandate is?

Mr. NAVARRETTE: I think President-elect Obama has to fix a lot of what was broken during the Bush years, whether it be Iraq, whether it be the economy. Even before he breaks new ground in areas like immigration reform or health care, I think he needs to fix a lot of what was broken, and that's going to require governing from the center. I promise you now, this is going to happen. He's going to move to the center. He's going to disappoint a lot of folks at the far left who think they're going to get everything he promised. He's going to be much more like Bill Clinton because he's already thinking about winning that second term.

MARTIN: And what do you think a role like yours is? I'm going to point out to people, you did not endorse a candidate in this election, unlike other columnists.

Mr. NAVARRETTE: That's right.

MARTIN: What do you think your role is, particularly for columnists of color, who...

Mr. NAVARRETTE: Right. Michel, my friend, my friend. The reason I didn't endorse anybody in this race is because I'm what they call a journalist, unlike some folks out there who I think lost sight of that in this election. African-Americans and Latino journalists who went forward and endorsed people, you ought not do that in this business.

But I think we all come to it with our various lenses, and I think the part of me that is a person of color, a person who doesn't see myself, as Barack Obama said, on all the dollar bills and on all the monuments, I - there was an enormous sense of pride and an enormous sense of love of country. It was there before, but it got even stronger last night. So, I think that is something that we all - I can share, and it's a powerful thing.

MARTIN: Syndicated columnist and Tell Me More regular Ruben Navarrette joined us from San Diego. Michael Cottman is the senior correspondent with blackamericaweb.com, and he joined us by phone from Chicago. Gentlemen, thank you both so much.

Mr. COTTMAN: Thank you.

Mr. NAVARRETTE: Thank you.

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