Like the collapse of the twin towers and the deaths of JFK or Princess Diana before, the presidential election of Barack Obama will likely forever be preceded by the question, ‘Where were you when you heard…’.

This cataclysmic shift in American politics has dominated televisions, newspapers, radio and dinner table conversations for almost a week, and is not expected to ease for some time yet. While I could easily write a books worth of commentary about the election (and no doubt hundreds have already begun) for the sake of this post I wanted to stick to two points I found particularly interesting.

Firstly, while I do not wish to take away from the magnitude of the event, I find it somewhat ironic that Australians were (and are) so much more invested (some might say obsessed) in politics on the other side of the world than those in our own backyard.

And I don’t comment on this as an outsider, for I too made firm friends with my refresh button as I waited for the votes to be tallied (thankyou, Crikey). But had you asked me to stay home and watch Aunty cover Kevin 07’s ascent to power just last year, I may very well have laughed in your face and/or run screaming in the other direction.

While the importance of our leader on the world scale is undoubtable smaller, it would not seem too much to hope that Australians would be more interested in politics on our shores than off. And yet so many of us aren’t. Voter engagement clearly remains a serious stumbling block, particularly (and forgive the blatant generalisation) for the largely apathetic youth.

Secondly, the standard of rhetoric from both men on Election Day was nothing short of impressive, even for a hardened cynic like myself. Obama in particular displayed an eloquence and emotion largely absent in Australian politics. Whatever your leanings, I suspect most will agree that both KRudd and little Johnny Howard fall well short in the oratory stakes.

Whether you choose to give credit to the man himself for the delivery or his speech writers for such inspirational words, you’d be hard pressed not to be moved by the obvious passion and dedication.

For everybody’s sake, let’s just hope Obama’s policies can meet the expectations set by his prose.

- Jacqui Flint