After months of bitter struggling between New York Senator Hillary Clinton and Illinois Senator Barack Obama for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination, Obama has edged out Clinton to become the first-ever African-American presidential nominee of a major U.S. political party.

While the November contest for president of the world’s most powerful democracy has yet to even warm up, the primary battle has already proven that Americans are finally ready to accept either a woman or a member of a racial minority to be their next commander-in-chief.

We would hope that voters here in Taiwan could be as gracious as their counterparts were in the United States this primary season.

Indeed, while Obama has come out the winner of the primary battle, he only gained a handful more delegates to the Democratic National Convention and the two came close to splitting the primary votes in half.

Here in Taiwan, many people were closely observing how the American public would react to the historic candidacies of Clinton and Obama.

Senator Clinton has long been a household name here in Taiwan dating back to the days of her former president husband between 1993 and 2001.

But the news media in Taiwan has recently demonstrated a deep fascination with the out-of-nowhere stardom of Senator Obama, who was virtually unknown in Asia until he started beating Clinton in state primaries a few months ago.

Obama has since been widely covered in the domestic news media, even landing on the covers of local news magazines on several occasions.

While the public in Taiwan is still largely unaware of what Obama’s agenda is or what he stands for, his ability to mesmerize young voters and overcome seemingly overwhelming odds has captured public attention here.

Now that Obama is the presumptive nominee, our news media will start to explore the candidate’s background and delve deeply into the reasons why Obama was able to defeat Clinton, a true establishment candidate who until a few months ago was seen as a sure winner.

Our media will also be curious to learn more about what Senator Obama’s foreign policy, especially toward this region, would be if he wins the election in November.

In our view, the primary battle between Obama and Clinton shows that in a representative democracy, competition between rival candidates during the primary stage can ultimately help renew enthusiasm and support among the party’s base.

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