Speeches
Remarks of Consul General Sharon A. Wiener
Breakfast Celebrating the 2008 American Elections
November 11, 2008
Istanbul, Turkey
Distinguished guests and invited friends, as Consul General of the United States of America, I am honored to welcome you to our celebration of the historic and exciting 2008 American elections.
Let me first thank our sponsors, without whom this event would not have been possible: The Sheraton Hotel; The Gap; Fox Television; Coca-Cola; Seattle International Engineering; Frito-Lay; the Turkish-American Business Association; CitiBank; Merck Sharpe and Dohme; United Airlines; Dole; Dunkin Donuts; McDonald’s; Pepsi; Starbucks; Tommy Hilfiger; CNBC-e; CNN Turk; and the Hilton, Hyatt Regency, and Ritz Carlton hotels. Thank you all.
The long campaign is finally over. Ladies and gentlemen, we are celebrating today an election campaign that lasted almost two years, included 20 candidates, 41 debates, and over 120 million Americans who went to the polls and cast their votes and elected Senators Barack Obama and Joe Biden as President and Vice President of the United States.
After all the campaign ads and rallies, the conventions and rhetoric, yesterday Americans left behind what our 15th President, James Buchanan, called “the noise of democracy” for the silence of the voting booths. In thousands of polling places across the country millions of Americans made their final decisions and voted for the choice of their free consciences.
None of us, two years ago, could have predicted just how historic this campaign would be or the enthusiasm and interest it would generate both at home and abroad. That at the end of it all, Americans would choose between John McCain, a war hero of legendary courage who survived five years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam, and Barack Obama, the son of an American mother and a Kenyan father, who occupies the same Senate seat in Illinois for which President Abraham Lincoln once ran. And in the end, America has elected its first African-American president.
The American democratic system is far from perfect. Blacks received the right to vote in 1870; women only in 1920. With its unique Electoral College and caucuses, we can’t pretend that this democratic system is right for all countries. But our founding fathers designed it so that the minority would always have a voice. Both the native and the immigrant would have equal opportunity.
Just to put a little bit of personal historic perspective on what’s happened, I can tell you the first time I witnessed an American election from abroad was when I was a student in 1968. If you remember, 1968 was the year that Martin Luther King was assassinated and Bobby Kennedy had been assassinated. If you had asked me back then if had thought it would be possible that 40 years later America would be electing its first African-American president, I’m not sure – even as an optimistic student – I would have thought that was possible. But indeed, on January 20, 2009, Barack Obama will be inaugurated as America’s 44th president.
As I have always said throughout this campaign, I am sure that as president Barack Obama will understand the importance of Turkey as a strategic ally and a friend. America can not face its challenges alone. In the next administration, our partnership with Turkey will continue in the fight against the PKK and other terrorists; in supporting a democratic, secure and stable Iraq; in finding new energy resources and routes of supply; and in promoting peace in the Middle East and in the other regions in which Turkey lives. We will work together even more closely as Turkey assumes its seat on the UN Security Council.
So thank you again for celebrating this historic moment in democracy with us today. Years from now, when I think of where I was on this day, I will always be grateful to have been here in Istanbul sharing this moment with all of you.
Thank you.