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Democrat, Republican or independent - today is a historic occasion. We are and should be rightly awed that we have for once lived up to our lofty promise contained in the Declaration of Independence that all men are created equal and that we put aside racial barriers and elect a man to the Presidency of the United States that the Constitution counted as only three-fifths of a person and less than fifty years ago, would not have been able walk, drink, eat or sit in the same place as white citizens of the same country.

Not to minimize or take away from the meaning of this gigantic leap forward we make not only as Americans but as the humans, but we have something else to be thankful for. Today, as we have done forty-three times before for the world to see, we watch the chief executive officer of a country and commander of its military willingly, peacefully, without coercion, force or rebellion, sit down with a successor he had absolutely no hand in picking, turn over the keys to his office and disappear from governance. We take for granted that this is the case and yet the world is full of instances of rebellion, violent overthrow and challenges to duly elected officials by political rivals and challengers (check out Africa and Asia for examples).

For all of its shortcomings and faults (which, thankfully, our Constitution allows us to acknowledge in public and express), the United States has managed this unbelievable task of peacefully handing power over to successors without fail. We are a plural society and, where more than one opinion or set of beliefs resides, geopolitics frequently proves that one group seizes and then desperately clings to power and often at the expense of the minority voices. Not so here.

In discussing this historic day with friends and coi-workers, I was surprised to learn that many people (including me) do not fully understand or appreciate what the scope of duties are for the President. So, without further ado, I present to you the Constitution of the United States (well, the relevant part, anyway):

Section 2. The President shall be commander in chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the militia of the several states, when called into the actual service of the United States; he may require the opinion, in writing, of the principal officer in each of the executive departments, upon any subject relating to the duties of their respective offices, and he shall have power to grant reprieves and pardons for offenses against the United States, except in cases of impeachment.

He shall have power, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, to make treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators present concur; and he shall nominate, and by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, shall appoint ambassadors, other public ministers and consuls, judges of the Supreme Court, and all other officers of the United States, whose appointments are not herein otherwise provided for, and which shall be established by law: but the Congress may by law vest the appointment of such inferior officers, as they think proper, in the President alone, in the courts of law, or in the heads of departments.
The President shall have power to fill up all vacancies that may happen during the recess of the Senate, by granting commissions which shall expire at the end of their next session.

Section 3. He shall from time to time give to the Congress information of the state of the union, and recommend to their consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient; he may, on extraordinary occasions, convene both Houses, or either of them, and in case of disagreement between them, with respect to the time of adjournment, he may adjourn them to such time as he shall think proper; he shall receive ambassadors and other public ministers; he shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed, and shall commission all the officers of the United States.

Congratulations to the Forty-Fourth President of the United States of America, Barack Obama - and congratulations to all of you for helping to fulfill the promises of the Constitution and the ideals that might still be able serve as an example to the rest of the world.