I am asked why I am so enthusiastic about Barack Obama's victory when it is something that is happening across the Atlantic. My answer is that it makes more difference to us than who wins the next UK election.

I remember as a child the excitement of John F Kennedy winning and the way it gave us permission to be proud to associate with the United States.

I also remember being told in one history lesson at the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis that we might not wake up in the morning.

At the time, my dad was working with Americans in NATO from a bunker under a Norwegian mountain. They were scary times, but as a child I am sure it was a defining moment in my life – one that made me realise that we are so dependant on things and countries that are often beyond our ken and certainly beyond our control.

Since John F Kennedy's tragic assassination I have had little reason to feel good about America and an awful lot of reason to feel terrified by its ability to throw up such inappropriate leaders, of which George W Bush must rank as the worst.

I spent time in America before his 2000 election when I really thought Al Gore, with his far superior intellect and policy, would win. Gore won the popular vote but, in my view, was cheated by a technicality that has put the world back a generation in so many ways.

So when someone emerged from this mess, as if by magic, and said the things I believe in with such conviction, it gave me hope, although until now faint hope, that the American electorate would have the good sense to vote him into the most powerful office in the world.

OK, he has inherited a mess. He has inherited the mess that Messrs Bush and Blair have bequeathed us in the Middle East. They have fought the wrong war for the wrong reasons and have made the world an infinitely more dangerous place by doing so. This is irreparable damage and the best that can be hoped for is damage limitation.

He has inherited the mess of accelerating world pollution when we should have been taking radical measures to reduce man-made influences on climate change.

He has also inherited a financial mess that beggars belief – caused by the greed of individuals, the incompetence of financial institutions and the failure of governments, especially the US one, to control it.

So, in many ways, it is a case of poor young Obama. You might feel that he has just stepped into a very large global mess, and so he has. The only way to begin to deal with this ghastly inheritance that effects us all is with the sort of calm intelligence that he has shown throughout his remarkable 18 months of campaigning.

What he has shown is the sort of quality of leadership that can transcend people of totally different backgrounds and beliefs. He has yet to convince the religious rednecks of the Right, who were buoyed up by the appearance of Sarah Palin and booed John McCain's mention of Obama's name, but he will surprise them.

I know he has a long haul, and that mistakes will be made, but there is a lot to be said for good old inspirational leadership that is grounded by intelligence and willingness to consult.

America, at long last it feels as if you have done the right thing for the world. Thank you.