Yes We Did!

I'm 53 years old and haven't felt this way -- meaning hopeful and great -- about the new president in my entire life. 

Despite the best early efforts of the talking heads -- even Rachel Maddow! -- to make up a story line that the first ten or so states indicated a long night because none of them had flipped, there was a key sign that 2008 was much different than 2004. Wisconsin, the Badger State, was a nail-biter in 2004, with John Kerry revailing by a hair. Last night, the networks called it almost immediately for Barack Obama.

We sent up the first cheer when Pennsylvania broke our way. McCain had gone all in in the Keystone State, and it was hard to see how he could win without it unless he ran the table of Ohio, Virginia, and Florida. When NBC called Ohio for Obama, the champagne began to flow. When his electoral count passed 200 before the West Coast polls closed, we knew it was over: Anyone who lives out here knew that Washington, Oregon, and California (73 EV) were mortal locks. What we didn't expect were all three states being called the second polls closed at 8:00 Pacific time.

Hugs and cheers! Now it was time for the Veuve Cliquot! And we -- friends, neighbors, and family -- drank deeply and with great satisfaction...

Hubert Locke, great-grandson of slaves and University of Washington professor emeritus, writes movingly of the impact of Obama's victory in the form of a letter to his dead parents:

You would be particularly proud, Papa, of the fact that President Obama stands in the grand tradition and will take up the mantle of other cherished men of color -- Gandhi, Mandela, King -- who have shown the world what great leadership truly is. It is, I think, one of the surprises of history -- that hardship and oppression can produce leaders of enormous vision and immense compassion. Our new president's parents and grandparents, and the places where he was raised, all give him that wider perspective on the world in which we are so desperately in need...

E. J. Dionne says that it is time to hope again:

Above all, it is time to celebrate the country's wholehearted embrace of democracy, reflected in the intense engagement of Americans in this campaign and the outpouring to the polls all over the nation. For years, we have spoken of bringing free elections to the rest of the world even as we cynically mocked our own ways of conducting politics. Yesterday, we chose to practice what we have been preaching...

Don't miss David Horsey's wonderful drawing here...

The New York Times and Washington Post have good campaign overviews here and here. It's irrelevant now, but the papers offer curiously differing accounts of the Obama camp's response to addition of Sarah Palin to the Republican ticket. According to the Times the campaign was caught flat-footed, while the Post says that from the beginning it looked at the choice as an unexpected gift. Both agree that the contest against Hillary Clinton created a juggernaut and that Obama's calm response to the financial crisis was the turning point of the general election...

I don't know who this beautiful little girl is, but she pretty much speaks for me and millions more. The river is waiting, come rise up...