Senator Barack Obama became the President-elect of the United States of America. In that instant, the candidate captured 284 electoral votes, 14 more than the requisite 270 required to elect him the nation's 44th President. Before the night was over, the President-elect would have a landslide of at least 349 electoral votes in his column, confirming the tsunami of support this man of the people enjoyed throughout the preceding two-years, and particularly, during the closing weeks of the presidential campaign.
As word of the Obama victory spread, so did exhilaration, spontaneous celebrations erupting in the streets of the Nation's Capital, akin to a post-Superbowl street party. Most notable was the gathering of several hundred in Lafayette Park, directly across from the White House, under the very nose of not-a-minute-too-soon lame-duck President George Bush. Television perused the elated and often tearful faces of the President-elect's half-million plus supporters in Illinois' Grant Park, where the next President had come to acknowledge his victory. Joyful throngs in New York City's Times Square celebrated in the November night, reminiscent of New Year's Eve, minus the confetti.
The faces of the Obama girls, Malia and Sasha, wore the rapture of Christmas morning as, together with their mother, Michelle, they joined their father on stage. Undoubtedly, they barely slept when the celebration was over, but when the sandman finally prevailed, he probably came, not with visions of sugarplums dancing in their heads, but with dreams of the new puppy promised them by their parents, and confirmed by their Daddy just minutes into his first address as President-elect. There's a certain comfort to be had in having at the helm of the most powerful nation on the planet a man so grounded that he sought, even in first blush of historic victory, to reassure his daughters of a promise remembered.
President-elect Obama has repeatedly said that the genius of America is its capacity to change, to reinvent itself. Obama's very election is testimony to that fact. In raising Obama up to lead the American people, we ourselves are changed, and in the process of metamorphosis, have created a new paradigm, the ongoing success of which will require our faithful diligence. The next President's mantra, "Yes, we can" is a mantle that rests gently on the shoulder we will indubitably be called upon to put to the wheel. That this will require sacrifice, stamina and stick-to-it-ive-ness should not discourage us...After all, we already know we're up to the task.
We can do it. Yes, we can.
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