Barack Obama is Elected President!
Barack Obama is going to be the next president of the United States.
To write these words still feels a bit surreal, and perhaps will for a while yet - after the stolen victories of 2000 and 2004, many of us practiced what can only be described as cautious optimism going into election day and far into election night.
But let there be no doubt: Barack Obama is going to be the next president of the United States.
This marks the triumphant end to an epic journey: it’s been four months since Obama became the official Democratic nominee, ten months since he pulled ahead of the pack in the Iowa caucus, 21 months since he announced his candidacy, four years since he was elected to the national senate, twelve years since he was elected to the state senate, twenty years since he entered Harvard Law, 47 years since he was born, 54 years since the Supreme Court passed Brown vs. Board of Education, 145 years since Abraham Lincoln passed the Emancipation Proclamation, 389 years since the first slave boats arrived in the New World.
“It’s been a long time coming,” the new president-elect said in his acceptance speech, paraphrasing the words of an old Sam Cooke song, “but tonight, because of what we did on this date in this election at this defining moment, change has come to America.”
While his words cap the end of one journey, they also mark the beginning of a new one, which is where Obama has been all along. For all of the things that his victory represents both literally and figuratively, it is most importantly a new beginning, one that the likes of this country has not seen for a generation. For many of us who were born too late to experience them firsthand, Obama seems to be spiritual son of John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy, and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. - a vibrant, charismatic, and inspiring young leader, who, to paraphrase one of these men, is not afraid to dream of the way things never were, and ask why not.
I believe that Barack Obama has the potential to be a great president and I cannot wait until he is sworn in early next year. When it was first announced that he was the projected winner, a cool rush filled me that felt contagious but I couldn’t quite describe. And then it hit me. After eight long years in the desert, my faith in America had returned.