God Bless America

Exhale.

And the children did lead. The historical seeds have been planted for a fresh new generation of civic-minded Americans. They were ready after 9/11 but the failure of leadership frittered it away. Barack Obama has led like no other. And his victory speech was nothing less than laying out the mission, in surprisingly somber tones, and the need to turn the effort from electing to enacting, all together...united.

Kudos to John McCain for his gracious concession speech, even if some of his supporters seemed less so. And were those boos we heard when he started praising his running mate? Bottom line was that if this McCain had been the one running his campaign and showing up on the trail, tonight would have lasted a lot longer and maybe turned out differently.

There were moving voting stories all over the Net today and much noting of the historical nature of this victory, that when Obama was born there was still segregation in America, a country largely built on slavery (not to mention genocide). But what was striking about Obama's victory speech tonight was how accustomed we've become to him, how the race aspect has receded with familiarity, and instead how serious and mature his sense of purpose seems to be going forward. And he did it with a great callback to the theme of his 2004 DNC speech, that we must be united, per our charter, moving forward.

It's ironic that President-Elect Barack Hussein Obama owes his victory to the massive failure of President George W. Bush. And who knew that the loss of John Kerry four years ago might turn out to be the best thing that could have happened to our country? Obama is a man who recognized his moment far in advance of everyone else, who had a vision of America some of us may have discussed in vague outline but that he put to great use in his campaign and, one now expects, he will in his Presidency.

For now, let's revel in the greatness of our democracy, as President-Elect Obama put it in words to be quoted for years, decades and maybe centuries:

If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible; who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time; who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer.

And the world is answering.