The 44th President of the United States of America
Finally. It's over.
A few thoughts:
Senator McCain's speech was exceedingly gracious.
(This past week has seen McCain return to form--the "old" McCain of humor, good sense, and not a little energy. I've missed this McCain, and I hope that, as Donna Brazile suggested, that President-Elect Obama offers Senator McCain a cabinet position ).
President-Elect Obama's speech was...well, an Obama speech. I watched the results and the speeches in a crowded, noisy tavern. Many people were in tears. A young Asian-American man collapsed, weeping, in a chair beside me (okay--it was a tavern, and he might have imbibed in a few microbrews).
People bought champagne. They shouted. They applauded. They sang.
I've never seen, never experienced anything resembling this.
Perhaps more later.
Later: Nearly 24 hours after CNN called the election for Barack Hussein Obama, Jr., it's hit me fully: we, the people--not the lobbyists, the special interests, or the political elites, but the people of the United States of America--have made history. It wasn't decided for us, we were the "deciders." Not only have we elected a biracial man to our highest office for the first time (and what can be more indicative of America's oneness than a biracial person?), but we have rejected the 1960s' lingering culture wars. A man who is actually post-Cold War. Post-Vietnam. Post "free love" and , post-politics of the Civil Rights Era. (thanks to a reader who alerted me to some vagueness about the preceding statement. It is pretty loose--my own damned fault for trying to rush on through. I intend to revise it after I get some sleep, but these might help clarify for the moment: Matt Bai’s “Post-Race: Is Obama the End of Black Politics?” and Leonard Pitts’ “Unity, Hope Must Conquer Division, Hate”).
It's Gen X's time, baby.
Aside: The world's reaction here.
