A defining moment in nation's history

11/6/08
As the collective surprise and euphoria that greet the end of the presidential race subside, the country is faced with an unexpected question: Just how big a change was this?

Political scientists will tell you any Democrat would have been favored to win the White House this year. With a tremendously unpopular Republican incumbent, voters would naturally look to the opposition party for a fresh start.

Similarly, an economy in trouble is always bad news for the party trying to hold onto power. What had been a relatively close race for much of the summer started to drift into a Democratic runaway as Wall Street fell apart.

But circumstances can only tell you so much; there is more to an election than what happens in the background. In taking stock of Tuesday's outcome, it is impossible to ignore the tremendous appeal and the uncanny political skills of the president-elect of the United States, Barack Hussein Obama.

His name alone tells us something different was afoot this year. The occasional Eisenhower aside, this country tends to elect people with traditional-sounding names, like Johnson and Wilson, Ronald and William. Not this time.

Pundits have been telling us for years, in the absence of real evidence, that we live in a center-right nation, where conservatism is the dominant ideology. (Democrats, recall, have won the popular vote in four of the past five presidential elections.) But the electorate chose a candidate who believes firmly in the ability of the government to play a positive role in people's lives, to provide a safety net for the population's most vulnerable segments. Despite the idiotic braying of the campaign's closing weeks, this philosophy bears no resemblance to "socialism," but does represent a distinctly leftward slant. And it was the clear choice of the American people.

Finally, unavoidably, is the question of his appearance. Americans have always dreamed of a colorblind society, where a person is judged solely on his or her abilities and character, and not on physical characteristics. But we know we're not yet the vision of the idealists, and maybe never will be.

But we also know - we have definitive proof - that we aren't the country the cynics think we are, either. Barack Obama, a child of mixed-race heritage, the son of a black man from Kenya and a white woman from Kansas, will be sworn in as president of the United States in January.

Nothing can detract from this moment, this accomplishment. It belongs not just to the man who won the election, but to all of us - and to history.