It was a landslide victory. (ETA photos)

I figured I should set down a few thoughts on this history-making morning. As I said on this blog often, I didn't want to use these words before it had happened, but now I can. Obama won, and he won big.

I won't pretend to know what this moment is like for black people. But I don't like it when the anchors and such talk about it only in those terms anyway. This morning is probably the only morning I could say something like this with a straight face, but I feel like this is a time for all Americans to revel.



No matter what your color is, even no matter if you voted for Obama or did not, unless you're a racist bigot, you have to feel good that our country has finally gotten to this point. It gives not just black people, but all people who have obstacles to overcome, a hero.

I was saying to my mom yesterday that my nephew is going to grow up not knowing that this was anything strange. The first president I have actual memories of is Jimmy Carter. I was alive during Nixon and Ford, but not exactly politically conscious. For my nephew, it'll be Obama.

Watching the returns I was preparing myself for a little Christmas-morning-letdown, anticlimax feeling even if Obama won, as I’d hardly dared to allow myself to expect that he might. But when he captured Pennsylvania, then Ohio, and then took Virginia... (the first Democrat to do so in 44 years, BTW)...

Well, that's when I knew he was going to do it--that we were going to do it.



And I trembled with happiness.

(photos via BlogCleveland)