There were some amazing images from Tuesday night. As a liberal I cannot remember a more memorable positive political night than November 4th. The feeling of joy from Chicago, to the White House gate, to my house, to London and beyond were sights I would never forget. It was like waking from the most horrible nightmare to realize I am 10 years old and it is Christmas morning.

The 2008 election was a repudiation of the Bush Presidency and everything it stood for. For a junior Black Senator to win the highest office in the land required a perfect storm. It was no narrow victory, either. Barack Obama won 53% of the vote. Ronald Reagan in 1980 won just under 51% (granted Reagan cleaned up on the electoral college map).  The 2008 electoral map is very revealing. By stretching the playing field Obama was able to seize all but the Deep South, Western Appalachia, the Prairie Midwest (with Missouri being on the fault line), and the underpopulated Mountain States plus Arizona. Is this the result of a poor campaign run by McCain or does it reveal the diminishing support of the Republican party? Only time will tell. The result of the vote, no doubt, was largely influenced by the economy. And finally there is Sarah Palin. That darling of the anti-intellectual right wing so epitomized by Joe the Plumber found a way to spend campaign dough that nearly matched the “Bridge to nowhere” earmark. McCain’s selection of the Alaska Governor was a disaster. Not only was she ill prepared for the job but she didn’t have the political savvy to follow a game plan.

One is seeing in these days what a serious person Obama is. One would think after a grueling campaign that lasted 21 months he would be on some Hawaiian beach somewhere but the President-elect has not slowed down a bit. He is now privy to all the highly classified information that a sitting President receives. After an intelligence briefing he met with key figures to begin working out a way to approach the economic mess he will inherit. As I have always said about voting for Obama, you begin with smarts and you go from there.