Elated

I'm still on a high from last night and feeling, well, hope. The word is tiring, but the feeling is not. I can't seem to tire of the images, of people all over the world celebrating in the streets, in bars, in living rooms, of the President-elect's creased face, and the image of tears streaming from Jesse Jackson's eyes. It is incredible to see this overwhelming amount of global excitement.

Last night felt like New Year's Eve. There was an unspoken countdown (or countup in this case) with bated breath until the news was announced. Breaking News: Obama wins election. Last night was a new beginning, a night to make vows, and to make resolutions that you hope you will keep and eventually change for the better.

Hope and change. Hope and change. Hope and change. These are the words that have defined our nation and will define the global outlook of 2009.

I didn't see pure joy on one notable face. Barack Obama's gaze into the camera was intent, his smiles were brief, and you had to look at his wife and children to know that he was happy. Obama's win was not without tragic losses and absences: his campaign director in Nevada Terence Tolbert, his father, his mother, and most recently, his grandmother. But most vivid in his gaze was his intensity and his anxiety. He was not celebrating the night, but anticipating the challenges. His shell was there, an Obama cutout, while his mind and heart were at the White House.

This is the closest to fiction and fantasy our political reality has ever been. This is The West Wing, and I just hope that President Obama can be as bold and courageous as the fictional President Bartlet in Let Bartlet Be Bartlet. America has needed Barack Obama, not a superhero, but a man full of integrity who is a good father, husband, and leader. Someone who is unafraid of doing the right thing. I hope Aaron Sorkin's fantasy so vividly imagined becomes our reality in 2009.

On a completely separate, but related note (Obama's inheritance), this is the saddest and most creative perspective on the crisis on Wall Street.

Cartoon by Tom Toles from The Washington Post.