A New Day?

Watching the returns with a boisterous bunch of Obama supporters last night, including my very engaged daughter Maddie (and with regular calls from her older sister, who giddily stood in the rain for hours to vote for president for the first time yesterday), even a diehard cynic like me couldn't help but get swept up in all the excitement. Especially -- after years of grief from all my yankee family and friends for even living in the Old Dominion -- when VA did us proud and turned blue!

Seeing those crowds of ecstatic people dancing in the streets and parks and squares all over America, you couldn't escape the sense that this really WAS a huge deal, that electing a black man represented something that transcended all of the serious problems in the system and in our country. I am still skeptical that Obama can enact real change in some of the major trouble spots: the wars, the financial mess, and much-needed health care reform.

Still, knowing he took too much money from Fannie Mae, Wall Street, big pharma and AIPAC (to name just a few from my bad-guys list), and knowing that within his first 100 days we might see far less substance than promised, for just a few hours last night -- and really, for the next four years -- the significance of his spectacular achievement eclipses those concerns. This morning I think everyone woke up with a sense of wonder that truly ANY child in this country can grow up to be president.

Granted, you have to sell your soul to get there, and who in their right mind would want it? But Obama smashed through the ultimate glass ceiling and all the ramifications of that are just starting to sink in. Pretty cool.

Does repeating Yes We Can make it so? In the case of a black man becoming president, we now have our answer. In the case of pushing congress to do the right thing -- conduct critical investigations, be responsive to contituents and stand up to the groups that line their pockets -- for now we'll have to rely on the other word Obama likes to throw around: hope. That and the inspiration hangover he got us all drunk on last night.