We must understand one more thing -- how successful President Obama will be in transforming America in a progressive direction will depend on us, as well as on him.

I wrote to Barack several days later. Here's the letter. Looking back, it seems as if today was somehow written in America's destiny.

Our neighborhood has had many more Obama lawn signs than McCain, by a a ratio of almost 10:1. Today someone drove through this part of the town and stole all of the Obama signs.

In the end Obama is not America`s first black president -- he is America`s first president who happens to be black. The difference is huge.

The Middle East is divided between disbelief and excitement as well as apathy. Many can't believe that America will indeed elect a black man with African roots and a Muslim father as president.

You know what, I'm shell shocked. I can't feel glad yet, that's a quirk of mine, it's hard for me to celebrate.

To be sure, the failing economy provided Democrats the context they needed. But a candidate with a little backbone gave them the ability to convince voters to take a chance on change.

The first order of business -- and one that cannot wait until inauguration -- must be halting the robbery-in-progress known as the "economic bailout."

As we stand on the verge of a shifting earth I wonder is this the Big One, the epiphany that leads us to brilliance in real time, or is this one of the aftershocks.

Thank you Barack Obama. Thank you for four years ago making me say out-loud, "Why can't he be our candidate?" Thank you for blowing away the ether of complacency.

Tuesday's election was a milestone in building an America that lives up to its ideals, an event that has broken down old barriers and opened up new doors.

When my mother got married, my grandfather said he'd shoot my dad with a shotgun (an inauspicious but common beginning for an interracial marriage).

They way I see it, the GOP has two paths it can take. One leads to a sustainable future, the other will land them somewhere between Neve Cambell's career and stacks of left over Cool Runnings VHS tapes.

The president-elect represents a new, post-Clinton, beyond centrism, post-racial, new politics, internet-driven phenomenon. The nation is fed up with neoconservative imperialists, radical fundamentalists, and failed supply-siders.

We docked the ship on shore. We're back to normal now. We have re-established the fundamental building blocks of Western civilization -- we have our foundation underneath us.

I imagine how my ex-boss, an ailing Ted Kennedy must feel tonight, knowing that many, many months ago he exclaimed to the nation that he could feel change in the air.

Gov. Ed Rendell seemed very confident a few minutes ago that Obama will score big in the Philadelphia suburbs, making it next to impossible for McCain to take the state.