As I'm watching President Obama talking (forget that "President-Elect" stuff; he is my President NOW), I am struck by how young, how happy, how relaxed he looks, in contrast to the past few weeks.
And as I'm listening to his words, I'm getting the answer to the big question that many have raised in recent weeks: why would anyone WANT that job? How much will he really be able to do to solve the huge, daunting problems that face him, that face our country, that face our world?
Incredibly, it's because he believes in us. He knows he doesn't have to do it all alone. He knows that that same powerful democracy in action that got him to this place will still be there to work by his side to defeat those problems.
And that hope, that optimism, seems to be contagious. Let me leave you with these inspiring (yes, that's sincere, no snark) words of none other than Brit Hume:
Well, as Senator Obama said, great challenges and difficulties lie ahead. He mentioned two wars, he mentioned an in many ways unprecedented financial crisis, he mentioned many other things.
But those are things for another day, although he took note of them. Tonight if you can see to these people and to the thousands joined with them in Grant Park in Chicago and many thousands and millions more across the country, tonight is a night of victory, and a night of hope, when all things seem possible.
It really seems possible that this remarkable man will be someone truly and remarkably different, who can lift us out of the partisan differences that divide us, the ideological divisions that keep us apart. Who can change the atmosphere in Washington, as his predecessor had hoped to do but could not. Who can somehow find a set of policies that are right for the time. Who can fight the war on terror in some different way perhaps, that will be at least as successful and maybe more so.
These are the things that people can hope tonight -- because Barack Obama has been elected -- an African American, the son of immigrants -- the 44th President of the United States of America.
What a story.
What a night.