There is dancing in the streets tonight in Washington DC... both official DC and Local.
When the nets called it for Obama at 11pm EST (poll closing time on the West Coast), people poured into Lafayette Square -- across from the White House.... they poured out of Georgetown bars... and they poured (most fittingly) nto the streets of what used to be the heart of the black business district... which was gutted by the rioting 40 years ago that followed the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.
I work in news in DC... and I was working tonight - so I can confirm all this. You want to know what this election means? It's dancing in the streets in a city that takes pride in its cynicism. After all, administrations come and go, but bureacracy doesn't change.
When I got home from work, my 79 year old mother told me she had told my 10 year old son that this election result compares with the end of World War Two (and she just happened to have passed thru Times Square on VJ day)when people also took to the streets to celebrate.
She told him President-elect Obama compares to Lincoln and (Franklin) Roosevelt. (No pressure there, huh?) He IS the man for these times... and we know it -- old and young alike.
Dancing in the streets!!!