Not only Barack Obama and the American people won big last night - so did the polls that predicted Obama would win the Presidency.
They weren't perfect - some of the polls saw Obama winning the popular vote by double digits - but they got the big victory right. Obama won by impressive numbers in Pennsylvania, just as the polls predicted. And he won in Florida, Ohio, Colorado, Iowa, Nevada - so-called "red states" - just as the polls predicted. I suspect these states won't be red again for a long time. Indeed, I wonder how much of a future the Republican Party, as it currently is, will have in any case...
I wonder what the polls will say in the weeks, months, and years ahead about that.
They were wrong, big time, in their prediction that FDR would lose in 1936, and Truman would love in 1948. They got it wrong in the Democratic Primary in New Hampshire earlier this year.
But the polls were right, big time, about the revolution that has brought America up to par with its greatest dreams and highest ideals last night.