President Obama on the cover of the Daily News
Huge crowds are celebrating in Union Square, in New York. Someone picked up copies of the first edition of the Daily News announcing the Obama victory, and they were paraded around to great acclamation. I have never seen such sheer unadulterated joy in New York in the time I’ve lived here.
Later at a bar, watched an impressive acceptance speech by President-Elect Obama at Grant Park in Chicago. I was struck by the acknowledgement of the gay community, and by the story of the 106-year old woman, daughter of slaves, who voted for him in Atlanta. Given the size and emotions of the crowd, it would have been easy to for him to have been demagogic and triumphalist – instead, over and over, he insisted on inclusiveness and humility, in his trademark, slightly stilted and professorial style.
Of course, that’s only the beginning. The next four years are going to be interesting.