The Election of Barack Obama Encourages the Better Angels of Our Nature

On November 4, 2008, America resoundingly elected Barack Obama the first black president of the United States. This historic event will help remove the ugly stains of racialism and hyper-partisanship from the American landscape.

Shortly after 11 p.m. EST, several news organizations reported that Barack Obama had clinched the presidency. Obama had 338 votes in the Electoral College versus 157 for John McCain. Obama also led McCain by 52 to 47 percent in the popular vote.

The election of Barack Obama to America's highest office demonstrates that race is no longer an impenetrable barrier to achievement. Bigotry and prejudice are still with us, but the ascendancy of Barack Obama indicates that racial conciliation trumps racial confrontation. The influence of confrontational leaders such as Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson will decline.

Jackson, who recently said that he wanted to remove Barack Obama's private parts, wept tears of joy at Chicago's Grant Park shortly before Obama's victory speech, a testament to the transformational promise that this election holds. People of good will throughout the political spectrum should wish President-Elect Obama well.

We can only hope that his actions match his rhetoric. Many reasonable doubts about Barack Obama remain. But in reaching out to McCain voters during his victory speech, Obama struck exactly the right tone: "And to those Americans whose support I have yet to earn...I hear your voices, I need your help, and I will be your president too."

The last phrase is a reference to the bitter aftermath of the 2000 Bush-Gore election, when many Gore supporters condemned George W. Bush as "not my president."

If you have not done so already, please listen to the concession speech of John McCain. It is the most gracious and profound concession speech I have ever heard.

This presidential election had special meaning for me. A few years ago, I lost my father. His birthday usually falls on or within a day of Election Day. This year was no different. Obama's recently deceased maternal grandmother, Madelyn Dunham, was 86 years old, the same age my father would be if he were still alive. In fact, Dunham and my late father, Eli Ellison, were born about 10 days apart.

Mrs. Dunham was a second mother to Barack Obama. She and her husband Stanley raised Obama from age 10.

Bereavement is incredibly painful. I cannot begin to imagine the distress of losing a loved one in the midst of a presidential campaign. This empathic tug did not influence my vote, but it humanized Obama for me.

My choice for president was an extremely difficult decision. As I have said in previous posts, both John McCain and Barack Obama are very decent, patriotic men. John McCain is a war hero; Barack Obama has inspirational ability reminiscent of John F. Kennedy. Had the tenor of the former navy pilot's campaign matched his oratory on November 4, I might have voted for John McCain.

During his concession speech, McCain had to repeatedly silence a chorus of boos and angry chants whenever he mentioned Barack Obama and Joe Biden. McCain's plea for unity was heartfelt, "offering our next president our good will and earnest effort to find ways to come together, to find the necessary compromises, to bridge our differences, and to help restore our prosperity, defend our security in a dangerous world, and leave our children and grandchildren a stronger, better country than we inherited."

Those words should earn John McCain newfound respect from both left and right. Hopefully he will return to Washington a wiser and more influential senator. Barack Obama would do well to cultivate him as a political ally.

Amidst this hope and promise are naysayers and sore losers. In a recent article, I described my disappointment with mainstream conservatives who have viciously attacked Barack Obama during this campaign. A case in point is Dick Morris, ex-Clinton advisor turned right-wing attack dog.

In a November 5, 2008 column in The New York Post, Mr. Morris echoed an important point I made in my recent article: the next president will be compelled by economic and geopolitical events to govern from the center. But Morris then labeled Obama a "socialist" and sniffed that, despite Democratic predictions of a double-digit blowout, Barack Obama only managed to win by "a few points in the popular vote."

Morris and his crowd have to grow up. Yes, Barack Obama has many flaws. A number of his past associations are deeply disturbing, and some of his positions make a center-right country nervous. But Mr. Obama deserves everyone's support right now. If Barack Obama succeeds, America will prosper. If he fails, America will be hurt.

The rhetoric of Dick Morris has the smell of an archaeological dig. I hope that, within my lifetime, such talk will be as distant from the United States as are the sands of ancient Egypt.

Get over it, Morris. The Bush falcon is flying into the sunset. Obama is rising.