Seriously, and yet with total abandon, doin' the happy dance here. The underlying despair of the past eight years, and the suspicion that perhaps the damage done was irrepairable, have been replaced with a feeling that perhaps we can get our country back- maybe the dark and relentlessly self-serving people that took over while we were asleep at the wheel have been exposed for what they are, and have been duly replaced.

I anticipate intellect, far too long absent from the White House, in place once again... the direct opposite of W's observation that books are "good" and some even "have pitchures in 'em". I see in Obama a learned, potentially great leader, a man fully aware of the big picture, beyond politics. I thought they'd stopped making those. I see a man who, by his background as well as life choices, bridges gaps in nationality, religion, ethnicity, substance and plain humanity in ways I have not seen in a US president before.

As exuberant as I am, I can only guess at how people of color are feeling, how this will charge the endangered sense of black community, as well as the sense of enfranchisement, of having finally arrived. I read a quote from a lady on a news comment page, as she explained how on election night her nephews and nieces were exclaiming they wanted to be like Obama. She said, "Rosa sat, so Martin could walk, so Obama could run, so our children could fly." What a worthy role-model alternative to drug-addled rappers and sports pros. As for being a Marxist... what? Pay attention and ratchet down the hysteria a notch or ten.

I keep up on a website called Watching America, which is comprised of Op-Ed pieces from papers all over the world regarding the US. Much of the entire globe is jubilant about our selection on election night because they believe we have drastically improved on having a willfully ignorant reformed alchoholic frat boy as our president. Most of the commentary, from the EU to the Arab states and Asia says that while we may have elected a president, to them, we have elected a worthy world leader. I haven't seen this kind of universal reaction in my lifetime.

As far as the Christian perspective is concerned, I am profoundly disenchanted. Christians as a group have a historic track record of gullibility, voting for any candidate who declares himself to be one of them regardless of how self-serving or depraved they may actually be. We absolutely would not have had eight years of the despicable Bush/Cheney administration without the mandate of the Christian voting block. They got their people in, and how disastrous the results of that effort are, are not a matter of opinion but of fact. I must add that Obama is actually Bush's greatest legacy. Obama couldn't have made it to the White House without the Republicans going so far to serve themselves while in power.

It seems there are people who actually claim to know what will happen. Do they know? Of course not. Do we expect too much from Obama? Yes we do. This will be his greatest burden. Do we have reason to be hopeful? The only alternative is offering sour commentary that 'everything will continue sucking, only harder. Please. We have alot of work to do, and maybe it starts with preparing for the worst. But why bother unless you're expecting the best.