Even if your candidate didn't win last night, you have reason to celebrate. We all do. Barack Obama's impressive victory says a lot about America. Because yesterday voters decided that they didn't want to look back. They wanted to step into the future. And they turned out in unprecedented numbers to make sure that no amount of scrubbed rolls, malfunctioning machines, endless lines, or polling places running out of ballots would block the way. The history of America is studded with great breakthroughs followed by decades of consolidation and occasional regression. Obama's victory proclaims the end of the dark years of the Bush regression. It's time for another American breakthrough.
So we held our breath for twenty-two months, twenty-two months of an election that everyone claimed would bore us witless. The exact opposite turned out to be true: it was riveting.
The president-elect represents a new, post-Clinton, beyond centrism, post-racial, new politics, internet-driven phenomenon. The nation is fed up with neoconservative imperialists, radical fundamentalists, and failed supply-siders.
Barack Obama can be the president that helps America speak to the profound greatness of its rural areas, its suburbs and its mighty cities again.
The task facing President-elect Obama is to articulate the role of government in the 21st century just as FDR articulated its role in the 20th.
Thank you Barack Obama. Thank you for four years ago making me say out-loud, "Why can't he be our candidate?" Thank you for blowing away the ether of complacency.
As Obama has campaigned, so shall he govern. And as he won, so have we won. We must preserve, protect and defend the nation we have won back.
I imagine how my ex-boss, an ailing Ted Kennedy must feel tonight, knowing that many, many months ago he exclaimed to the nation that he could feel change in the air.
Tonight, as Americans have decided they would prefer Obama to McCain as their next president there is a sigh of relief, and disbelief, in many quarters in the Middle East, including in Iran.
You know what, I'm shell shocked. I can't feel glad yet, that's a quirk of mine, it's hard for me to celebrate.
Barack Obama's victory tonight has re-defined for the whole world the meaning of the word "America." The world will forever have a different view of who we are. We now have a new face.
We are now finally waking up and realizing the damage that was done while we were in a asleep at the wheel. As evident in this election time, we are now a nation impassioned with possibility.
A new governing progressive majority has emerged. It is made up of young and old, rich and poor, white and people of color. Cities united with suburbs. America elected Obama.
The first order of business -- and one that cannot wait until inauguration -- must be halting the robbery-in-progress known as the "economic bailout."
Barack Obama is the first president in my lifetime who resembles me and the people I know.
For Democrats, who have become accustomed to their party blowing an election even when it seemed like a sure thing, Tuesday night's results were a bitter pill to swallow.
Now is the time to stand together with Barack Obama and Joe Biden and the millions of Americans that are hungry for a new day, roll up our sleeves and come on up for the rising.
They way I see it, the GOP has two paths it can take. One leads to a sustainable future, the other will land them somewhere between Neve Cambell's career and stacks of left over Cool Runnings VHS tapes.
Forget about the Bradley effect, Republican voter suppression tactics and October surprises. Obama won a clear and resounding victory last night.
