Thoughts on the election:

I’m sure that many more words have been, and, will be, more eloquently written in regards to this past week’s election than what I’m about to attempt, but I figured I’d share my thoughts with my friends at this small corner of the Internet. I’ll try to be as brief as I can.

I guess this speaks to my sheltered naiveté about race relations, but I’m surprised that so many people claimed to have thought that the election of a black man to the presidency would never happen in their lifetimes. The Voting Rights Act was nearly two generations ago, in 1965, and the 43 years since has been more than enough time for people to get their heads around the concept of an African-American who just happens to be President. I’ve always understood America to be a meritocracy, and I can’t see how anyone is shocked that the smarter, younger and more charismatic candidate won on Tuesday.

I’m relieved it’s over. It’s been a long year since the primaries began and if you follow politics at all, it’s been overwhelming for most of that time. Electing a chief executive in this country is a massively expensive undertaking – more than $1.5 billion was spent in this effort between the campaigns, affiliated groups, party national committees and such. Sure, the presidency is the most powerful office in the world, but I can’t help but think that there has to be a better way of choosing who it goes to.

While that sense of relief came over me as I sat at a downtown bar with some friends and watched early returns come in, another feeling of wariness intruded on my disposition. “What’s next, what now?” I said to myself. President-elect Obama has more potential than any politician the country has seen since at least JFK, if not FDR, and I’m afraid he might be deemed a failure if he doesn’t quickly live up to this ability.

Also, I felt wary for him personally. The job he’s been promoted to will be hugely difficult: a lonely, sobering burden for him to carry, largely by himself. He’ll be isolated from the rest of the world by many layers of security personnel for the rest of his life. Barack Obama obviously knew this when he stood up and declared his candidacy, but he and his family have crossed that threshold for the rest of their lives.

After what has been an epic disaster by the current White House resident, I eagerly look forward to the next chapter of our little American experiment. As Obama said in his acceptance speech, “It is our time.” The Baby Boomer presidents had their chance to change America for the better and largely failed (Clinton: health care; Bush II: everything). It’s time for that generation and their petty culture wars to get out of the way. Now.

(Click here to see a compendium of hundreds of front pages from Nov. 5th. I always find it fun to see all the different solutions people come up with to answer a simple newspaper question: how do you display the news?)