It would be easy this morning to be cynical and to say that Barack Obama will be dragged into the machine of American and global politics and that many of the hopes invested in him, as well as those he has for himself, will be diminished in the process. Easy, but wrong. Here is a man so obviously good, so obviously worthy and so obviously the right thing at the right time that you would have to have a heart of stone not to cheer what has happened, to see it as a world-changing opportunity.
That America, a country forged by the desire for freedom from tyranny and which should as such be a global beacon, has become, especially in the past eight years, a war-mongering pariah with horrifying poverty and divisiveness within its shores, ought to be deeply shaming to the outgoing president. I don't suppose it will be, but his place in history - as possibly the worst holder of the office - is assured and he can slink off to Texas with his rich buddies. Pray God we hear no more of the neo-cons, Donny Rumsfeld's known unknowns, Haliburton, the power of bond traders etc, etc, etc.
There is so much for the new man to do: all of it is difficult and a lot of it will prove the adage that you can't please all of the people all of the time. Improving America's standing in the world through greater multilateralism on trade and security would be a start, while the priorities at home are the economy, reversal of those crazy and regressive tax cuts and - the single most important thing - creating something that resembles a national health service.
One final point. Simon Shama's remark earlier on the BBC that Mr Obama's election cleanses America of its original sin - Thomas Jefferson kept slaves even as he wrote that all men were created equal - hit the nail on the head. The epithet "historic" is bandied all too often but today it is apt.
One further final point. The conduct of the GOP in this election has been such that one wonders if sections of hard-line Republicanism understand the meaning of the words "representative" and "democracy". Never mind the choice of Sarah Palin (I don't think we'll be hearing much from her in future, though we will hear plenty about her), it was the negativity of the campaign that will be remembered. They had nothing positive to take to the electorate, just poison and snide, dishonest tactics, the very worst of which - as reported on Newsnight the other evening - was telling voters that only registered Republicans could vote on November 4, while registered Democrats had to wait to November 5. That is quite unforgettable and utterly unforgivable. One hopes they have formed a circular firing squad.
