There was that moment of transcendence that came in my own living room at
9:25 p.m. eastern time when MSNBC called my state, Ohio, for Barack Obama.

I knew then it was over. The only question was by how much and how soon.

But I had to contemplate what Ohio meant. I had attended the huge Obama
rally in downtown Cleveland Sunday evening where rocker Bruce Springsteen
gave a rousing endorsement of the Senator from Illinois.

There was that moment of transcendence there too – when Springsteen sang
“This Land Is Your Land” with the entire crowd singing along lustily. A
crowd, I might add, that represented all the racial and ethnic groups that
make up the USA.

All of them, waving a sea of American flags and singing together “this land
was made for you and me.”

I had a feeling then. Between the tears and the flag waving, for the first
time in a long time, I felt that maybe just maybe, this nation could shake
off a centuries old legacy of racism, hate, cynicism and divisiveness and
rediscover the promise of our Founding Fathers.

This was something special. In a land awash in pain, fear and cynicism,
last night an upstart first term Senator from Illinois showed an America
still weary from eight years of George W. Bush that dreams still do come
true.

Obama’s improbable march to the White House began in the early weeks of
2007. And it all began in the cold steps of the Illinois state capital in
Springfield. He made a great speech, yes, but the pundits reminded us his
brave campaign was doomed to failure.

A few weeks later the Illinois Senator came to within 100 yards of my Cedar
Rapids, Iowa house – just down the street at my son’s school – John F.
Kennedy High School.

My son Eric came home, loaded with campaign materials and very impressed. “I
think he’s for real, dad,” my son Eric said. But how could he beat the
Hillary Clinton juggernaut, I wondered.

At the time, I was working in a local bookstore. A woman asked for a copy of
Obama’s “Dreams From my Father” and asked me what I thought. “Not a chance,”
I said. She asked if I really didn’t think America was ready to elect an
African-American as President.

“I don’t think so, sadly,” I said. “That is sad,” the customer said.

Never have I been so spectacularly wrong on all counts and never have I been
so happy to be so wrong.

What happened?

Essentially the forgotten people of the American electorate turned out and
put Barack Obama in the White House. Not just the youth vote which came out
large and strong for Obama but the African-American vote as well as every
other previously marginalized voting bloc all rose as one person.

As Georgia Senator Saxbe Chambliss (R) warned while touring North Georgia,
trying to boost turnout in his predominately white base: “The other folks
are voting.”

Indeed those “other folks” were not to be denied this time. And those people
— the non-evangelical Christians, the non-gun owners, the non talk radio
crowd, the non-whites – will not leave the political landscape anytime soon.

And years from now when this historic night makes its way to our history
books, the next generation of American kids can read about how a man with a
black Kenyan father and a white mother, a man who really never knew his
father, who grew up running the back streets of Honolulu, could someday be
President of these United States.

Isn’t that what it this country was supposed to be about after all?

No, I didn’t believe it could happen. And a part of me still needs someone
to pinch me. I sit here Wednesday morning and stare at the numbers and hear
the pundits still talking about George W. Bush handing this election to the
Democrats.

Don’t you believe it. Maybe with a number of new Senators and Congressmen,
the reaction to the GOP reign of economic catastrophe for eight years
certainly helped.

But that doesn’t explain Obama vanquishing the unbeatable Clinton machine
and then winning states like Virginia, North Carolina, Florida and Indiana.
Don’t tell me those states would have elected a black man as President
because of a few bad economic quarters.

MSNBC reported exit polls showed Obama carried white voters by 10 points.

President-elect Barack Obama inspired America – across all demographic
groups. And last night, Obama spoke eloquently about being a President for
all the people and said to the world “a new dawn of American leadership is
at hand.” The man living at 24 Sussex Drive may also have to adjust his
thinking as well.

So a new and more hopeful era begins in a country that seems to have an
almost unique ability to recreate itself again and again, surprising most of
its critics and resident cynics – including myself.

I watched the massive crowds in Times Square in New York City and Grant Park
in Chicago last night and felt something I hadn’t felt in a long time.

Welcome back to the land of hope and dreams.

Keith Gottschalk

Keith Gottschalk

U.S. Keith Gottschalk has written for daily newspapers in Iowa, Illinois and Ohio. He also had a recent stint as a radio talk show host in Illinois. As a result of living in the high ground...