An historic evening last night, as Barack Obama was elected by a substantial majority to become the next President, and the first African-American President of the US. This is a day your kids will tell their grandchildren about. And kudos to McCain for giving a concession speech in which he asked his followers to join in supporting the new President for the good of the country. I only hope that we can put this divisive campaign behind us now, and work collectively on the change we all seem to want, and the change our country so desperately needs.

Still, the drama isn’t done. Alaska convicted felon and Senator Ted Stevens of Alaska is in a dead heat for reelection. Should he win, he could still be forced to resign, which would give Palin the opportunity to appoint his replacement. Personally, I find it unlikely that genie is going back in the bottle. I’ll be surprised if she’s content to return to being the unknown governor of Alaska.

At the state level, not so much sanity prevailed as almost all of the legislative incumbents were returned to their positions within the most dysfunctional state government in the union. We should be so proud. I think the blind spot here is that most everyone likes their guy, but assumes it’s all the other guys that are the problem. But I assure you, your guy and my guy are all part of the problem. So NY is not going to get better anytime soon.

All in all, a promising election. Yet the real work is still before us. Rhetoric alone won’t fix our economy, schools, infrastructure, budget problems, global reputation, or resolve the terrorism threat. That will involve hard work and sacrifice on all our parts. I only hope that we now have leaders with the courage and credibility to ask us all to step up.