Far from the spotlight of Tuesday night's election coverage, President-elect Barack Obama picked up an unneeded yet significant win on Thursday.
North Carolina, a state the Democratic Party had not won in a presidential election since Jimmy Carter did in 1976, turned blue. Obama's narrow victory there - by just less than 14,000 votes - made North Carolina the ninth state he won Tuesday that Republican President George W. Bush won in 2004.
While many of those states were won by slim margins, there were margins of victory nonetheless for Obama in a remarkable national turnaround that gives the Democrat something of mandate when he takes office Jan. 20, 2009.
Obama earned 364 electoral votes, nearly 100 more than needed to win the presidency and the most any candidate has received since President Bill Clinton won re-election in 1996 with 379 votes. And Obama's win was not earned just in the traditional Democratic strongholds of the northeast and west coasts. He swept the Big Ten states in the Midwest, and picked up Southern wins in Florida, North Carolina and Virginia, as well.
With the decisive win, Obama has political capital that George W. Bush claimed in 2004 but never really had.
Obama's capabilities as an inspirational figure also are clear. Though he must gain political experience on the job, he displayed during the campaign the intellectual and oratorical skills of past great presidents.
He'll need them, and Obama must harness all of the leadership skills he possesses to direct the nation through the growing crises it faces today.
In our online poll question this week, readers so far seem to think Obama will be either a great or a poor president. He will be great only if he is able to speak the hard truths, early in his term, to Americans about energy, the economy, health care and taxation. He must decisively convince Americans that only difficult measures can solve difficult problems. He must enlist Americans to participate, and in some cases make sacrifices, for those solutions.
In the weeks leading up to the inauguration, we will discuss some of those difficult situations, and the difficult paths Obama may need to lead us through.
North Carolina, a state the Democratic Party had not won in a presidential election since Jimmy Carter did in 1976, turned blue. Obama's narrow victory there - by just less than 14,000 votes - made North Carolina the ninth state he won Tuesday that Republican President George W. Bush won in 2004.
While many of those states were won by slim margins, there were margins of victory nonetheless for Obama in a remarkable national turnaround that gives the Democrat something of mandate when he takes office Jan. 20, 2009.
Obama earned 364 electoral votes, nearly 100 more than needed to win the presidency and the most any candidate has received since President Bill Clinton won re-election in 1996 with 379 votes. And Obama's win was not earned just in the traditional Democratic strongholds of the northeast and west coasts. He swept the Big Ten states in the Midwest, and picked up Southern wins in Florida, North Carolina and Virginia, as well.
With the decisive win, Obama has political capital that George W. Bush claimed in 2004 but never really had.
Obama's capabilities as an inspirational figure also are clear. Though he must gain political experience on the job, he displayed during the campaign the intellectual and oratorical skills of past great presidents.
He'll need them, and Obama must harness all of the leadership skills he possesses to direct the nation through the growing crises it faces today.
In our online poll question this week, readers so far seem to think Obama will be either a great or a poor president. He will be great only if he is able to speak the hard truths, early in his term, to Americans about energy, the economy, health care and taxation. He must decisively convince Americans that only difficult measures can solve difficult problems. He must enlist Americans to participate, and in some cases make sacrifices, for those solutions.
In the weeks leading up to the inauguration, we will discuss some of those difficult situations, and the difficult paths Obama may need to lead us through.
