OBSERVATION OF THE DAY.

Theodore H. White:

Good or bad, whatever the decision, America will accept the decision -- and cut down any man who goes against it, even though for millions the decision runs contrary to their own votes. The general vote is an expression of national will, the only substitute for violence and blood. Its verdict is to be defended as one defends civilization itself.

(The Making of the President: 1960, p. 10).

Here's a meditation from three days ago.

On Wednesday, roughly half of Americans will awaken to find that the horse they backed disappointed them. That presumes we even have an immediate result; don't forget 2000, when America had to wait more than a month.

Yet there is, in the national conversation, surprisingly little talk about not accepting the winner if things don't go your way. Sure, some Democrats joke about moving to Canada, but gauging the severity of responses on the day after is a gauzy exercise in tarot-card reading that even television's loudest mouths rarely discuss.

The essay describes an interesting ritual.

On Thursday, candidates for office - winners and losers - will gather and ride down the streets of Georgetown, Del., together before thousands of people to show that divisiveness need not endure after the election. They even bury a symbolic hatchet.

"All the ill feelings and harsh remarks, all of that is buried in there, and everybody agrees to put aside their partisanship and work together," says Debbie Jones, one of the organizers. "It's something everybody could use."

So let it be with President-elect Obama.

On election day, many Northern Illinois students were wearing Obama t-shirts. The Northern Star sent reporters to the rally at Grant Park. This morning, the few Chicago Tribunes that were shipped to DeKalb sold out quickly. The paper made additional press runs, but these appear to be limited to Chicago only.

From what I've heard about television coverage of the election, my decision to tape WMAQ, the NBC affiliate in Chicago, was the right one. The station gave me the national coverage plus additional coverage of the party in Grant Park. The most impressive part of the local coverage was the impressions of older people with memories of de jure segregation, many admitting they never expected what they were seeing. Veteran newsanchor Werner Saunders told a story of a trip he made to Mississippi to witness the place where a mob left Emmett Till's body, suggesting that the reaction to that murder set in motion the events that led to last night's party. William Greider captures the sentiments well.

For younger people, white and black, his vision seemed entirely straightforward. It is the country they already know, and they expressed great enthusiasm. Finally, they said, a politician who recognizes the racial differences that are part of their lives and no big deal. For young blacks and other minorities, Obama's place at the pinnacle of official power lifts a coarse cloak that has blanketed their lives and dreams--the stultifying burden of being judged, whether they succeed or fail, on the basis of their race.

For others of us at an advanced age, Obama's success is more shocking. We can see it as a monumental rebuke to tragic history--the ultimate defeat of "white supremacy." That vile phrase was embedded in American society (even the Constitution) from the outset and still in common usage when some of us were young. Now it is officially obsolete. Racism will not disappear entirely, but the Republican "Southern strategy" that marketed racism has been smashed. Americans will now be able to see themselves differently, North and South, white and black. The changes will spread through American life in ways we cannot yet fully imagine.

Betsy Newmark concurs in part, with a cautionary note.

Obama's victory will not with one fell swoop change the lives of black Americans. The black community will still face the problems that they had yesterday. Electing Obama will not decrease teen pregnancy or the crime rate among black men. Obama will have the opportunity to use the bully pulpit to address those problems and speak out about the need for increased responsibility in the black community. He has already done that somewhat, but I wouldn't be surprised to hear more of that for him. And all those blacks celebrating his victory will have to realize that having a black man in the White House will not suddenly change their lives any more than having black mayors in all the major cities has not improved their lives.

Look at the crowds of white people who went to Obama rallies and the faces of young white kids celebrating his victory. And then just think about how it was in our lifetimes when blacks could not vote throughout the South. And now the capital of the Confederacy went for an African American man for the presidency. Even for conservatives, this is an amazing moment to marvel at and savor. We have come so far since when I was a child and that is a good thing.

The Obama presidency, with Democratic majorities in the House and Senate, has the potential to be Illinois on a grand scale at worst, or yet another crack at New Deal - New Frontier - Great Society nostrums at best. That those nostrums will work no better when legislated by a more diverse Congress might be the reality check people will deserve.

And there are people who deserve a reality check. The party coverage included more than a few shots of twentysomething women looking to the stage with dreamy expressions. It's understandable for people with the life experiences of college sophomores to believe the progressive bromides.

When sixty-somethings, such as former Madison mayor Paul Soglin, cling to them, that's harder to understand.

In any case, for the first time in my lifetime, and that includes the election of JFK in 1960, or my years as mayor when Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton were elected, I am truly excited about the future and the unknown possibilities for our nation and the world. The economy and the wars will prevent any immediate social change, but it is coming.

Mayor Soglin may have written in advance the epitaph for the Obama administration.