Political earthquake. Barack Obama is the voice of a new spirit

I still can't believe it. I just got back from the Obama victory party.

Half a million votes. More than 50%.

A clean sweep. The consensus candidate.

I knew at 7:28 pm, when I got the results from the 35th precinct of the 43rd ward. This precinct in Lincoln Park (a stretch of Lincoln Avenue from Fullerton to Webster) is an affluent neighborhood. (Little fact: my parents lived in the precinct in the 70s before the money came into Lincoln Park). Another fact: Dan Hynes lived in the precinct until a few years ago. This was considered to be prime Hynes territory.

Obama received 122 votes. Hynes received 18.

WOW!

That's not a landslide, that's a movement.

The precinct is probably 97% white, and 95% high-income.

The story was the same all over the state.

Democratic voters hungrily propelled an honest, intelligent black professor to the top of the party heap.

This was an absolute rejection of the machine.

This is huge.

I'm incoherent with happiness.