"Senator ObamaÕs victory speech was a concise oratorical gem. No candidate in either party can move an audience like he can. He characterized his stunning victory as an affirmation of Òthe most American of ideas Ñ that in the face of impossible odds, people who love this country can change it.Ó

Mr. Obama has shown, in one appearance after another, a capacity to make people feel good about their country again. His supporters want desperately to turn the page on the bitter politics and serial disasters of the past 20 years. That they have gravitated to a black candidate to carry out this task is Ñ to use a term I heard for the first time this week Ñ monumentous."


New York Times
The Obama Phenomenon


By BOB HERBERT