A Moment in Time

It was Bob Schieffer, just after 10 last night, who made it (un)official: Barack Obama would be the next president of the United States.

It was game over when John McCain lost Ohio.

This election was different in so many ways, and unlike the past two, we didn't wake up the morning after not knowing who would be the leader of the country.

And unlike the elections dating back to 1789, America will no longer be led by a white man.

It's funny, the things that pop into your mind as history unfolds. When I was very young, there were no black characters on TV shows. It was a sea of white faces. The breakthrough came when Bill Cosby was made the co-star of "I Spy" -- and four stations, in Georgia, Florida and Alabama, refused to air the show. The 1967 film "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner" was entertaining precisely because the premise, a middle-class white girl bringing Sidney Poitier to meet her family, was a bit far-fetched.

We all know the culture has changed in the age of Oprah and Tiger. What we didn't quite know was how much. Plenty of people opposed Obama or supported McCain for good political reasons. But McCain was gracious in recognizing the moment last night, even if some of his booing supporters were not.

In the coming days and months, the media will be grappling not with the historic victor but with the leader of a fledgling government who must build coalitions and forge policies to match a monster set of problems. But last night, with the shots of people tearing up on streets across America, only the hardhearted could fail to appreciate the magnitude of the moment.

"Some 232 years after the Declaration of Independence . . ., " Wolf Blitzer said.

David Gergen quoted Martin Luther King.

"In a country that was stained by slavery, he is now president of the United States," David Gregory said. "The ultimate color line has now been crossed."

"This country has changed history," Chris Matthews said.

"The world will never forget this moment," Gene Robinson said.