In a Heated Race, Obama's Cool Won the Day

There are a lot of reasons why a guy with the improbable name of Barack Hussein Obama just won the presidency of the United States -- such as Wall Street's meltdown, a wildly unpopular president and an opponent so in love with his own maverick image that he picked Annie Oakley as his running mate. But one reason became obvious only over the past six weeks: his temperament.

President-elect Obama has a temperament so even, so balanced, so cool, you couldn't faze it with a flamethrower.

Even in his victory speech at Grant Park on Tuesday night, at the end of an exhausting campaign, he kept things steady, on script. He never exulted, and showed few flashes of anything like the joy that saturated his audience. His speech was sober, serious and sweeping, commensurate with the historic nature of a black man being elected to lead a nation built with slave labor.

Obama over the past two years proved himself an ironman, someone who knows that half the battle is showing up every day. He had spectacular moments, but he also showed an uncanny knack for avoiding mistakes. Like a great golfer, he knew how to grind out the pars. His opponents sneered that Obama has no experience, that he's never been in charge of anything, but by the end of this campaign he didn't look green at all. He seemed fully in command of his campaign and his own emotions. He even visibly aged before our eyes, with more gray in his hair.

He was never excitable, and he eventually made that trait part of his pitch. Listen to what he said on "Monday Night Football" on the eve of the election:

"I don't get too high when things are going well and I don't get too low when things are going tough."

Temperament: Who knew it could be a secret weapon?

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Obama's final rally took place late Monday night in Manassas. Something like 90,000 people filled a swale of the Prince William County Fairgrounds, packed under bright lights, framed by oaks and maples in their autumn glory. Obama delivered his standard stump speech, showing little sign of fatigue, never succumbing to the urge to phone it in. In the darkness, back near the traveling press corps, stood campaign strategist David Axelrod, the architect of a historic victory.

"One of the things I told him in the beginning: Presidential candidacies are like MRIs for your character. You can't hide anything," Axelrod said.

Does Obama ever lose his temper?

"Everybody loses their temper, but I've never seen him lose his control," Axelrod answered. "I've never heard him scream in rage. He's got a great facility for turning anger into something constructive."