Don't wake me up.

Jesse Jackson is openly crying tears of joy. A huge crowd is cheering in Chicago. The streets of cities are filled with people honking their horns and cheering. This feels like a dream; a wonderful, impossible dream that any moment will fade into the wakefulness of cold, repressive reality.

I said it this morning, and Andrew said it of me when he saw my face today, without any prompting: it feels like for the past eight years a huge weight has been on my mind, and today that weight has been lifted off. For the first time since the beginning of this decade, I feel hope for the world. I feel as if the future holds peace and opportunity instead of war and dystopia.

In my more fanciful moments, I've thought myself an empath. That is, my mind is inundated by the emotions of those around me. Whether supernatural or simply perceptive, the sense other people's emotions is constantly with me. Sometimes I just need to be alone to block it all out and have my own, private feelings. But last night, and this morning, I feel this enormous upswelling of love and hope, like a warm glow all around me. I feel like the human condition is something to be proud of, not ashamed of.

It takes a unique elixir of elements to create this kind of worldwide excitement about a politician. First, it pretty much has to be a U.S. president. The U.S., though waning, is still the dominant superpower in the world. They, as a nation, are an entity around which so many other nations can rally. They're the leader of the western world, of democracies, and of the modern time.

The second element is unfortunately a negative one: it takes a strongly disliked predecessor. I won't mince any words: George W. Bush was the worst president of the United States ever. There is no president who in modern times has done so much to harm the security of the world. There is no president who has done so much in the recent era to make democratic nations dislike and distrust America. There is no modern U.S. president who has presided under such an infamous banner of war, torture, fear, and Orwellian erosion of civil liberties. And there is certainly no president who has come so close to turning the secular United States into some sort of Christian oligarchy. Whether you are a liberal or a conservative does not matter, these facts remain. Were George W. Bush the leader of any other nation, he would be facing war crimes trials and impeachment today. But being an American president carries a certain amount of immunity.

The last, and most singularly important element, is that the politician be a great leader, and a great human being. President-Elect Barack Obama is both of these things. He tries to challenge his citizens instead of oversimplifying or dumbing-down discussion of the issues. He talks about engaging the population in politics and getting people out to vote, regardless of their political stripes. He talks about representing ALL Americans, not just the ones who voted for him. He talks about earning back the trust of other nations.

But most importantly Barack Obama embodies a very special idea. Not just through his eloquent words and indomitable spirit, but through the very colour of his skin. It is the idea that if we put our minds to something, if we fight long enough and hard enough, we CAN make our dreams a reality; we CAN change ourselves for the better; and we CAN make the world a better place.

Yes We Can.