The next few days were spent discussing politics with co-workers, two of whom were in Grant Park watching the event.  The expectations are high for meaningful changes.  Two of our friends from Europe have already written to congratulate us, and our European next door neighbors are elated so we know our new President will be a much better representative of America to the rest of the world.  The U.S. has to reclaim their position of respect within the community of nations in order to be an effective force for peace, and President-elect Obama is the right man to make that change.  All week we've read comparisons about the parallels between the Obamas and the Kennedys "Camalot".  Great times are coming.

Wilmette connection:   The four of us got to meet Mr. Obama at a fund raiser in Wilmette when he was running for the U.S. Senate in the summer of 2004, before he gave his coming-out speech.  Yesterday I learned that his newly named White House Chief of Staff, Rahm Emanuel, grew up in Wilmette and went to New Trier High School.  Rahm is currently a member of the U.S. House of Representatives representing the northern part of Chicago.

The Numbers:  I've never seen this much enthusiasm for an election.  Our precinct of 584 registered voters had a 30% turn out for early voting and a total of almost 82% of the registered voters.  We had people waiting to vote at 5:30 even though we didn't open until 6:00, and had 75 people vote in the first hour.  Our precinct voted 67% for Obama.