John Baer: An election not about race, but about America today

YES, WE DID.

Our nation made history, voted for change and furthered racial progress.

Even Pennsylvania, with its bitter people clinging to guns and religion, with Jack Murtha's "rednecks" and Ed Rendell's five-percenters, joined the chorus supporting Barack Obama.

It's an outcome that by any measure is extraordinary.

Against the backdrop of a hugely unpopular incumbent president, two unpopular wars and a downward-spiraling economy, a national novice sold a message of change and hope strong enough, convincing enough, to outweigh worries about his youth and inexperience and transcend - in a nation where blacks once were enslaved - his race.

(As pointed out by Newsweek's Jonathan Alter, our first 18 presidents could have owned Obama.)

Just think of the assumptions and falsehoods he overcame: a black can't win; he's not black enough; he's unprepared to be commander in chief; he's a Muslim; a socialist; a pal to terrorists; an enemy of Joe the Plumber, and a follower of an un-American, racist, white-hating minister.

But voters clearly cared more about the everyday problems that they and their families face than political taglines, and believed in the promise and possibility of this young, newcomer politician.

His call for a new politics of unity and inclusion worked.

"This campaign has never been about me," Obama said so often, "it's about you."

And Pennsylvania?

John McCain was here twice as much as Obama, spent a bundle on TV in the final days and groups such as the National Republican Trust PAC dropped a ton of Rev. Wright ads.

(I asked McCain spokesman Peter Feldman about McCain's position that Wright was off-limits, to which he responded, "Senator McCain's not the referee for every ad in this election.")

Didn't matter. The Keystone State stayed blue for the fifth consecutive presidential election, I am certain, because of the economy.

When McCain in September, as Wall Street was melting, called the economy "fundamentally strong," then "suspended" (but not really) his campaign while threatening to not show for the first debate, he conveyed the impression that he wasn't focused on what voters wanted.

Obama, on the other hand, conveyed level-headed calm and confidence.

For my money, the race ended there.

And what now?

Philly state Sen. Anthony Williams told me last night that Obama's win "certainly helps with issues of race in this country, but the subtle part of it is his intelligence, charisma and appeal helps everyone. His election is not about race; to me, it's an American story."

President-elect Obama now faces enormous challenges, not least of which is battling fears of an extended recession or, some suggest, a looming depression.

This will force governing from the center even if Democrats capture the Congress.

Look for - in his January inaugural address or sooner - a scaling back of his progressive plans on health care, energy, education and more.

Expect a message not unlike that of President Kennedy's in 1961, that some things promised during the campaign might not happen in the first 100 days, or the first 1,000 days, or even the first term of office.

But also expect some new outreach, some widespread appeal with Obama using technology and younger voters in the ways he did as a candidate.

Look for national appeals for greater service to country and community, and maybe something bigger.

It might not be a Franklin Roosevelt national public-works project. It might not be a JFK Peace Corps or man-on-the-moon program.

But look for leadership that's different, leadership resembling that from another inexperienced lawyer/politician from Illinois a century-and-a-half ago - leadership, as Lincoln put it, that appeals to "the better angels of our nature."

Heaven knows the nation needs it. *

Send e-mail to baerj@phillynews.com.

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