I love this Greg - your best post ever.

The stakes were sky high. Not just for racial healing, that one hopes so much for - but for our future as a progressive country and I know we are a progressive country, and I think we will get on the right path and move now into the 21st century.

This century doesn't belong to me - it's letting me hang around for awhile. It belongs to your children.

And god it looks brighter than it has looked for maybe my whole life.

I'm so grateful to this country for doing the right thing.

My first political memory is the resignation of Nixon, when I was 8. I've always figured that led to my ongoing belief that government always lies, and that shaped the political apathy that was the rule through most of my young adulthood. It took about three decades, the worst president in history and the most inspirational president in history to turn that around for me, but I'm glad it's finally happened.

Your son is very lucky. He's starting out with hope. I'm finally getting hope that if we work hard now, we can give him a great future.

Greg - I really appreciate what you've written. My son is 8 and for him as well this will be the first election he remembers in his lifetime. I always maintained, even back in Summer 2007 when I decided Obama was my candidate, that the rewards of an Obama win would be so monumental that we would not even begin to comprehend them for many years.

Looking at my son the morning after the election and realizing his entire cognizent childhood and adolescence could, God willing, be lived with President Obama in office makes me so happy for him. I grew up with LBJ and Nixon, Vietnam and Martin Luther King's assassination. I pray that my son - a Hispanic in a mixed-race, multi-ethnic family - grows up seeing his country in a very different way than I did. Now it looks like he really can. The benefits of this election are immeasurable.

More than that of a black president, the presidency he will grow up under is that of a once in a lifetime, unique, transformative figure. He already knows that. Most adult eggheads, on the other hand, will still require more time to figure it out.

When I put my 6 year old son to bed Tuesday night I told him that in the morning Barack Obama may be our next President. Without missing a beat he said that Obama will be the next President because he worked really hard. Then he said that McCain wouldn’t win because he didn’t work hard enough and just said “bbbbggghhhttttt – I’m done” while Obama said “I’m going to do this – that – this – that and did it.” Kids can be so insightful sometimes.

While I don't directly remember this, my mom has told the story many times that in 1972 she asked me who should win the election and I said "Sen. McGovern, because he'll bring the troops home." God, I should have been a political pundit! ;-)

I have a 7 year old also who became very involved in this election. It occurred to me the other day that she is the exact age now that I was when Reagan was elected, and I was a child of the Reagan era.

She will be a child of the Obama era.

The thought that she would come to age not in the morally bankrupt Bush years, but the new Obama era fills my heart with joy.

My earliest election memory was when my parents brought me when they voted for Johnson in the Johnson/Goldwater election (1964). I made a point of getting my 9 and 7 year olds out of bed early (6AM) so we could all go pull the lever together for President Elect Obama. I'm so glad I did that and I know they will remember that for the rest of their lives, especially since their mother is Jamaican which makes them bi-racial. In fact, this election was so inspiring to my wife that even though she's been in this country for 20+ as a permanent resident, she has now decided to seek her US citizenship.

Can you imagine how we would have felt if we had failed? Can you imagine how the world would have seen us? It would have been set in stone that we were not what we claimed to be.

Here's what Bob Dylan told a Minneapolis audience on 11/4:

No one was expecting Bob Dylan to say a thing during his two-plus hour concert last night at Northrop Auditorium. For years, Dylan has been known to keep to himself during shows, often only speaking between songs once in order to introduce his band members. But last night, after a lengthy break between his regular set and his encore which I can only imagine was spent discovering that Barack Obama had won the election, Dylan returned to the stage to play "Like a Rolling Stone" and then turned to the audience and spoke.

"I was born in 1941," he said, a wavering sentimentality in his scratchy voice. "That was the year they bombed Pearl Harbor. I've been living in darkness ever since. It looks like things are going to change now."

This week has been incredible. I can't get through more than a few hours before a story from the campaign, a picture or just a memory stops me in my tracks. It is just stunning what this man has accomplished, and how far we have come. Combine that with the fact that Bush is leaving office in 74 days, and I couldn't be happier, depsite the grim economic news.

It's a new day, and together we can get through this. We're Americans, we've been through this before.

lelee -

Ours was born just after 9-11. I share your feelings absolutely. And now getting out the vote with me, which she loved:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/30580063@N02/3009953747/

I really appreciate what you've written, Greg.

My daughters are 1 and 4. Obama is the first president my oldest will remember (my youngest too, assuming he's elected to a second term). I was thinking just the other day how amazing it is that my children will grow up in a world where, to them, a black man has always been able to be president. And a woman was able to run and be taken seriously.

Greg,

This is a terrific post. Thanks so much for sharing it. Like many parents here at TPM, I've loved reading the stories of how children have responded to this election.

My 10 year old daughter and 13 year old son have been completely absorbed in this election. It was my son who got me to read Dreams From My Father (which I later reviewed alongside Faith of My Fathers), and since last March, he and I have shared many afternoons canvassing together.

We spent Tuesday walking through the quiet neighborhoods of Bucks County, PA -- talking with voters, placing poll information on door knobs, laughing at the few caustic remarks we received from disgruntled McCain supporters.

Later that afternoon, as we were preparing to leave the headquarters for the day, I realized how much I was going to miss this campaign for all it has given me as both a citizen and a father. That sense of communal good will has been so rare in my life and yet my kids have been able to experience it first hand via the Obama campaign. It is not that they've inherited a different world -- they've worked hard for it alongside scruffy college kids and clean-pressed retirees.

A final word of congratulations, Greg, on making it into the fascinating Newsweek account of the campaign. Great job!

In 1952 Alabama Senator John Sparkman came by our home in Huntsville and after shaking his hand I went around telling everyone "this is the hand that shook the hand of the next Vice President of the United States."

My first Presidential election memory is of listening to results on the radio and being quite disappointed that Stevenson/Sparkman lost to Ike/Dick. I remember that my father didn't visibly react, so I decided it must not be all that terrible an event.

The first time my candidate for president won was in 1976. I remember staying up late until Uncle Walter finally said something like "well, I guess it's about time to call this election." I left a note on the table to tell the family that "Jimmy Won!" (When I got up the next morning, my father had written a note underneath "Jimmy Who?") Vividly I remember the 4th of July 1976 and the patriotism I felt and that the country was in for real change for the better.

So, a cautionary note for you youngsters, in 1976 I believed the country had put war and racism behind us. This year's election is probably the most emotional I've ever experienced and it's wonderful how the country has changed. But the struggle has not yet begun, the Repuglicans will come back as their creed is "It ain't over until we win."

Good luck and God bless, President O.

The earliest election I can remember is 1960. What I recall most was the feeling of hope that pervaded Kennedy's election. If you haven't heard it before, give a listen to his inaugural address:

http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/jfkinaugural.htm

It's almost spooky how well it translates into today, 48 years later.

all of you, thanks very much for all this. your stories and thoughts are much appreciated...g

I have a child story to share was well. Sometime over the summer I put the video of the Iowa caucus night speech up for my kids (2 and 3 yrs old). I was interested to see if the power of the speech translated to someone who did not really understand the words - similar to watching a speech in a foreign language.

My 3 year old, ever aware of the people around her, clapped when everyone else clapped. I figured this was pretty much what you could expect. The 2 year old just studied the video which is how she typically handles new experiences.

So about 3-4 weeks ago as I was bringing them downstairs for breakfast, the 2 year old asked "I want to listen to Obama." I couldn't believe it so I asked her to repeat it until my wife said "you heard the child, put on the Obama speech." Ever since then, either one of his speeches or the will.i.am music video has been a staple in our house. I don't know if I did something right or wrong, but I have a 2yo political junkie!

We took the kids to the polls with us and they have been telling everyone they see that they voted for Obama and as the older one says - Obama WON!

As they grow up, I know that he will likely be the first president they can remember. Now I hope they always remember him not just as the president when they were young, but THEIR president.

This truly is a great post. The question of whether we could say this:

[Our children] "could actually grow up perceiving our political system, and our leaders, as functional, effective, even sane."

...had John McCain been elected borders on the absurd.

The more interesting question is whether we could have said it had Hillary Clinton been elected.