What a night it was. Millions of people gathered in front of televisions across the country nervously awaiting that grand moment at 11 PM Eastern time when Barack Obama was announced to have won the presidency. Someday our children and grandchildren will ask us about this president they learned about in history class, and we’ll be able to tell them exactly where we were and what we were doing when he became the president. But what other questions will they ask?

They will probably ask about his race. And we should say what Bernard Avishai said, “[We chose] an obviously brilliant, reciprocal man over a thick, cynical one–a man who articulates a coherent vision of global commonwealth over someone advancing vague, military patriotism–which proves we can come to terms with our future,” rather than talk about his race.

Remember how this election was supposed to be post-racial? But as soon as Obama was elected, everyone got doe-eyed and said how incredible it is that we elected a black president. As Avishai points out, we elected the better candidate with the vision and agenda to move us forward as a member of the international community. The fact that we elected a black man is indeed historic, but it is secondary to our rejection of jingoism, fear-mongering, and unilateralism.

Our children may also ask us why we transferred our bigotry from race to sexual orientation. I’m not sure we have a good answer. It shocks and saddens me that in the liberal bastion of California voters passed Proposition 8, rewriting the constitution to define marriage as a union between a man and a woman. (Josh has a wonderful and emotional piece here, it’s a must-read).

One of the most awful statistics I saw in the many exit polls released Tuesday was that 70% of African-Americans in California voted for Prop 8. Do they not recognize that their intolerance is just as supremely painful to homosexuals as white intolerance is to them? Also awful, but I suppose not surprising, is that 82% of voters who reported that they attend church weekly voted for the proposition. Using religion as a guise to hide behind in order to hate and discriminate against others is truly repulsive. (See all the exit poll results here).

I guess we can’t get all that change at one time. Electing Obama and delivering big Democratic majorities to Congress is a big step in the right direction. It will certainly help to dispel the “America is a center-right country” myth that echoes around the punditry. And perhaps a move towards liberalism will hope us form a real post-racial, post-sexual future. Let’s hope our children ask us about our bizarre, discriminatory past, not our bizarre, discriminatory present.

Ruh-roh. Remember how McCain’s campaign was basically lousy with lobbyists? How his campaign manager conducted business for his lobbying firm on the Straight Talk Express? And how Obama, in contrast, managed to keep the lobbyists out of his campaign?

Well, it looks like the honeymoon’s sorta over.

In fairness to the Obama transition team, the lobbyists who are getting brought onboard are all signing “a document pledging to not lobby for one year the department or agency they’re helping to staff, according to Democratic sources.” And I don’t think there’s much danger of an Obama White House looking anything like K Street under Republican rule, which basically became Caligula’s palace for earmark-hungry corporations.

But still. This is worth keeping in mind as we see Obama’s cabinet and White House staff take shape.

David Allan Coe, for instance. The self-vindicating “longhaired redneck” wrote songs for years simply about being country as hell, also drunk and pissed off. An outlaw is a little like a maverick, except he’s supposed to brag about what he is. It’s part of his identity, and if you don’t believe him, he’ll kick your ass. As David Sedaris recently wrote regarding John McCain, a true maverick would never say he was one—not so, for badass outlaws. They sing about how badass they are all the time, and they are.

Mr. Coe sings:

The loudmouth in the corner’s getting to me
Talking ‘bout my earrings and my hair
I guess he ain’t read the sign that says I been to prison.
Someone ought to warn him, ‘fore I knock him off his chair

‘Cause my long hair just can’t cover up my redneck
I’ve won every fight I’ve ever fought
And I don’t need some turkey telling me that I ain’t country
Sayin’ I ain’t worth a damned old ticket that he bought

Damn.

Country singers tell great stories about real people, and outlaws tell really great stories about really screwed-up people. The hands of these storytellers gesticulate wildly like a standard songwriter’s, but then one hand twists into a jack-in-the-box wound up by the other hand and a surprise middle finger pops out, not unlike a third grader.

Outlaws tell stories about being in the diviest bars with the sleaziest prostitutes, stories unlike anything you’ve ever heard, but you believe every word. What’s more, you love them. You want to sit your ass on a porch and do nothing. You want to drive a piece-of-shit car and extol the dependability of a bottle of Jack Daniel’s.

Maybe they’re lying to me by the dozens, but everyone to whom I show David Allan Coe loves his music. He drops the N-word, the C-word, and, when questioned about the authenticity of his stories, writes songs like “I’d Like to Kick the Shit Out of You”. But it’s only a matter of time before the black people, women, and skeptics I know are shouting the chorus louder than I am.

But again, an outlaw must have three names. Perhaps the gnarliest outlaw in all of country music, the very man Coe claims helped get him out of prison, had three: a man born J.R. Cash. Too famous to be an outlaw? Hardly. His best-known photograph (originally an ad defaming the Nashville production machine) shows him fiercely biting his lower lip, clutching a guitar, and thrusting a huge middle finger so close to the camera that it’s out of focus.

In fact, hiding one of your three names only makes you more credible as an outlaw. Americans can see this in President-elect Barack Hussein Obama, a man who destroyed the whispers of every naysayer in this country simply by bringing the name Hussein out of a dirty bunker-hole in the Iraqi desert and into the White House.

Whatever will happen to him now is anyone’s guess, and what he will do for America, too. But so many Americans ride into the next presidency with unbound hope and in genuine unity—in the bed of a Ford F-350 Outlaw, not a beat-up, old Maverick. He told an outlaw’s story, a hugely improbable story of the future, one that we ate up like hogs at an old trough. We needed it. We needed new feed in that trough. And as with all fantasies, we need to keep believing in it to make it so.

Outlaws understand real people; as its most extreme representatives, they exemplify what it means to be country. As crazy as David Allan Coe is, he’s capable of some unbelievable lyrics that cut deep and quick, like a shiv, and lay bare all the guts of American ugliness. Only a country outlaw can do that:

The neighbors said we lived like hicks
But they brung their cars for Paw to fix
Anyhow.
He was veteran-proud, tried and true
He’d fought till his heart was black and blue
Didn’t know how he’d made it through
The hard times
He bought our house on the G.I. Bill
But it wasn’t worth all he had to kill
To get it.

Obama exposed America in his rhetoric. He surprised me. He talked about what it meant to be an American in a way I’ve never heard before. He flat-out said he would only cut taxes for 95% of the country because they’re suffering and need it more than the rich. That’s a meaty thing to say, even for a guy who’s obviously very liberal. But regardless of what he actually accomplishes, this country is so immensely behind him, and that morale is so important. One friend called it “the passing of the torch to our generation”. A conservative friend said he “wanted our Kennedy” and didn’t care if he was a Democrat. An outlaw connects with people in the darkest of times and in the foulest of places.

The past couple days, I’ve felt an immeasurable pride every time I’ve opened up the newspaper and seen the name Barack Hussein Obama. It’s a powerful name. And seeing it printed in its entirety, as is the custom of newspapers reporting on a newly elected official, brings new posture to the American vocabulary.

We’re not hiding it anymore. His middle name is Hussein. So what? He’s going to be our president, for God’s sake; now we have to say it. Now everyone has to stop pretending they don’t know there’s a Hussein. And I know we can because we already have. We elected him—we chose the outlaw to lead this country away from the burning Bush. We’re OK with a black man, a middle-name-Hussein, a last-name-near-Osama holding this country in his hands, and we’re going to let that outlaw tell our story for us, to the rest of the world, who, I assure you, is listening damn closely. If the country remains together to perpetuate it, the story will become truth.

When country singer Steve Goodman wrote “You Never Even Called Me By My Name”, he told David Allan Coe that he thought it was the perfect country-western song.

Coe wrote back and told him that it sure as hell wasn’t. “He hadn’t said anything at all about Mama or trains or trucks or prison or gettin’ drunk,” Coe said in his letter. Goodman took one look at Coe’s notes and added another verse to the song.

It goes:

I was drunk the day my Mom got out of prison
And I went to pick her up in the rain
But before I could get to the station in the pickup truck
She got run over by a damned old train.

People listen to outlaws; they believe them; they get behind their opinions, wild as they are. Outlaws change things just by sheer presence. I feel that every time I see the three names, side by side: Barack Hussein Obama. This country elected a man with that name. He’s going to be our president. He could prevent what was an inevitable crash.

If that ain’t country, I’ll kiss your ass.

Photo by Flickr user throwthedamnthing used under a Creative Commons license.

Looks like optimistic optimism has defeated mere cautious optimism.

You want cash or check, Charlie?

Mandates are kind of a funny game; presumably whether or not a candidate has a right to declare a mandate for his policies should have a lot to do with his popular vote margin, but more often than not, whether or not he gets his mandate is up to the talking heads on CNN. And so it is with this election.

Obama didn’t just win on Tuesday. He crushed. And, as Jamelle pointed out, it was McCain’s decision to turn this election into a referendum on liberalism, with all of his blather about redistribution and “spreading the wealth around.” Obama ran this election as an unapologetic progressive, and in the last leg of the campaign, McCain hammered him on it. And you know what? It didn’t work. It turned out that Americans liked spreading the wealth around.

Sounds like a mandate to make sweeping liberal reforms to the federal government, right? Well, sure, if you’re on Planet Earth. If you’re on TV Land, then no, not at all. Because, as you can see from the above video, America is a center right nation.

It’s not exactly clear what the fuck, if anything, that means. Isn’t whatever the mainstream of the country overwhelmingly supports, by definition, the center? The electorate can’t be to the right of itself, and America presumably elected a unified Democratic government so that they could enact the Democratic platform. You can mumble as much as you want about what kind of country this really is, and what the American people, deep down, secretly want, but the voters have spoken.

The second most important African American man last night may or may not even be a real person. Anyone glued to the CNN election coverage witnessed the surreal hologram technology the network employed, never more impressively than when Mr. “Yes We Can” himself made an, er, appearance? Gizmodo explains, but I’ll use all of this excess hope and faith and call it the work of God.

So … what happens now?

Photo by Flickr user BohPhoto used under a Creative Commons license.

Hopefully by now you have already voted. If not, please do. And if you’re getting antsy then make some phone calls. These things can wait until tomorrow:

5) 4th Quarter Rap Release Dates

It’s getting to be that time of year, when every legend and weed carrier alike puts a new stocking stuffer on the shelves at Best Buy. Complex runs down the likelihood that we’ll actually see albums by Jay-Z, 50 Cent, Eminem and others. But really, who cares.

4) Kanye West’s new song “Anyway”

Probably the hottest thing yet off of 808s and Heartbreak—which we will almost definitely get to hear this year—and eskay over at NahRight has the track. Listen to it in the morning.

3) The new season of 24

A date has been set, but hopefully for both Jack Bauer and the rest of us, by tomorrow the world will be saved.

2) MIA and Blaqstarr’s take on The Wire theme “Way Down in the Hole”

[via Idolator]

1) Britney Spears’ Circus cover

If you’re like me, you’re wringing your hands and waiting anxiously for tonight when this damn thing will finally end. The good news? It should be over in a hurry. Obama’s lead is even more pronounced at the state level than the national level, so early east coast results should quickly tell us a lot. Basically, if the polls are right, then Obama will have a pretty clear path to victory announced by around 8 PM. More about some key states after the jump.

If Obama wins Virginia (polls close at 7 PM EST), there’s not much hope for McCain. So we should know early on in the night how things are looking. McCain, in this situation, would need to win Pennsylvania, where he’s behind from 4 to 14 points in recent polls. He would also need to win Florida and Ohio (he’s behind there too) and win at least one of the three western swing states: Nevada, New Mexico, and Colorado (he’s behind there too). Good stuff if you’re an Obama supporter.

If Obama loses Virginia, then we’re in for a much bumpier ride (especially since it might be a sign that the polling has been wrong or undecideds are breaking for McCain). Obama still has a number of paths to victory in this situation, but it will be a scary night.

However, don’t worry Obama fans. Based on poll aggregator Nate Silver’s regression at his indispensable website 538 (that I can’t link often enough), McCain only has a 1.1% chance of winning the election. It’s his lowest probability of the year.

Nate lays out a much fuller picture of what to watch for here and notes that an Obama victory won’t be official until 10 PM (which is when he would have enough electoral college votes to be announced the winner). Get pumped.

Photo Credit: Charlie Eisenhood

I’m not going to be doing live coverage of election night. There wouldn’t be much to do except keep score, and right now I’m mentally and physically exhausted by this whole thing. So instead of coverage, I’m going to pitch in a little with NYU for Obama and then hang out with them and watch the results come in at The Hill on 30th Street at 9 PM, if anyone wants to stop by. Yes, apparently I’m one of those horrible biased journalists momma always told you to stay clear of.

The video above is my former boss, Andrew Golis, explaining TPM’s live coverage tonight. If you’re near a computer tomorrow night, check them out, or go to FiveThirtyEight.

Keep an eye on Indiana, North Carolina and Missouri. If McCain can’t get all three of those, I think it’s pretty much over. And if he can’t get, say, Georgia, then he’s really screwed.

Godspeed, guys. I’ll talk to you all when it’s over.

UPDATE: We’re all hungry for information, but PAY ABSOLUTELY NO ATTENTION TO EXIT POLLS. They’re complete and utter bullshit. You might as well use a Ouija board.