At a polling place in Bethesda, Md., just outside D.C., someone had placed a life-sized cardboard figure of Barack Obama near a table staffed by Democratic Party activists on Election Day.
As voters emerged from the polls, many of them stopped to have their picture taken with the Obama figure. Some joked, some smiled and a few got misty-eyed. Entire families crowded to get into pictures taken on cell phones. Two very old ladies tried to have their picture taken with the figure, but a third person had to hold up the lady on the left because the cardboard figure would not support her weight.
To grasp the enormity of the Obama victory we witnessed on Nov. 4, consider that our 44th president could have been bought and sold by any one of our first 16 presidents. Another 18 presidents could have legally forced him to go to the back of a public bus, drink from a “Coloreds Only” water fountain, and limit his ability to get an education, job and professional license...
