It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to realize the basic outcome of Tuesday’s elections. Democrats won nearly everything.

Except for the deep south, the longitude that stretches from Texas to North

Dakota and a handful of other places, things were pretty blue.

Not only did President-elect Barack Obama have a landslide victory with the electoral vote, but the Democrats also

gained the majority in the Senate and extended their majority in the House.

They even won more governorships than the Republicans.

This means Obama will have little serious opposition when it comes to passing his policies, and he won’t even have to look across the aisle

for support.

He is in the unique position of being able to make good on most of his campaign promises.

This is simultaneously great and terrible for Obama.

The good side is that if his policies work, he can turn America around and be lauded for it.

If this ambiguous “change” he has been talking about is a real thing with real policies, then he has a pretty good chance of being remembered as a meaningful president. Maybe even a great president.

The bad side is that he has no excuses if his policies don’t work.

Many presidents get to blame their inefficiencies on Congress, but Obama will not have that luxury for the next two years.

The American people and the world will get to see just how good of a leader Barack Obama really is.

If he’s not a very good leader, it’s going to show up really quickly.

If he is a great leader, well, that will show up too.

I didn’t vote for Obama.

But now that he’s the president-elect, I’m hopeful that he will deliver on his campaign promises.

America is a mess, and it needs help in the form of strong leadership.

Even though my candidate won’t be the one leading, I am not so blinded by partisanship as to root against Obama’s policies.

The ultimate goal of government is a smoothly-running, productive, prosperous

country, and I hope that is what Obama’s presidency will provide.

We may get there by ways I wouldn’t necessarily have voted for, but if we get to the point where people eat well, have jobs, save money and go out for some luxury on a Friday night, I’ll just be glad we got there.

I am incredibly disappointed my candidate lost. I think he was the better candidate.

But the American people think Obama should be the next president, and, as an American, I’m going to support that decision.

I’m not going to pass judgment on Obama until his policies start working or

failing.

If he brings unity and stability to the country, as he hopes to do, then there’s no

reason I wouldn’t be excited to have him as president or maybe even a two-term president.

If he turns out to be full of hot air and this entire campaign season was nothing but rhetoric, he should be

remembered as one of the worst

presidents ever because he failed a golden opportunity to actually make a difference.

The current political situation doesn’t leave much room for mediocrity.

I hope that 30 years from now we discuss this election cycle as a positive turning point in our nation’s history and not as a disappointing instance of talking the talk but not walking the walk.