Wow. I mean, just wow. I’m still overwhelmed.

For reasons too silly to enumerate, my wife and I are living without TV now. That means I had to follow this on the Internet, and it turned out that worked just fine. I was getting all the news from various blogs, and then I found myself yearning for the electricity of live video, which I found on an MSNBC feed. Aside from being really tiny, that worked fine, and there weren’t any commercials. After the West coast states came in and Obama shot past 270, I grew tired of the yackety-yack on MSNBC and just wanted to join in the celebration. That’s when I got lucky, hitting a live feed from Grant Park in Chicago on CNN.com.

That. was. incredible…

Nothing but the actual event, no voiceovers, no interruptions, just 200,000 joyful, cheering people in Chicago. Jesus Christ. I heard Obama give his speech, which seemed to go a little flat right at the end, as if he suddenly realized what had happened to him and suddenly got VERY serious. (He’s sane, all right.) No matter: I was simply blown away by all the happy, dancing citizens, and I’m a sucker for the music, all of it. They even played “Sweet Home Chicago”! This was an outrageously good thing, all around.

I was so proud, seeing that crowd and knowing that the whole world was watching. That’s the America I want other countries to know. I’m still in shock. Over the last eight years, I’d come to feel the country was utterly unredeemable, with a fatal sickness in its soul, but now I think I’ll join the human race and just get on with life. MY GOD, WE’RE NOT EVIL, at least not all of us! Oh, I knew that already, sure, but I wasn’t the only one hungry for proof. This is just amazing to me. I think what has happened is so stupendous, we don’t have a clear idea of just how big it is, and maybe we shouldn’t even try to figure it out. In fact, I know we shouldn’t. Just dig in, be happy, and get to work. Have serious fun, FIX THINGS, and move out on another level.

Unbounded joy is what I saw on the faces in the crowd in Chicago. This is a whole new America.