Last night was the most wired I’ve been in a very long time. Early returns showed Obama down in Virginia and Florida, which put me on the edge of my seat in panic mode. But then as CNN dove into their Magic Map county by county, it was clear that the Democratic regions hadn’t been counted yet.

Then the results started to come in. The first big milestone was when Obama won Pennsylvania, which was McCain’s “Alamo” as they called it, if he wanted to flip a blue state while being able to lose a few minor reds. The big nail in the coffin was Ohio, which Obama won decisively pretty soon after polls closed. A great moment occurred when John King said “with any sort of integrity I can not envision a scenario where McCain gets to 270.”

And he didn’t.

Obama won last night in a landslide. The final electoral vote tally should stand at 364 to 173 when the dust settles, with the popular vote hovers around 52% to 46%. Even after Ohio was called, it didn’t really set in what had just happened. But that changed the first time I heard someone say “President Obama” out loud. McCain’s bowing out speech was gracious, and Obama’s Chicago acceptance speech will most likely be legendary.

As I woke up today and look at a lot of Facebook statuses, I see a lot of celebration, but I also see a lot of despair. Many people have warnings about the impending advent of socialism, a term that I’m convinced most people only started using after Sarah Palin and Joe the Plumber started slinging it around. If going back to the tax structure of the Clinton years is “socialism” and giving $750 billion to the government to bailout Wall Street isn’t, I guess I’ll have me some socialism.

One thing I noticed last night is that even the most staunch conservative analysts had nothing bad to say about the night, they all recognized that massive historical significance of what had happened, and nearly everyone on TV from 11 PM onward was in tears or at least well on their way. I don't think a lot of our generation gets it, mainly because we didn't grow up with segregation and race riots and civil rights struggles. The only thing us rich white kids know about race comes from bitching about affirmative action and watching Chapelle's Show.

So I guess I want to give the conservative half of our generation a collective slap on the head, and make them at least acknowledge that they lived through history last night. You can bitch about policy all you want in the future, and I know you will, but at least today, take a minute and realize how far our country has come.

Now I want to open the floor up to you, and ask what having a President Obama means to you. I guess you can say more nonsense about socialism and secret extremist ties if you want, but I’m hoping you’re all smarter than that and appreciate the significance of what last night meant.

Update: HuffPo has a pretty cool slideshow on their front page showing the world reacting to Obama. If you don't think his presidency will help our stature in the world, just take a look.