I’m only 23 years old and there are already two events in my life that I can safely say that I will never forget where I was and what I was doing at the moment they occurred: 9/11, and the election of Barack Obama. Simply put, more (non-violent) history was made last night than has been made in the sum of the past 7 years. There is the, of course, obvious things like the election of a black man to President, but then there is also the subtle things like voter turnout and state leaning.

The young college youth, latinos, and blacks should all be patting themselves on the back today because yesterday they did what has never been done before - for what seemed like the most unlikely of candidates.

States

Last night, I watched election coverage nearly from start to finish to see what states went in which direction and how accurate polls and estimations had actually been. The states I was really most interested in were Pennsylvania, Ohio, Florida, and Indiana, for various reasons.

If we look at the electoral maps over the past 3 elections, there is a clear and concise change for Obama:

As you can see, Obama has taken a dramatically large number of states from the GOP and given them nothing. This signifies that Obama’s win just isn’t an electoral win, its a convincing nationwide win. He has not just won key states, he really has won the entire nation. The only states he lost were low-count electorates with a fairly low populous.

This is historical in it’s own right because it is a huge shift from the normative electoral map we see every year and will make the next election in 2012 hard to predict. Obama has shown that its possible to win states even if they have been red for a number of years.

Young/Latino/Black Voters

Many analysts have attributed Obama’s success to his ability to get out the vote on young people, latinos, and blacks in record number. This is definitely no lie. There was a record turnout for this election and I believe that it has less to do with people coming out to vote because of tough times, and more to do with the atypical voters finally deciding to take a stand in favor of what they believe.

Obama has sent an important message to these minority voter crowds saying that we can no longer trust the older generations to make the right choices; we just have to get out there and do it ourselves. Obama ignited a fire in people my age and convinced them to take a stand for their own beliefs and their own want for the direction of this country.

It’s no doubt that he has done something no other candidate has ever done - he brought out the young and the minority for an election of pivotal performance. To me, it signified a fork in the road: continue on the same bad choices we have made for 8 years now, or take a chance on a new direction with a new focus. Obama convinced the young and the latinos and the blacks that it’s okay to take a chance and it’s okay to try something new.

An unlikely candidate

McCain loves to throw around the idea that he was the underdog and that he was in a position to steal the election. In my opinion, this was Obama all along, he just stole it much earlier than anyone predicted. Obama was a nobody senator from Illinois before this election came into focus. However, through eloquence, tact, and the promise of change, he swept up America and took them on a ride.

If you had asked me 8 years ago when I thought there would be a black President, I would have guessed probably not for another 20 to 30 years - America is still to ignorant and bigoted. But Obama appealed to people that may never have voted for him through convincing them that it’s time to set aside our petty differences and attempt to make changes for the good of everyone.

This won’t mark the end of racism by any means - but it will mark a new direction for Presidential candidates. This election set the groundwork for any number of, what were previously, unlikely candidates including women, latinos, chinese, japenese - any minority group that thought they had no chance at the spot… Obama has shown them that it is possible.

History was made

Like the new Pres. or not, its undeniable that we watched history unfold last night. Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert had a hell of a good time dogging the moment, often referring to it as “AN historical event.” However, it truly was because it shattered so many preconceived notions people may have had about racism, the young, the old, and the indifferent.

Maybe Obama doesn’t return on his promises… maybe McCain was the better man all along - only time will tell. But there is one thing I am dead sure of: this election, no matter which way it ended up, was going to be ground-breaking and change the way people approach voting forever. I think it did what an election has needed to do for a long time - convince people that your vote does matter and that you can take this country in the direction you want it to go.