The party started at 8 p.m. Friends grabbed comfy seats around the TV set in the family room of a friend’s brownstone. While eating Chinese food and drinking wine, we channel surfed from Comedy Central to PBS, CNN, even Fox.

And then back to John Stewart and Stephen Colbert.

When Pennsylvania and Ohio were declared for Obama, we broke out the champagne. Nerves turned to elation.

There was yelping on the street at 11 p.m. and then heard John Stewart announce that Barack Obama was our President elect.

Somehow it seemed appropriate that we heard it from John Stewart (as he and SNL were such a big part of this year’s election journey).

Some went outside to see the reaction on the street (or were they just smoking?).

Tears flowed. Hugs and kisses. Cell phones rang as friends and relatives exchanged the news, the excitement, the sense of history being made.

One friend called his son who was asleep at home.

"it’s a historic moment. I think he should see this," this friend said pointing to the TV.

More champagne flowed. We watched McCain’s gracious concession speech, though some fun was made of him and Sarah Palin.

Palin was cheered for being the great political faux pas that she was. One friend did a pitch perfect imitation of her.

And then we waited for Obama to speak in Chicago.

"He’s on," the hostess shrieked calling every one back to the TV.

And what a magic moment it was. From his first words…

Hello, Chicago.

If there is anyone out there who still
doubts that America is a place where all things are possible, who still
wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time, who still
questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer.

It’s the answer told by lines that stretched around schools and
churches in numbers this nation has never seen, by people who waited
three hours and four hours, many for the first time in their lives,
because they believed that this time must be different, that their
voices could be that difference.

It’s the answer spoken by young
and old, rich and poor, Democrat and Republican, black, white,
Hispanic, Asian, Native American, gay, straight, disabled and not
disabled. Americans who sent a message to the world that we have never
been just a collection of individuals or a collection of red states and
blue states.

We are, and always will be, the United States of America.

To his last:

America, we have come so far. We have seen so much. But there is so
much more to do. So tonight, let us ask ourselves — if our children
should live to see the next century; if my daughters should be so lucky
to live as long as Ann Nixon Cooper, what change will they see? What
progress will we have made?

This is our chance to answer that call. This is our moment.

This is our time, to put our
people back to work and open doors of opportunity for our kids; to
restore prosperity and promote the cause of peace; to reclaim the
American dream and reaffirm that fundamental truth, that, out of many,
we are one; that while we breathe, we hope. And where we are met with
cynicism and doubts and those who tell us that we can’t, we will
respond with that timeless creed that sums up the spirit of a people:
Yes, we can.
hank you. God bless you. And may God bless the United States of America