Obama 08

We-he-ell. He well and truly did it! As I predicted, he beat the election out of the park and the GOP are reduced to beating each other up on the sidelines.

The GOP have got the cause of their defeat (not being right wing enough) totally wrong and it looks like taking a while for the penny to drop that demographics are the key reason. The non-wingnuts are outnumbering the wingnuts, basically.

There are two little things I want to keep my eye on in the coming weeks and months:

• Will Palin go away forever or does she have enough GOP supporters to push her towards a 2012 comeback?
• Will McCain die in 2009? If he does, this will fully vindicate those who were rightfully appalled at his VP choice. Even if he expires before 2012, this will still have been too soon for Palin.

Even Fox News couldn't help themselves but report the staggering stories about Palin, so amazing were the claims. But as with Iraq and Afghanistan, myself and many others far more informed than I predicted the calamity to come. There was never any hope in hell that non-committed voters would be attracted to this newsreader showgirl and the transparent cynicism was so unmissable that even that would put undecideds off. And this is exactly what happened.

But what am I banging on about the GOP for when the USA has a president-elect who appears to have more potential than any president in the last 30 or 40 years! Yes, his soaring rhetoric is going to be smothered in reality - a rapidly worsening reality - but this is a man that clearly perceives reality and solutions in much the same way as most human beings would, in stark contrast to the current administration. He can get through just about any problem with majority support, I believe, and if he doesn't manage a second term - such is his shrewdness and political capital - I'll be truly amazed. I know he hasn't started his first term yet but I've seen enough of him to really believe that the US is in the safest hands it could be at this point in its history.

Just see what he has acheived in this campaign alone:

• The first non-encumbent Dem candidate to get over 51% of the vote in 2 or 3 generations
• The first black president, obviously
• He took every swing state there was, even states that hadn't voted Democrat since Barack was in Reception class (at this stage Missouri still hasn't called)
• He won by 6.5 points
• He won over the preferences of almost everywhere in the world
• He wasn't given a chance yet he beat Clinton and McCain and got stronger and stronger.
• He far from flopped over the line and seems to be getting more and more assured and solid as time passes.

So I have high hopes. No, I don't think he's a messiah. As I've alluded earlier, by this I mean he will be more than competent, will preside wisely and will not squander goodwill. These three things have been so needed in America, I really don't think the country will know what to do with itself now that they have arrived. I think Colbert and the Daily Show will struggle for a start!