I don't know about where you live, but everywhere I've gone this week people have been exceedingly pleasant.

Not ebullient, and not ecstatic, but simply cheery. Everyone has a smile for everyone else, kids are holding doors for adults and everyone keeps saying, "No, you go first." That sort of thing.

Now, I live a few blocks from the District proper, where almost 94 percent of an increasingly white population gave Barack Obama their votes. My own little corner in one of the most liberal counties in America is so diverse that no single race or ethnic group can manage close to 40 percent of the population.

Entire Guatemalan towns have immigrated (legally and otherwise) to the area, and we've got plenty of folks from Africa, Asia, Southeast Asia, Central Asia, India (the country) and just about everywhere else. The gringos that live here do so because we like living amongst folks who don't necessarily look like us or speak our language. And it's safe to say we all live here because this is our vision of America.

And so it's a slam-dunk that the vast majority of us see Barack Obama as the embodiment of our vision. We aren't black or white or brown or tan or whatever. We are a diverse people with diverse views who are all interested in making this a better country. And after the election, we were gratified that so many people around the country seemed to share the barest sliver of our vision.

Will Barack Obama live up to our hopes and dreams? Of course not. He may hold liberal views, but he's an incrementalist, not a revolutionary. He's more than willing to compromise even important principles if the overall bill moves the law toward what he feels is right. For example, he says he's against gay marriage. My guess is that he's not personally against gay marriage, but rather he can see that the majority of the country isn't ready. That's the way it goes. In 20 years (or less), gay marriage will be common across the country. Good things do come to those who wait.

We can't do everything at once. We won't have single-payer health care--yet. We won't pull out of Iraq--yet. We won't put aside all partisan bickering and whining. And maybe we never will. But it is nice to hope.

The main reason I supported Barack Obama in the Democratic primary is that I thought because he had a better chance to tone down the partisan nonsense. Hillary Clinton would be a fine president. And the John McCain who showed up for his concession speech would also have been good as well. I can't recall a year in which three eminently qualified (in markedly different ways, of course) candidates ran for president. In many ways, voters couldn't make a wrong decision last Tuesday. From a structural standpoint, of course, John McCain would have been pretty frustrated dealing with large Democratic majorities in Congress. Then again, maybe he might have slipped out of that rote GOP patter he used during the campaign and actually been a postpartisan president.

But we'll never know, and I'm happy about that. Barack Obama is now at the forefront of a major reorganization of American politics. The age of the technocrat has arrived. From big-city mayors like Michael Bloomberg, Adrian Fenty of D.C. and Newark's Cory Booker to governors like Bobby Jindal of Louisiana, there seems to be an increasing preference toward politicians who promise to do more than they say. Voters want competent government, and they're not all that picky about the party. I have every hope that Obama will install a cabinet of doers and not sayers.

For now, though, I'll sit back and bask in the good feeling of my neighbors and the country at large. I'm still a lot like John Lewis was on election night. I don't have many heroes (it's something of a character flaw, really), but that Freedom Rider from way back when is definitely one of them. He was on MSNBC off and on for about half an hour, sitting with a tear-stained face and struggling to come up with words to match his emotions. When I actually sit back and reflect on the election, I really can't come up with words to match the...well, I'm not sure exactly what it is I'm feeling.

Pride, I guess. Americans voted to move forward. They voted for hope and against fear. They voted for the future and not the past. These have been bromides of the campaign, but I think they're pretty close to the truth. John McCain is a good man, but he was a terrible candidate. He preached fear and loathing. He preached backward-looking policies. And in the end, Americans voted for the Ronald Reagan of 2008, not someone who hoped to channel the Reagan of 1980.

It's really something. It really is.

Jon Worley was most gratified to see North Carolina slide into Obama's column. His old stomping grounds in Durham led the way, with a state-high 76 percent of the vote for Obama. Way to go, Bull City!