It was as if America released a collective sigh of relief.

After weeks of Senator Barack Obama leading in most political polls the pundits suddenly became cautious and began telling us that the race was close.

The American voter was unwilling to accept another election that was close. They wanted a clear decision made about the next four years, a clear and definitive break from the policies of the last eight years. They stood in line for hours, some in rain, some in blazing heat, to dramatically and specifically state that the United States of America had moved on.

Mr. Obama won this election because his vision was founded on what is wrong with America. He championed those who felt cheated by a government that failed to protect them. He promised a new administration that would regulate the economy fairly, provide programs that would make the environment cleaner and food safer, provide better health care access for citizens that need it the most, and to build a platform that allows America’s children to get the education they will need to compete in a globalized world.

This is not going to be an easy task.

Mr. Obama has inherited a nation that is in tatters, mired in two wars, awash in financial and economic disaster, and with a population that lives in fear that they might lose their homes as well their jobs. He inherits a government that couldn’t mobilize a hurricane relief effort for a city not more than 6 hundred miles from Washington, or design a comprehensible and effective economic bailout plan.

The first job at hand for President-elect Obama is the economy.

On Monday Detroit reported steep declines in car and truck sales for the month of October, declines that prompted a senior GM executive to observe that October was, “The worst month in the post-World War II era.”

According to the Institute for Supply Management overall national factory production fell to a 26 percent low in October. Last week the electronic retailer, Circuit City Inc., announced that they were closing a fifth of their retail stores. The news only gets worse.

Economists are not predicting that the current economic disaster will be a repeat of the depression of the 1930s but they warn that the new President has to develop an economic recovery plan and begin implementing it perhaps even before he moves into his new Washington address.

Stimulus packages to get the economy on a more secure footing was a campaign issue for Obama from the very first day of his run for the White House. Obama wants to invest in projects to repair the nation’s infrastructure and begin to build new alternative energy programs.

Congress has over 3 thousand infrastructure projects “ready to go” according to the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, meaning that they could be put out for bid immediately.

Other projects that Obama could bring on line will focus on the environment and the fragile ecology. He could begin to quickly invest in and construct alternative energy initiatives that would funnel much needed funds into the economy and create jobs.

The transition from a President who was openly hostile to the environment to one that that embraces the need to be a better steward of our ecological responsibilities is another breath that was released on election night.

Environmental observers are convinced that Mr. Obama already has a fairly complete and diverse program in mind and is ready to begin implementing it as soon as he can. With a Democratic majority in Congress those observers feel strongly that Obama will begin to introduce major changes that will alter the direction of the United States’ conception of energy production and management.

The new President will have international help and support in his quest to protect the environment.

 British Prime Minister Brown has announced that Britain could be producing a quarter of its energy from wind turbines by 2020, cutting carbon emissions by 14 percent and creating nearly 70 thousand jobs. Other world leaders in France, Denmark, Germany and many other leaders have already instituted alternative energy programs and have many more on the books ready to go.

Obama will have plenty of sympathic ears and advisors to assist in formulating new energy ideas and help him shift the international agenda away from war and confrontation to discussions of environmental safety and security. 

Great strides have been made in international forums to address climate change and carbon emissions but their efforts have been made that much more difficult as the US, the world’s second largest carbon emitter, refused to participate seriously in programs to protect the environment.

An Obama administration changes that and gives new impetus and challenges to all those that fight for a future with cleaner air and water.

Mr. Obama clearly sees that climate change is a global threat and feels that the US must take the lead on addressing it. He challenged the people that voted for him that they and the nation must develop new, cleaner technologies, reduce greenhouse gases and wean the nation off it’s dependence on foreign fuel supplies.

This election was a historic one not only because an African-American candidate has attained the most important office in the land and, in some minds, on the planet, but also because the American people have adopted new and great expectations about their future. 

The United States has emerged overnight from a state of resignation that their government can’t help them to a new sense of activism and involvement. America has begun to restore it’s faith in itself. 

This election was won on a promise of Hope and Change.

Hope and Change can’t be passed into law, but inspired leadership can make it feel tangible and attainable.