With the closure of the second of two national speeches aired in the early minutes of Wednesday morning the swoon became final.

Senator John McCain exited the national scene with a speech filled with grace and goodness, striking themes he had repeated dozens of times in weeks previous. But he did so in pledging his good will and effort to support the new President in the challenges he will face in the days to come.

And there will definitely be challenges...

By contrast I thought that Obama's speech was in some ways almost equally gracious, and as he has done through out the campaign he uttered extremely moderate rhetoric. He referenced John McCain, Republicans, and Abraham Lincoln and attempted to offer an admirable tribute to McCain's life long service to his country.

The self-indulgent, self-important, and self-historic projection through the reciting of some of the same, "out of the many - one" themes that he has used again, and again on the trail seemed to wear on me by the end.

It is an historic moment. It was the longest campaign ever run for President. In many ways for Barack Obama it also the most lucky. For after all without the total collapse of the housing/mortgage crisis this race would've looked very different tonight.

But now the rhetoric is through, the time to shut up and get to work is upon us.

He promises to be honest and transparent with us about the challenges we face. He promises to listen to those who do not now support him. He promises to work with those who oppose him to attempt to achieve genuine progress. He promises to move beyond race, and in that post-racial reality lift America to a place she has not been before.

The policies he has promised, in this correspondent's humble opinion, will do exactly the opposite. And in my opinon Barack Obama was largely elected by an electorate that was mostly ignorant of who he has been, or what he has voted for.

But let's say for tonight we let it be what it is... an historic moment.

Let's say for this minute that he will resist his idiology and move toward a more John F. Kennedy-esque pragmatism model of governance.

For tonight we have no choice but to take him at his word. We might even do so for about 143 days or so.

The ironic thing now is that the shoe is on the other foot - and in about three months - he starts being held responsible for every word and action...

...now, I need to go investigate the legal aspects of off shore savings accounts...