Obama at the Rope Line; An 86-Year-Old Is Moved to Tears By Obama's Success

“I love when I’m shaking hands on a rope line and”— Obama mimes the motion, hand over hand — “I see little old white ladies and big burly black guys and Latino girls and all their hands are entwining. They’re feeding on each other as much as on me." Obama shrugs; it’s that distancing eye of the author. “It’s like I’m just the excuse.” -- "Calm in the Swirl of History," New York Times profile.

A reader of Andrew Sullivan's blog writes that his 86-year-old grandfather called after Obama's victory, vividly recalling the humiliation and degradation of segregation, knowing "it was wrong yet felt powerless to change it, and believed that it would never change.

"Tonight, he told me, we have come full-circle. Many people, especially the younger generation who supported Obama, will never fully realize the historical import of what happened tonight. But he wanted his grandchildren to know this story that he had never told us, and it was the second time in my 33 years that I have heard my grandpa cry."

Drill Deeper:

• "Many Blacks Find Hope in a Breakthrough," New York Times.
• "Two Words with a Ring of Possibility: Black President," Washington Post.
• "Overseas, Excitement Over Obama: In Presumptive Nominee, Many See Chance for New Direction and New Attitude," Washington Post.
• "Tonight, I can stand before you and say that I will be the Democratic nominee for president of the United States." Text of Obama Speech in Minnesota (NYTimes.com)