In the wake of a momentous victory, Barack Obama, the Democrats, and the nation are at a watershed. Transformations that complement and deepen one another can happen in four momentous areas -- in race relations, in the economy and social contract, in America's place in the world, in our civic democracy and partisan balance. Much of the punditry we hear deals in false opposites and fails to grasp the propitiousness of this moment. Let's look at each part of Obama's challenge to see why he can accomplish complementary enduring and major changes in all these spheres.

For RACE RELATIONS, the key moment has already happened and little beyond business as usual needs to happen to deepen positive changes going forward. At the wondrous moment that a self-identified African American won the presidency, generations of struggle and suffering were sanctified: one remembers the Union solidiers and freed slaves who fought to preserve a Union cleansing itself from slavery, the Civil Rights pioneers who persisted over generations of legal segregation, the students and black church-goers and northern volunteers who, led by Martin Luther King and others, challenged Southern supremacy and sometimes died to prod LBJ and Congress into the Voting Rights act -- all of them were vindicated, as were the American people as a whole, last Tuesday night. From here forward, Obama and his family need only quietly exemplify the new racial reality, and Obama needs only to focus on succeeding as president for us all, to continue the progress in racial symbolism and integration that this moment signifies. Needless to say, this is a positive breakthrough for the Democratic Party, too, which has been bedevilled by racial divisions since 1968. An enduring bottom-to-middle coalition is now possible, bringing people of all backgrounds together.

Obama's biggest challenge is to revive U.S. ECONOMIC GROWTH and do so in a way that re-founds the SOCIAL CONTRACT ensuring opportunity and security to most Americans. Two decades of conservative ascendancy have wrecked the economy and shredded social solidarity. Voters chose Obama, above all, to fix this, not because of his race. He and his team must hit the ground running and they must not flinch from quick and major steps. Only large new government investments in social protections, in technical and physical infrastructure in all regions, and in health care and education can hope to push forward both economic revival and social inclusion. Editorialists and conservatives call for Obama to be fiscally timid -- but if he flinches, he will ensure failure for his first adminstration and the Democrats. By two years from now, the economy has to be revived and middle-class as well as lower-income Americans need to see real gains. Environmental and infrastrure challenges must be on the way to being met. A lot of nonsense about a "center-right country" is spewing out right now. The truth about Americans has always been the same: abstract-philosophically they may be free-market conservatives, and they are moderate on social values. But operationally, as pollsters have shown since the 1940s, Americans are pragmatic liberals -- they want government to act for majority well-being. They always endorse measures like Social Security, jobs, educational access, and so forth.That is more true than ever right now. Obama ( as he seems to know) need only talk cautiously but act boldly. If he delivers the goods economically with more social fairness (including in the tax distribution), he will be applauded by the vast majority, no matter what the government deficit may be over the medium run. We are going to have big deficits either way -- Bush has ensured that -- but the question is whether the U.S. economy will soon work better for most families.

On the INTERNATIONAL FRONT, false antinomies also abound. Obama from the start has espoused a fascinating combination of liberal internationalism and conservative realism, which is why most of the foreign policy establishment apart from neo-con crazies, backs him. His election symbolizes a willingness to forge cooperative interational alliances again, and his administration will prove tough, I think, in areas where there are important military challenges to face (such as Afghanistan). Good idea to keep some Bush people involved as we cautiously pull back from Iraq, but otherwise, with Biden and the right security/foreign policy teams, Obama should be able to re-assert American global leadership in a new way -- assuming he can revive inclusive economic growth at home. The domestic economy remains the key internationally as well as domestically.

Finally, a challenge and opportunity too little discussed is Obama's possibilty to reorient U.S. CIVIC DEMOCRACY AND PARTISAN BALANCE for the next period. Let us hope that he does not just dismantle or ignore the broad social movement of activists and involved citizens across all the states that helped him win the election. The DNC and state parties need to build on and incorporate and continue many of the Obama campaign's gains in technology and volunteer infrastructure. Obama's own administration should keep in touch with his network. While Obama needs to be bipartisan and inclusive in his consultations and legislative coalition-building, he needs to do this on Democratic terms. He needs to change the tone of politics, but not to wimpy irrelevance. He needs to keep pushing forward the progressive agenda by allowing citizens to see what is happening, contribute ideas, and contact legislators and fellow citizens each step of the way. This will also be the key to keeping Congress people in line -- if they think Obama's electoral strength can help or hurt them next time.

In past Democratic administrations, electoral politics and coalitions have been treated as entirely separate from governance (which has supposedly been consigned to "experts"). Clinton thus did little to build new majorities. But Obama offered a vision and promised policies that have the potential to engage citizens and build civic infrastructure. Student loans married to social service, for example, or infrastructure investments in high-speed internet access stretching even to remote rural areas, for another example. Health care concerns are everywhere, too, and providers and citizens should be engaged when the inevitable legislative choices are made. And environmental policies can also spur economic growth and engage citizens very broadly.

Each area of policy should be fashioned with measures that engage and empower the groups and voters that will build a sustained Obama and Dem/Indep majority for the future. Policies create politics as well as vice-versa, and one hopes the Obama people know this and act on such knowledge. Obama's presidency has every potential to expand a broad-tent Democratic/Independent majority, but only if Obama pushes forward all four of the trannsformations I have discussed simultaneously, so that gains in each sphere facilitate gains in the others.

Yes, he can -- and yes, we can! Now is not the time for half measures or timidity. Now is the time for bold thinking and action to address current crises and deficits in ways that forge a better racial, economic, international, and civic tomorrow for America