I know this is motley foolish, that no matter what business journalists imply, the "market" is not some big mind, responding to events with the wisdom of crowds. But the election debates have habituated me to watching lines on graphs as leaders talk; and MSNBC carried a real time, side-screen report on the Dow as Obama responded to questions.

In the earlier, and vaguer, parts of his news conference, the Dow dropped from about plus 130 for the day to under 100. As soon as he spoke forcefully about creating new jobs, in ways Paul Krugman laid out this morning, and for all the obvious reasons, the numbers began to climb steadily, and finished above 200. Let's just say some investors--not just value investors with deep pockets like Warren Buffet, but quick traders, too--understand this economy has only one hope. And Obama was shrewd to keep it alive with, of all people, fiscal hawks like Paul Volcker standing behind him.

I confess a certain impatience, on this poignant day, with all the earnest talk about how America achieved something remarkable yesterday by electing our first African-American president, as if the choice has been about race all along. I do not mean to diminish an historic first, like electing a Catholic in 1960; I, too, choked-up when John Lewis spoke. But relief today is not about Americans choosing an obviously black man over a white man, which proves we can come to terms with our past. It is about our choosing an obviously brilliant, reciprocal man over a thick, cynical one--a man who articulates a coherent vision of global commonwealth over someone advancing vague, military patriotism--which proves we can come to terms with our future.

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I do not pretend to have done nearly as much as I intended to, but this is New Hampshire--arguably, a battleground state, where McCain is still admired--and my Boston-based daughter and I have just come back from canvassing a couple of dozen of my neighbors for the Obama campaign. I think it is safe to say that one fear many of us have had is misplaced: that the lopsided polls would engender a kind of complacency, and people who might otherwise have turned out for Obama's ticket would stay home, expecting to take a free ride on others.

Even people in their 90s greeted us with the moral equivalent of a high-five. Nobody asked for help to the polls, or needed to know where they were voting. The last time I sensed anything like this level of enthusiasm for an election was when Pierre Trudeau swept into office in Canada in 1968.

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