One Last Post.

I promised not to spill the beans about all that the moment will mean to me, when Obama makes a likely victory speech (after a McCain concession speech, needless to say), but I will say this.

McCain ran the worst campaign I've seen a Republican run in my lifetime. It wasn't even close. It was like the worst parts of the Kerry and Dukakis campaigns, mashed together, and then multiplied. Bad photo ops. Ineffective, bungled television advertising. Lack of a coherent message. Gawd-awful choice of a running mate. Inability to give a coherent reason why the candidate should be trusted with the keys to the country for four years. Stupid, incoherent media surrogates. Bad consultants and campaign leadership. Inability to build grassroots enthusiasm until it was too late. Inability to let go of Republican dogma at a time when Republican dogma, particularly on the economy, was a political loser with a capital "L." There are so many reasons I could go on for the rest of the night.

It doesn't matter. He was up against a stacked deck, in any case. I've believed, for a long time, that if a black man, or a woman, for that matter, was going to be the first person to break through and break up the 43 strong Old White Guys club that is the Office of the President of the United States, that that person would have to run a perfect, or at least nearly flawless campaign.

Obama's run to where he has got now, the night before the election, has been the best run Presidential campaign by a Democrat in my lifetime. It starts with the candidate's steady, unflappable demeanor and the brightness of his own voice and rhetoric. But it trickles down from there.

His campaign is disciplined. At no time, do I recall an Obama strategist criticizing their candidate, even off the record. There's been no infighting in his campaign. This campaign was just as steady, and disciplined, when they were trailing McCain in early September, as they are now up by 6-8%. His campaign has defended him rigorously, and has been willing to go on the attack, where necessary, to defend him from attacks.

The same was true throughout the primary. They've been methodical in terms of their approach to the election, to the brief crises, to how they've gone about building their organization, and how they've gone about building the political machine he has assembled in all 50 states.

A lot of groundwork was laid to get here. Howard Dean deserves credit for building a national party willing and capable of competing everywhere. Small dollar donors have given Obama the luxury to build this machine. The economic and political climate has given the Obama campaign strong tailwinds. But Obama's candidacy and campaign took advantage of, and built a foundation around all these things, tied them together, and made the thing work.

It's something I've never seen on the Democratic side. It's something we may never see again. And it is the reason he is where he is tonight, on the verge of making history, changing America, and changing the world. It's been amazing to watch, and occasionally be a peripheral part of.