“Obama Makes History”

If you have ever visited Stoneman’s Corner, you know that I supported Barack Obama during the seemingly never-ending 2008 presidential campaign. That’s politics, not history. But what about The Washington Post’s headline from Nov. 5th, “Obama Makes History”? That and countless other headlines had a point, but what did they mean besides the obvious fact that the United States had elected its first black president?

One interesting popular reaction to Obama’s victory was that newspapers flew off the shelves. I could not find one already at 9:00 a.m. on November 5th, though my wife was able to get a reprint on the 6th. Our son, who is out of town, wanted one for a souvenir. After all, he’d been volunteering for the Obama campaign since February.

Another side-effect of Obama’s election is that history—not just hyperbole about history—has entered the pages of the newspaper. A fine example is Robert G. Kaiser’s “A Moment for the Ages, Many Years in the Making: Forces Great and Small Led to Historic Election,” which the Post published in its Style section of all places. Apparently Obama’s victory has helped to make history cool, at least for a little while.