Historical cleansing in Obama elation

There were messages of good will from many Kiwis, but it was the jubilation of Americans that brought tears to Tracey Barnett's eyes.

YEEESSSSS! YES. WE. DID.

What? You were expecting real analysis - or even complete sentences this week? Forgettaboutit.

There is no living with me now. All week I've found myself spontaneously shouting, O-BAM-A! at inappropriate moments in public, like a Tourette's patient denied her meds.

Yesterday I had everyone in my grocery line hold hands and sing "Kumbaya".

Maybe that's why my kids won't get out of the car lately.

I half expect the Kiwi populace to call the authorities but people just laugh in shared delight.

What kindness.

I've had a pumpkin pie dropped at my doorstep, M&Ms for medicinal purposes in case of a McCain win, flowers, calls and emails from Kiwis in Dublin, South Africa, America and of course, from our shores here.

You may be a little confused.

I didn't win this election.

Don't mention that to the reader who's written from a Jaguar dealership.

My 11-year-old thinks a car may show up in our driveway.

What can I say?

He has a dream.

Some of your missives were short and sweet: "I shed a few tears for America last night, and for the world." [Auckland]

"THERE IS A GOD!" [Orewa]

"Suddenly you feel like the world is a safer place." [Devonport]

Others began turning to Americans with a new perspective already:

"[Obama] is so inspirational, and real, that it gives me hope that future change may occur. It also gives me a totally different view of America and Americans than those I have been forced to hold over the past eight years.

"Even though I know that the American government is not the same as the American people, the fact was that American people put Bush into the White House, not once, but twice. So now . . . the people seem to me to have achieved a wisdom and maturity that gives us all hope in a difficult world." [Taupo]

And a personal favourite:"What do you think he'd [Obama] be like to live with? All that high rhetoric. You know, not just 'we need more jam' but 'I have dared to hope for jam. It is time for the waiting to end and the dream of jam to be fulfilled. The time for jam is now' etc." [Grey Lynn]

But I must admit, it was the jubilation from Americans that brought tears to my eyes, something I didn't know politics could ever do.

A Kiwi nephew in Manhattan held out his cellphone to his father here in New Zealand at 2am New York time.