I deliberately left JFK out of the recitation for many of the reasons you have offered. I’ve always had the feeling that Bobby served as John’s conscience in many ways.

Obama is an American exceptionalist, but he is at least one with a degree of pragmatism - or so he seems to be. I’ll grant you that if he’s going to stumble in the early days, it will likely be because of the assumption that he’s supposed to lead the way.

Conversely, I’m also sure that some world leaders (and not a few of their fellow citizens) will be disappointed by him precisely because he is American first, all other things second.

I take real comfort, though. from his once-in-a-generation abilities as an organiser, a boss and an explainer. The US needs all three right now.

Of whose lifetime are we speaking? Some of us remember another inspiring victory, also proclaimed as the Coming of Age of America. Only the candidate was a young Catholic, not a black man.

He, too, knew how to galvanise. A generation really asked what they could do for their country. He, too, believed in the City on the Hill. And chose to build it brick by brick — or should I say domino by domino?

He died a hero to his people. Not unlike his brother.

But, whoa, Nelly! The United States was up to its waist in Viet Nam when he died. It only got up to its neck, and then sank, because Lyndon Johnson felt so d@mn competitive with the shadow of his predecessor. He left Mr. Johnson the impossible task of domestic reform *and* a foreign war.

Does this sound familiar? Just double the wars.

It has long been my opinion that Kennedy laid the groundwork for the Reagan Revolution. He flattered the self-regard of a generation and made them think that world domination was a duty and a birthright, rather as his degree from Harvard and his public career had been his duty and birthright.

But he was not around when the bills came due, body bag after body bag. Who knows, maybe had he survived, he might also have provided the leadership necessary for that whole generation to face the costs, too.

But, I somehow doubt that: by now we know that, just like his electoral opponent, he was pretty close to a scum-sucking bottomfeeder. Just handsome enough to hide it and eloquent enough to distract his country.

But, let’s not forget that he and his siblings lived a wealthy life devoted to the acquisition of power and plasures, and did much of it with other people’s money.

City on a Hill, indeed! Only if the city is run from Tammany Hall!

So, let us not go all Romantic here. I am also happy at the victory of Barak Obama — because I *hope* it means the end of a twenty year recurrence of the periodic American Disease of unbridled greed as the motivator of a society, and the firm belief that whatever the United States choses to do is inherently right because, after all, it is G-d’s Chosen Land, His City on the Hill.

But the man is young and he faces enormous challenges — far greater than Kennedy, who inherited a stable country and economy from a Republican predeccesor. A predecessor who did *not* believe in American exceptionalism precisely because he had fought a terrible war beside the nations of Europe.

he also warned his successor of the rise in power of the Military-Industrial Complex. Would that his successors had heeded him.

It is really time the United States got over that whole City on a Hill Puritan thing and admitted it is a nation among nations and not at all exceptional.

Please, G-d, no more cities on hills. How about cities that work? No more leading the free world: freeing the world of US leadership would be so much better.

And, G-d, protect this guy, okay? He’s going to make a lot of people angry because of his skin, and because no human being can possibly fulfill all of their dreams for him.

Yes, he reminds me of Kennedy. But let’s keep it superficial, OK, G-d? No shining examples for the rest of us, no quagmire wars, no gamesmanship with nuclear arms, no macho posturing, no dominos.

I’m happy you’re happy. I am really happy Obama is President-elect. But I’ve been in this place before, I’ve seen these walls and walked this floor.

So, let’s not get too excited. There is a lot of work to do, for everyone. It’s up to him to lead *his* people out of their particular wilderness.

It’s up to the rest of us to make sure he doesn’t just wander into someone else’s.

If you want a Flickr for Serious Photography, make one. Oh, wait, you already have. And it’s a good site, too. What — not a lot of traffic from Flickr? Well, that’s because the people who go there are not interested in Photography.

They are interested in snaps….