I don’t know where to start.

Although Hillary hasn’t dropped out yet, the international media is overwhelmingly declaring it “Over.”

I have received e-mails today from China, the Middle East, and across Europe–the places I’ve traveled this year and the people I’ve met–congratulating me on the Obama win.  One reads, “We’re just excited as you are.”  One e-mail from the middle of Europe reads, “You should see how happy people are here.”

I love my country very much, and it’s amazing to see the rest of the world responding the way they are.

Living abroad and studying our country in the global context this year, I am consistently faced with one theme: we have big problems.  But we also have the greatest country in the world.  The line around the U.S. Embassy in London stretches for hours, as people await their chance to enter our country.  We do so much that is the envy of political scientists and citizens everywhere.  But we face a lot of problems, and it’s going to take a lot of will to get through those problems.

I think of how I felt this January, just five months ago, in a cold gym in Iowa with thousands of people chanting, “We’ve got hope.”  It will take more than hope; it will take a commitment from a lot of people to do what’s not always easy.  Obama is not perfect–the last five months have shown that–and he’s not going to change everything completely, but he is very, very good.  And that’s a start.

“Because if we are willing to work for it, and fight for it, and believe in it, then I am absolutely certain that generations from now, we will be able to look back and tell our children that this was the moment when we began to provide care for the sick and good jobs to the jobless; this was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal; this was the moment when we ended a war and secured our nation and restored our image as the last, best hope on Earth. This was the moment – this was the time – when we came together to remake this great nation so that it may always reflect our very best selves, and our highest ideals. Thank you, God Bless you, and may God Bless the United States of America.”

–Barack Obama last night