Noonan: Now the Fun Really Starts

No one can dispute that Tuesday night was a great one for America. But now it’s time to look and learn: Will Barack Obama fulfill the fears of some that he’s a "hard leftist"? Or is he really a “pragmatic politician”? asks Peggy Noonan in the Wall Street Journal. Facing an expectant nation—"when you think someone's Moses, you expect him to part the seas"— Obama faces a tricky balancing act.

"What a thing this is going to be to see," says Noonan. "What luck to observe it." As for those who voted against him: “Forget ‘they want to have a beer with you.’ They want to respect you and look up to you; they want to know you can lead as you ran, capable, Cool Hand Luke,” Noonan writes. Who is Barack Obama? “We’re about to find out,” but as he makes big decisions, day after day, “the more interesting answer is: He's about to find out.”
(More President Obama stories.)