A year ago we were talking about a Hillary Clinton--Rudy Giuliani race. Clinton decided that the Iowa caucuses weren't important and Giuliani decided that neither Iowa nor New Hampshire were important. Well, Barack Obama won the Iowa caucuses and ignited a movement. Now Barack Obama is the president-elect.

What was the most important issue on the voters minds? Not the war in Iraq, not terrorism, not health care. It was the economy. Period. 62 percent of the voters, according to the exit polls, voted on pocketbook issues. Nothing else came close.

What else leaps out at us in this election? Turnout - especially among younger voters and minorities.

Early voting was unprecedented. The early voters broke for Obama and new voters, seven out of ten of them, voted for Obama. 6 in 10 of the new voters were under 30, one in five Black, one in five Hispanic. So you had young people and minorities voting overwhelmingly for Barack Obama. This is a generational shift, as well as a political sea change. .

Oh, and what about predictions that the angry Hillary Clinton voters would either stay home or vote for John McCain? Forget it - didn't happen. 9 out of 10 of the Hillary faithful voted for Obama. She told them to and they did.

On the eve of the election, an estimated 85,000 souls turned out for Barack Obama in Manassas, Virginia. Manassas, site of the first great land battle of the civil war in which confederate forces routed

the union army. 85,000 people turned out for a black presidential candidate in Manassas, Virginia.

I'm old enough to have witnessed first hand, segregated rest rooms, segregated waiting rooms, segregated lunch counters and drinking fountains. I have seen American citizens who fought and bled for their country denied their civil rights, denied their voting rights, denied their human rights. A historic election? Yes, a historic election.