At noon today, Barack Obama will be sworn in as the 44th President of the United States.

The change is long overdue. Obama’s inauguration should make all Americans proud, regardless of race, creed or political affiliation. But, while the moment is sweet, our new leader will have no time to rest.

As soon as Obama steps into the Oval Office, he will inherit the reins of a nation mired in debt and reeling from a string of foreign policy failures. And to top it off, he will be expected to somehow heal the country’s wounded markets and deliver millions of Americans from insolvency.

John Liu, New York City Councilman (D-Queens), spoke in Rockefeller Hall on Saturday, warming another frigid Ithacan afternoon with hopeful talk of a new era in American politics.

The first Asian American legislator in the history of New York State, Liu currently chairs the New York City Council’s Transportation Committee, one of its most influential bodies. The committee oversees the city’s mass transportation agencies and facilities.

Liu discussed the 2008 elections in terms of voter mobilization, race and international impact. He emphasized the historic significance of Barack Obama’s successful campaign for the presidency.

HAVERHILL, N.H. (AP) — A county treasurer who lost her bid for a fourth term last week to a 20-year-old Dartmouth College student from Montana blames her failed candidacy on "brainwashed college kids."

Republican Carol Elliott said students just voted for the Democratic ticket, which included Dartmouth junior Vanessa Sievers. Sievers won by nearly 600 votes out of 42,000 cast after targeting voters at Dartmouth and Plymouth State University through a $42 ad on the Web site Facebook.

"It was the brainwashed college kids that made the difference," Elliott, 66, told the Valley News of Lebanon. She said she had little faith that Sievers will fulfill her duties adequately.

Americans love to feel good about themselves. The exhaustive yearning to connect with our leadership, our ideals, and our capabilities has been a primary driver of American electoral and cultural politics, and is perhaps one of our country’s greatest narratives. In the face of domestic or foreign adversity, Americans thirst to rid themselves of national self-doubt and to unify around national pride, the eternal stimulant of the American people. Such a mentality seems quite apposite since last Tuesday’s election as our generation — Generation Y — now finds itself at the helm of a resurgence of the ultimate restorative device: patriotism.

Okay, so the mandatory intro is that last week millions of people celebrated Barack Obama’s victory. My former students in Egypt sent me emails saying, “Congratulations for the best election.” My partner, celebrating in New York City, was accosted on the street by a bawling man who proclaimed, “It was a vote by the people and their voice was heard — their voice was heard!”

And indeed the voice — and the celebration of millions of voices all over the world — was a raucous one. The significance of an Obama presidency can not be over-emphasized. But I can’t help thinking of what else the people voted for. The sound of those Californian voices who voted yes on Proposition 8 keep ringing in my head and drowning out the exuberant ones.

If there was any cold blood, it was impossible to tell. This past Monday marked another step in the symbolic changing of the guard, as President George W. Bush and First Lady Laura Bush welcomed President-Elect Barack Obama and First Lady to be Michelle Obama to the traditional tour of the White House. Although President Bush was the focus of continual criticism by Senator Obama, and despite President Bush’s publicly announced belief that Senator Clinton would be the Democratic nominee, both men were all smiles when they posed together outside 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

Breathe easy, my comrades. You will not be forced to read about the dreaded E-word while pretending to pay attention in your Friday morning lecture. There will be no mention of Obama, McCain, Palin, or Biden, no mention of booths, or fraud, or turnout, or analysis — well, except those mentions.

All of you who survived the last week of campaign coverage without having an epileptic fit deserve a federal tax credit for therapy and Xanax.

I know the CNN “first polls close” ticker nearly took me out. I kept mistaking it for a countdown to the apocalypse.

But I made it through, baby.

And I voted. I voted in my first general election.

By now we’re all aware that Change has swept the nation, but more importantly the last few weeks have brought great change in my life. I’m fully prepared to acknowledge the historic quality of the election, but I bombed my LSAT, I’m getting a job, and I’m moving to New York for a few years. America elected a black liberal president, and I lost my right to get married in my home state of California. I don’t know what is wreaking more havoc on my inner thighs — the LSAT or Prop 8. I’m not going to law school next year, and I’m not getting married. To be fair, I don’t have a promising candidate for husband at the moment, but I’d at least like to maintain the option of getting drunk in L.A. and marrying a call boy.

“For the first time in my adult lifetime, I’m really proud of my country,” Michelle Obama said a few months back as she discussed her husband’s candidacy. The remark inspired a wave of outrage in the popular press. But after Tuesday night, I know just what she meant.

We’ve elected a black man as president of the United States. Go ahead, pinch yourself. From now on, the rules of the game have changed.

Who would have thought this moment could come so soon? Who would have thought that amidst the post-9/11 jingoism and chest-thumping we could elect someone with a name like Barack Hussein Obama? Who would have thought that after eight years of waterboarding, wiretaps and war the United States could do something to make the world proud?