Say what you want about Barack Obama, but here are a few things that changed with the election of Barack Obama:

• America sent a clear mandate, giving Obama over 333 electoral votes.
• This represents a giant leap forward in the long path of racial equality in America. We’re not there yet, but its progress.
• America’s reputation with the rest of the world just took its greatest leap since the end of WWII.
• While America may never have more than a two party system, Barack Obama redefined the way we do politics. He motivated an insane number of people and raised an enormous amount of money by leveraging the Internet and other new technologies. In doing this, he was able to out-politic a Clinton and essentially come out of nowhere to become president.
• We once again have a president capable of inspiring Americans to get off of their couch and take action.

It will be very interesting to see where we go from here.