He's the man America wanted, the candidate overwhelmingly embraced by nearly 70 percent of voters in Duluth and nearly 70 percent of electoral votes nationwide.
On Tuesday, Barack Obama, the former senator from Illinois, will raise his right hand and will be sworn in as the 44th president of the United States of America.
And the first who's not white.
The moment can be seen as the cresting of the mountain that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. so famously spoke of, from where the promised land of unity and tolerance are seen. And the moment can be witnessed with pride by all Americans who know there are mountains yet to conquer.
"Together," as Obama's campaign promised.
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Mountains of an unpopular presidency, unpopular wars, climate change, a reeling economy and a tainted global image. They demand change.
Americans "understand the enormity of the task that lies ahead," Obama said on election night. "Our climb will be steep."
But we can get there, he also said. And in an Oct. 19 commentary written for the News Tribune, he laid out just how.
We'll get there with a "tax code that doesn't reward the lobbyists who wrote it but the American workers and small businesses who deserve it," he said -- a "tax code written to benefit the ports of the Great Lakes, not the ports of Dubai."
We'll get there with tax cuts for 95 percent of all workers and their families; with affordable, accessible health care; with $5 billion to jump-start Great Lakes restoration; with a "comprehensive plan for American energy that will help free us from our dependence on foreign oil in 10 years;" and with5 million new, good-paying green jobs.
And we'll get there by responsibly getting out of Iraq, Obama said, referring to a war he estimated has cost Duluth alone $200 million.
The News Tribune and its parent company, Forum Communications Co., didn't endorse Barack Obama, a decision readers haven't been shy to point out. But with our community and our nation, we'll stand beside our new president. We may not always agree with him, but we will support, every step, his efforts to succeed, to keep climbing.
As Obama himself wrote: "If the people of Northeastern Minnesota and Northwestern Wisconsin stand with me ... we can finally bring about the change we need."
