If Obama wins, I will cry. His candidacy has been an astonishment, as the possibility that a black man could win the presidency has grown to odds-on likelihood. While his victory would not mark the end of racism, it would at least confirm in the most dramatic of ways that bigotry can be overcome. Obama’s emergence is all the more stunning for occurring when so much else— the global environment, say, or the world’s financial markets— is crumbling. It’s as if in the era of acceleration in which we live there is no pause between death and rebirth, which instead unfold nearly simultaneously. Obama faces an array of problems so grave that they are probably beyond the capacity of any leader to mend, but my impression is that he offers our best hope, the assurance that someone with intelligence and integrity will spearhead a meaningful effort. And that notion is not just an American one— Obama’s victory, if it happens, will trigger an enormous international celebration.

If McCain wins, I will also cry, for quite different, if obvious, reasons.