Barack Obama will be the 44th U.S. president. So declared American voters on Tuesday. This says much about the candidate in whom they invested such faith. It says even more about the American people.

It doesn't say that we are post-racial. It does say that the great American story — that any boy or girl of humble beginnings can become president of the United States — has turned out to be more than just another of those feel-good tales invoked to remind us of our ideals and of a common egalitarian vision that has come under such strain lately.

Obama, the biracial child of a white mother and a Kenyan father, raised by a single mother and his grandparents, restores a bit of that.

Yes, there were people who undoubtedly took race into account in voting for Obama. Those who would criticize this should wonder what it's like to have walked in the shoes of many of those casting their vote with that in mind on Tuesday.

But even for those walking in different shoes, remember, it wasn't that long ago that our cities were ablaze in racial conflict, that too many establishments carried white-only signs, that a Voting Rights Act had to be passed, that "states' rights" gave cover to the inequity of "separate but equal," and that the U.S. Supreme Court felt it necessary to say that state governments shouldn't be in the business of barring interracial marriage.

This is historic and, of course, pride had to have been a factor in the election.

But even if shifting demographics helped Obama, he also was likely elected by many people for whom skin color was, at best, a mere backdrop, an allegory for progress long evident.

It's not that they weren't aware that their votes were making history. It's that they viewed the history to be made as more important and Obama as the change agent to make that history.

Obama carries a heavy burden on this score. And this has to do with the shambles left him by the outgoing president, the unprecedented problems assailing the country and a system of governance that too often can't be distinguished from dysfunction. Naked self-interest helped along by special interest has corrupted too many of the nation's public policy decisions.

In the end, governance will matter more than the historical milestone achieved in Tuesday's election. With the electoral gains made by Democrats in Congress, hubris and a disinclination to listen to contrary views will beckon.

Obama, as the leader of his party, must resist. The nation's pressing problems - from the financial and housing crisis to global warming to two foreign wars waged simultaneously — will demand immediate attention come January.

Immediate, but not precipitous attention. There's a difference.

Fortunately, the maturity, deliberation and steady hand with which Obama waged his nearly two-year-long national campaign are promising signs for how he will govern.

It is said that Obama '08 remade how elections are waged. Our hope is that, as president, Obama remakes how the country is governed.

The last eight years were marked by far more pain and tumult than the country deserved. There was an opportunity after the Sept. 11 attacks for President George W. Bush to forge a new American way, devoid of blind, partisan rancor.

Instead, he failed, even as problems of global proportions came to roost and the nation felt under siege.

Obama has a similar opportunity to unify the nation with a sense of common purpose and shared sacrifice.

He must seize it.

REPRINTED FROM THE MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL.

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