JOHN HOCKENBERRY:

Good morning, everyone. He’s lost his Senate parking privileges but he’s got a new address on Pennsylvania Avenue. Barack Obama is now President-Elect Barack Obama.

The morning after the results, what just happened? How do you feel?

[BEEPING SOUND]

JOHN DARTMOUTH: [?]

John Dartmouth. America was reborn again last night, quite simply. We're once again going to be the shining city on the hill and be part of the rest of the world. Thank you.

ADAORA UDOJI:

Boy, we have some optimistic listeners this morning.

JOHN HOCKENBERRY:

[LAUGHS] Yes, indeed, emotional, too. And give us your story and your reaction at 877-8MYTAKE or Mytake@thetakeaway.org. Also, what should be at the top of Obama’s agenda when he takes office? Give us his to-do list either between now and January or when he actually hits office.

And now with an update on the Congressional races, we have Femi Oke here.

FEMI OKE:

Thank you, John. The time is just coming out to 27 minutes to the top of the hour. In an historic election, Barack Obama has been elected the first African-American President of the United States.

He was declared the winner last night with 349 electoral votes to John McCain’s 162, but we're still waiting for results from Missouri and North Carolina.

Democrats also increased their majority in both Congressional Houses. They added five seats in the Senate and there are still four races left to call. If they win all of them, they will have a filibuster-proof majority.

In the House, Democrats have upped their numbers by at least 18 seats. In Connecticut, 22-year-old Republican incumbent Chris Shays was ousted by Democrat Jim Himes. He says it’s a new era in America history.

[BEEPING SOUND]

JIM HIMES:

Leadership is moving to a new generation at this level and in the White House.

[APPLAUSE]

FEMI OKE:

And that victory makes the entire New England House delegation Democratic. Chris Shays conceded defeat in the wake of the opposing party’s sweeping victories.

[BEEPING SOUND]

CHRIS SHAYS:

I was really hoping that a very positive campaign with a good record could overcome the tsunami we all knew was there.

FEMI OKE:

And it’s the first time in 75 years that the party’s won major gains in back-to-back elections. John, Adaora.

JOHN HOCKENBERRY:

Sure. Just to remind people, the Senate seats that the Democrats have picked up – Mark Udall in Colorado, Kay Hagen in North Carolina, Jeanne Shaheen in New Hampshire, Tom Udall in New Mexico and Mark Warner there in Virginia.

The Georgia race is too close to call down there in Atlanta, Adaora Udoji. What is going on in the state of Georgia?

ADAORA UDOJI:

Well, at least according to the Associated Press, it seems we have a little intrigue here in Georgia. NPR and CNN have called the very contentious Senate race between Jim Martin, the Democrat, and the incumbent Republican, Saxby Chambliss, but the Associated Press is not calling Georgia because they are concerned about some outstanding absentee ballots as well as some early votes in the metro Atlanta area.

So we're going to keep our eye on that for developments to see what’s happening.

And I am in Atlanta, Georgia. We are on the campus of Clark Atlanta University, and joining me here in the studio is David Wall Rice, our Takeaway contributor and a psychology professor here at Morehouse.

DAVID WALL RICE:

Good morning.

ADAORA UDOJI:

Good morning. It’s nice to see you in person.

DAVID WALL RICE:

Good to see you, too. Thank you.

ADAORA UDOJI:

As we've been asking people all morning, what exactly happened last night?

DAVID WALL RICE:

Yeah. You know, it’s such a heady time, an incredible question. I mean, what happened last night is we get to see a new America. You get to see a new face, you know, a new leadership.

And coming from a social sciences perspective, the thing that’s so interesting is that you really get to see a different look at what America looks like.

The thing that I was most moved by in the speech that Obama gave was actually seeing his family come out at the very end, seeing his family with Joe Biden’s family. And that is the look of America.

You’re not just seeing all these white male faces any more. You know, it’s really more contextualized, and I think that’s amazing.

ADAORA UDOJI:

Was it particularly moving for you – you’re from down South -

DAVID WALL RICE:

Yes.

ADAORA UDOJI:

- here.

DAVID WALL RICE:

Yeah, I grew up, actually grew up in Texas, and, of course, went to school here in Atlanta as well.

ADAORA UDOJI:

And you had a great-great grandmother who was enslaved and -

DAVID WALL RICE:

I did.

ADAORA UDOJI:

- and you know her story.

DAVID WALL RICE:

I did, absolutely.

ADAORA UDOJI:

So were you thinking about any of that as you’re watching the results come in? What are you thinking about?

DAVID WALL RICE:

You know, I mean, your mind darts in so many different directions. I thought about my family, who was largely from Birmingham, Alabama, and, you know, thought about the things that my grandmother went through, of course, thinking about being in the cradle of the civil rights movement, you know, walking this morning into the studio, walking past Martin Luther King’s statue on Morehouse’s campus.

You think of all these sacrifices and all these activities that folks did so that Barack Obama, so that the country could have this look that we have on November 5th, 2008.

So, you know, I really did kind of not take things so personally last night but, you know, you think about the future. You know, I have a little baby son. I think about that. This is the – the first president that he’s going to see and recognize is going to be a black man, somebody who looks like him, so that’s, you know, that’s just mind-boggling.

JOHN HOCKENBERRY:

That’s great. Hey, David, it’s John up here in New York. I just wanted to break in an announce that incumbent Senator Norm Coleman has been reelected in Minnesota, and that's been reported by the AP. That was down to a few hundred votes, but apparently it’s widened and they're calling it for Norm Coleman. Okay, guys?

ADAORA UDOJI:

Well, there’s one in the Republican column. But, Professor, were you also thinking about your students and how many of them are going to say, I told you so?

DAVID WALL RICE:

Yeah. You know, I am. You know, I think we're actually running a study now looking at the expression of identity through this electoral process, and we'll do it until Obama is installed.

And to really think of them being ahead of the game, to think of the youth vote that really got out there and pushed it and really believed that this –

[OVERTALK]

ADAORA UDOJI:

Were they the early believers, though? When you look back at the last two years, when Barack Obama announced he was going to run for president, were some of your students the ones who came to you and said, I believe in him?

DAVID WALL RICE:

They were. They really were. And, you know, I think that so many times a lot of us are older, obviously, you know, you kind of become jaded, and you’re, like, no, I don't know if that’s going to happen, you know.

I've been a black man in America for 35 years and God knows I haven't handled the hell that my forefathers and foremothers have handled, but certainly, you know, I couldn't see this, you know.

So to think about that, you know, in 2008, when I'm not decrepit, I'm able to really talk about this with all my senses about me, is just amazing.

[OVERTALK]

JOHN HOCKENBERRY:

I'm decrepit. I've been up all night.

[LAUGHTER/OVERTALK]

Do your students, though, get it before you do? In other words, you say you didn't see this coming. Do you think the young students at Morehouse that you interact with maybe saw this or were in a position to see it maybe better than some of us who are older?

DAVID WALL RICE:

I think so. I mean, they have an innocence, you know. And I think that a lot of this campaign was about a purity and an innocence and a belief in, you know, the great experiment, you know. And so you’re not compromised with all these kind of life experiences.

Now, of course, you have, you know, the seasoning of them as well, so we're not going to make the same mistakes and you know kind of how to hone your administration, we hope and trust.

But, you know, the folks who really got in early, at least here in my experience, were the students. And, you know, I'm amazed and so pleased by that.

ADAORA UDOJI:

Hopes and dreams like what we've seen that drove so many to Barack Obama, are they impossible to fulfill - all of those people, your students, who are feeling hopeful and, you’re saying, are innocent and lack, you know, this sense of jadedness?

DAVID WALL RICE:

Sure. I mean, you know, I mean, there’s this discussion of having so much on [?] the shoulders on this one man, and certainly all of the dreams and hopes aren't going to be fulfilled.

But I think that, you know, him being in the place to work it through is the very beginning. So it’s amazing.

ADAORA UDOJI:

David Wall Rice, thank you so much for joining us here.

DAVID WALL RICE:

Thank you.

ADAORA UDOJI:

David Wall Rice, our Takeaway contributor here at Morehouse College, where he teaches psychology.