Let the good times keep rolling

What a glorious week and a half it's been here in Chicago since Barack Obama was elected president and the Obama girls got the dog my parents would never let me have.

In terms of citywide jubilation, the only time I can remember Chicagoans more ecstatic was when Macy's announced they'd keep selling Frango Mints.

The city's good mood began at the Grant Park rally, which thousands flocked to for the only chance most of us will ever get to mill around for hours and enjoy doing it. "Let's go stand in that spot! And after we get there, let's go to another spot!"

My wife even made some cash on election night. She knew she couldn't compete with the Obama T-shirt vendors, but she set up a modest table at the corner of Michigan Avenue and Jackson Boulevard to sell some sweater vests she'd knitted with Joe Biden's face on them. Made 50 bucks and only spent $75 on materials.

The morning after the election was even better. Everyone here seemed a little kinder, a little more willing to explore our common ground. You noticed it in the way bike messengers would stop to help the people they ran over in the Loop, the way humans and squirrels would share their nuts, the way readers would forgive columnists for not coming up with a third example.

As Thursday rolled around, I feared that the euphoria of the campaign and the victory might begin to recede into the past, so to prolong it I headed to Indiana to do a little more canvassing. Think I picked up three additional votes for Obama.

Upon my return to Chicago, I was delighted to see the enthusiasm for the president-elect and our city's role in his ascent hadn't abated. At least not at the Tribune Tower, where people still were lined up at the Tribune Store for commemorative copies of Wednesday's paper, impeding my ability to buy my daily commemorative Junior Mints.

If President-elect Obama accomplishes nothing other than rescuing a sagging newspaper industry, I'll have to consider his presidency a success. (Incidentally, don't forget to buy this Sunday's Tribune; there will be a commemorative Obama pullout section featuring full-color photographs of people buying last Sunday's commemorative Obama pullout section.)

Today, more than a week after the election, spirits remain high. The other day the Secret Service leaped out of a car and pointed guns at a Chicagoan who tried to cut off President-elect Obama's motorcade--and everyone just laughed about it later. Some of us were even envious. I don't think I was the only one who thought, "I wish Obama's Secret Service would point guns at me."

Meanwhile, people from out of town keep asking, "What's it like to be there?" And the only answer is: "It's great." But my fear is that the feeling can't possibly last. That as winter descends upon us and the Obama family and everyone else in Hyde Park except Bill Ayers moves to Washington, D.C., the rest of us in Chicago will retreat to our old splintered ways.

If only this town had a good community organizer.