We’re ready for the first black president to become the second black president, the one we voted for in 2008 — a change agent, a prince of peace, a transformational figure around which the arclight of history bends.
NATE SILVER: Democrats maintained an edge in party identification, allowing Mr. Obama to win despite losing independent voters by several points. Forty-five percent of those who voted for Mr. Obama were racial minorities, a record number, and he made gains among Hispanic and Asian-American voters. Mr. Obama’s win carried forth into most of the swing states. Of the 10 states that the campaigns contested most vigorously, he may lose only North Carolina, while winning battlegrounds in the four major geographic regions of the country. Mr. Obama is also likely to win the popular vote, perhaps by two to three percentage points, once votes from California, Oregon and Washington are fully counted. MORE
RELATED: An amendment that would make it legal in Colorado for individuals to possess and for businesses to sell marijuana for recreational use has passed. The Denver Post made the call at approximately 9:15 p.m. Amendment 64 led with 52.7 percent voting yes and 47.3 percent voting no, with 1,507,746 votes or more than 50 percent of active voters counted, according to the Colorado Secretary of State’s office. The office said 25 counties had reported. Colorado has become the first state to legalize recreational use of the drug, possibly clearing the way for creation of a marijuana industry. There are similar measures before voters in Washington and Oregon. The ballot measure to amend the state constitution has fostered a national discussion about marijuana policy. Supporters hope approval would place pressure on the federal government to end marijuana prohibition everywhere. But critics say it could make Colorado a destination for drug tourists and prompt a federal crackdown. MORE
BOSTON GLOBE: Elizabeth Warren’s win marks a return to the robust liberalism espoused by the late Edward M. Kennedy, who held the seat for 4½ decades before Brown’s improbable victory, and it also 
provides a key to her party’s hope of maintaining control of the Senate, an issue that loomed large in her campaign.The Harvard professor and former special adviser to President Obama, whose candidacy represented a rebuke to the Tea Party movement, built her lead in the state’s cities, from Springfield and Worcester to New Bedford, Fall River, and Boston. Brown was unable to make up those margins in the Republican towns in the Merrimack Valley and the South Shore or with those in the Blackstone Valley and northern Worcester County. Unions also played a large role in Warren’s win. After the rank and file backed Brown in 2010, a strong push by organized labor led to a 61 percent victory among union members for Warren, according to an internal poll taken by the AFL-CIO Tuesday. MORE
CHICAGO SUN TIMES: By toning down his incendiary tendencies and focusing on fiscal issues, Joe Walsh had by early October eliminated Duckworth’s 10-point advantage and was leading her by 3 points, 48 percent to 45 percent according to a We Ask America poll. And thanks to his 13-1 advantage in SuperPAC cash, Walsh was the beneficiary of almost $6 million in outside money. He was on an improbable roll. Those worries ended in the studios of WTTW-Channel 11 on the night of Oct. 18, when Duckworth and Walsh sat down for the campaign’s final public forum on “Chicago Tonight.” The question was abortion, and Walsh’s position that he was “pro-life without exception.” “The life of the woman is not an exception,” the GOP congressman said. Duckworth, in arguably one of her most fiery campaign moments, shot back, “I’m pro-choice without restriction, and here though, Mr. Walsh . . . what he said — not for rape, incest or life of the mother — he would let a woman die rather than give her, than to give the doctor the option to save her life.” Walsh protested, “That’s not fair.” But in the news conferences that followed their debate, Walsh traveled down the same path that has likely doomed the U.S. Senate bids of two of his Tea Party comrades, Todd Akin of Missouri and Richard Mourdock of Indiana. Like them, Walsh offered up absurd pseudo-science about women and their bodies, arguing that medical advances make abortion unnecessary to save the life of a mother. A small army of doctors, within hours, furiously disagreed. MORE
FOX NEWS: Tammy Baldwin is used to firsts. Back in 1998, she was the first woman elected to represent Wisconsin in the House and the first gay non-incumbent ever sent to Congress. On 
Tuesday, she added to those distinctions with her victory in Wisconsin’s Senate race. Now she will become the state’s first female senator and the first openly gay candidate ever elected to the chamber. And she won by holding off a political comeback by popular former Gov. Tommy Thompson who had never lost a statewide race. Coupled with the fact that President Barack Obama carried Wisconsin on his way to re-election, Baldwin’s victory was a blow to the state’s resurgent GOP, even though the Senate seat has been under Democratic control since 1957, when Communist-hunter Joe McCarthy died in office. MORE