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Whew … what a week it’s been. Barack Obama was elected as the 44th President of the United States of America just 5 days ago and I know that so many people are still rejoicing at the news. I happily posted the pics sent in by Pink readers of their celebrations around Election Day and today we get to check out a few intimate, behind-the-scenes photos of the Obama family waiting for the election results on Election Night. President-elect Obama had a bunch of private photos posted to his official Flickr photo album to share his family’s Election Night activities with the world. Here are a few of my faves:

Click HERE to see a whole slew of Election Night photos of the Obama family. I’m pretty sure that Tuesday November 4, 2008 is a day that millions of people will remember for the rest of their lives. Obvs it was a big night for the Obamas and I think it’s very cool that they are sharing their intimate (and prolly jittery) moments with the world. I suspect that the new First Family is going to be very open about their lives and will do everything they can to share their experiences with all of us. The site Change.gov has already launched and I understand there will be an official blog of the new President when he takes office. Leadership in this country looks like it’s about to take a giant leap forward of inclusion with the people. I can’t wait to see what’s in store in the coming months and years.

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I gotta tell y’all, I’m having a hard time focusing on anything other than Election Day today. After much contemplation while waiting in line to vote this morning (1 1/2 hours), I’ve decided to chill on the goss and focus primarily on what is going on in the US today. I have never experienced such a feeling of excitement in my country before. While I understand that some of y’all may be sick and tired of all the election talk of the last few days, weeks, months I just can’t get fully into goss mode today. I’m really hoping for record voter turn-out in today’s election so I’m gonna try and do anything I can to inspire folks here in the US to GET OUT AND VOTE. I’ll put up some regular stuff thruout the day but I’m entirely too preoccupied with the election to really focus.

Senators Barack Obama and John MCain (and their wives Michelle and Cindy) made their way out to their polling places this morning to cast their ballots in today’s very important election. The assumption is that each man and his wife did not vote for the other guy but … I guess we can’t be entirely too sure. Here are a few pics of the Obamas and the McCains casting their votes earlier today:

Democrat Barack Obama joined the nation’s earliest voters Tuesday as people around the nation began lining up to cast ballots in a historic election pitting Republican John McCain against the man seeking to become the first black president in U.S. history. “I voted,” Obama said, holding up the validation slip he was handed after turning in a ballot at his Chicago neighborhood’s precinct. Accompanying the Illinois senator for the trip from their home to the polling station were his wife, Michelle, and their two young daughters. He planned a final campaign event in nearby Indiana before speaking to a massive evening rally in Chicago. In Delaware, Democratic vice presidential candidate Joe Biden went to the polls with his elderly mother.

Senator McCain gave a thumbs up sign but ignored questions from reporters as he left the polling station in Phoenix, Arizona. Meanwhile, Sarah Palin told journalists in her home town of Wasilla, Alaska, that she hoped to wake up on Wednesday as the new Vice President of the United States. “We have an optimistic and confident view of what is going to happen today,” she said.

Well, the candidates at least have a couple votes each that they can count in their tally. As the rest of the country votes thru out the day (the first polls close in just 5 hours) the US and the world waits with bated breath.

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It’s official. Senator Barack Obama, from the State of Illinois, has formally accepted the nomination by the Democratic Party as candidate for President of the United States of America. On the 45th anniversary of Martin Luther King, Jr‘s I Have A Dream speech, Obama delivered a thundering speech (wherein he formally accepted his party’s nomination and explained to the crowd,the country as a whole and the world how he plans to bring change to the US) at Invesco Field in Denver, CO to close out the Democratic National Convention last night. Here are a few pics of Obama delivering his speech and a pic of Obama with his wife Michelle and his running mate Joe Biden (with his wife Jill) as they stepped forward together, into history, on the way to the campaign trail:

Barack Obama accepted the Democratic Party presidential nomination on Thursday, declaring that the “American promise has been threatened” by eight years under President Bush and that John McCain represented a continuation of policies that undermined the nation’s economy and imperiled its standing around the world. The speech by Senator Obama, in front of an audience of nearly 80,000 people on a warm night in a football stadium refashioned into a vast political stage for television viewers, left little doubt how he intended to press his campaign against Mr. McCain this fall. In cutting language, and to cheers that echoed across the stadium, he linked Mr. McCain to what he described as the “failed presidency of George W. Bush” and — reflecting what has been a central theme of his campaign since he entered the race — “the broken politics in Washington.” “America, we are better than these last eight years,” he said. “We are a better country than this.” But Mr. Obama went beyond attacking Mr. McCain by linking him to Mr. Bush and his policies. In the course of a 42-minute speech that ended with a booming display of fireworks and a shower of confetti, he offered searing and far-reaching attacks on his presumptive Republican opponent, repeatedly portraying him as the face of the old way of politics and failed Republican policies. He said Mr. McCain was out of touch with the problems of everyday Americans. “It’s not because John McCain doesn’t care,” he said. “It’s because John McCain doesn’t get it.” And he went so far as to attack the presumed strength of Mr. McCain’s campaign, national security. “You know, John McCain likes to say that he’ll follow bin Laden to the gates of hell, but he won’t even follow him to the cave where he lives,” he said. The speech loomed as arguably Mr. Obama’s most important of the campaign to date. It was an opportunity to present himself to Americans just now beginning to tune in on this campaign, to make the case against Mr. McCain and to offer what many Democrats say he has failed to offer to date: an idea of what he stands for, beyond a promise of change. To that end, he emphasized what he described as concrete steps he would take to address the anxieties of working-class Americans, promising tax cuts for the middle class and pledging to wean the country from dependence on Middle East oil within 10 years to address high fuel prices. With the speech, Mr. Obama closed out his party’s convention here and prepared for a quick shift of public attention to the Republicans as Mr. McCain moved to name his running mate and his party got ready for its convention in St. Paul on Monday. He delivered it in a most unconventional setting, becoming the third nominee of a major party in the nation’s history to leave the site of his convention to give his acceptance speech at a stadium. In this case, it was Invesco Field, set against the Rockies and about a mile from the arena where he had been nominated the night before. His aides chose the stadium to signal a break from typical politics and to permit thousands of his supporters from across the country to hear him speak. And it came on a night that offered — by the coincidence of scheduling — a reminder of the historic nature of the Obama candidacy: 45 years to the day after the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech on the Mall in Washington. Mr. Obama is the first African-American to be nominated for the White House by a major party, a fact that, for all its significance, has been barely mentioned over the course of this four-day gathering. Even in invoking the anniversary of the King speech, Mr. Obama only alluded to race. But he quoted a famous phrase from Dr. King’s address to reinforce a central theme of his own speech. “America, we cannot turn back,” Mr. Obama said. “Not with so much work to be done.”

Wow. I must admit, hearing Obama‘s speech gave me chills … and it had a strong significance for me. When Dr. King spoke of his Dream 45 years ago, it occurred to me that he was speaking of just this moment in time … when our country can finally realize that all men are created equal. I don’t know about y’all but I can deffo feel the winds of change blowin’ … and it’s about time. I remember when Governor Bill Clinton accepted his nomination for President of the United States back in 1992 … I could feel it then that he was going to win the presidency and put our country back on course. I got that same feelin’ this time, y’all … and it’s an amazing feeling … it’s called Hope.

After the jump, watch the entirety of Barack Obama‘s acceptance speech in case you missed it last night or want to hear it again …