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President Barack Obama. Incredible! We all need to get used to saying it. It's impossible to overstate what this election means for someone like my father, who grew up in segregated Virginia. The last time we talked, he repeated what I've heard and read from many of his generation: "Never in my lifetime did I believe this could happen."

There has been a lot written about President-elect Obama's positions on issues we care about. Farm Aid breaks down Obama's position on agriculture. (One positive sign: he has actually read Michael Pollan's recent article, Farmer in Chief.) Grist outlines Obama's commitment to the environment and renewable energy. Reuters reports on Obama's position on trade.

But what is said on the campaign trail and what ends up as policy can be very different. In 1992, when Bill Clinton was first elected president, I was living in Washington, D.C. My strongest memory from that time was the incredible parties. They seemed to drag on for days, including an amazing series of free concerts on the mall. People celebrated—maybe a little too much. 

From my perspective, one of the important differences between Clinton and Obama is their organizing philosophy. Clinton's was strictly a top-down operation, and he ran his campaign and his administration that way. His supreme confidence in his own intellectual brilliance (and political calculations) often made it difficult to bring new ideas into his administration, and even tougher to pressure him to do the right thing (i.e. on NAFTA/WTO and the 1996 Farm Bill) when he disagreed with citizens' groups.

President-elect Obama's campaign was revolutionary in many areas, not the least of which was its bottom-up organizing strategy. Republicans openly mocked Obama's experience as a "community organizer," (despite the fact that many of their own troops are led by community organizers, as the Daily Show pointed out). But there is no doubt that Obama's organizing experience on the South Side of Chicago shaped his view about campaigns. His organizing approach is based on bottom-up citizen empowerment and included many people who have previously felt excluded from the political process. He believed listening to the voices of citizens is fundamental, as is talking and listening to those you disagree with. This is our opportunity.

While there is much to be optimistic about what candidate Obama has said, there is no doubt that with the inevitable compromises that come with governing, we will differ with the Obama administration. In the report New Progressive Voices, we outline how the Obama administration can positively re-engage with the world. And in the upcoming book, Mandate for Change, we outline what the Obama administration's farm and food policy should look like. Of course, we are under no illusion that the policy changes we propose will be quickly and easily adopted, ratified through Congress and implemented.

The outcome of yesterday's election has opened a door (closed the last eight years) for new ideas on building community-, people- and environment-centered trade and food systems. But it has only opened the door. Now we all need to do the work that will allow us to walk through that door into a better world.