Michael Soklove and Frank Rich of the New York Times analyze how Obama achieved his victory.

THE NATION: The Transformation By MICHAEL SOKOLOVE (NY Times)
Early on Election Day morning in the Philadelphia suburb of Levittown, Pa., Joe Sinitski, 48, stood in a long line inside a school gymnasium, inching his way toward three blue-curtained voting machines. He wore jeans, a sweatshirt and a National Rifle Association baseball cap. He said he would vote for Barack Obama, a choice that some months earlier he could not have imagined.