On the streets of Washington, Beniam Ghiday pilots his taxi. On the dashboard is a bumper sticker: "New Energy; Real Change; OBAMA." He is just getting back to work, having taken Election Day off to host a barbecue in his yard.

For Ghiday, President-elect Barack Obama means a reset of foreign policy, a chance that the new president might do something to help the far-flung places of the world like Eritrea, where he came from in 1977.

The accent of Africa’s eastern shore is still thick in Ghiday’s voice, even after more than 30 years here, but he is clear about his feeling for democracy. He takes his children — 16, 14 and 8 — to the polls with him, he says. He tells them, "The only thing you can do is vote. So you have to do it." He’s a hopeful pragmatist pragmatic about the president-elect, saying, "You’re not going to fix in four years all the damage that’s been done." But he’s excited about America’s "fresh start" in the world. He says, "Americans show what they are right now."

Some of the buildings he passes in his cab — some of the oldest of Washington’s familiar architecture — were erected with the labor of black slaves. Two centuries later, the son of an African and white Kansan will live in one of those buildings: the White House.

"It’s a great time."