Weighing in at just under 2000 words, Barack Obama's acceptance speech in Grant Park, Chicago far exceeds the length of Lincoln's Gettysburg Address. Yet Obama invokes Honest Abe three times, and last night's oration is a marvel of Lincolnian rhythm and panache. Whether it was put together by a speechwriter or, as has been suggested, was largely composed by the President-elect himself, the speech is remarkable. Compared to the tired rhetoric of his peers, Obama's address is tremendously exhilarating.

How offbeat that it begins with a sequence of three "If" clauses, as tentatively as a "Big If" question mark, only to have its otherwise desultory first paragraph arrive at a definitive resolution, "tonight is your answer." Good things, writers and Trinitarians agree, come in threes; therefore, "It's the answer" heads up the next three paragraphs.

Of course, Obama needs to tip his hat to John McCain and Sarah Palin, plus his veep, his family, his campaign manager, and chief strategist in this order -- odd that he doesn't mention his kids Sasha and Malia, who "have earned the new puppy that's coming with us to the White House" in a final, emphatic paragraph in this section. Regardless, the speech goes on to thank "you," the Americans who elected him, and to sketch the arc of his political career and spell out a list of challenges that face us today, everyone including foreigners "huddled around radios in the forgotten corners of our world," as well as "those who would tear this world down."

In a gesture that recalls Ronald Reagan, Obama singles out citizen Ann Nixon Cooper, 106 years old, who "cast her ballot in Atlanta." Obama describes Cooper's life as a series of obstacles: women's voting rights, the Great Depression, WWII. Vis-a-vis Cooper, whereas Martin Luther King might have chanted, "We shall overcome," Obama lets loose a chorus of "Yes we can"s, which bring his oration to a resounding conclusion.

Lots of us await Obama's inaugural address. If his November 4th acceptance speech suggests his literary power as commander-in-chief, we're in for an absolute humdinger of an inaugural address on January 20th.