One of Barack Obama’s central campaign themes was “hope.” At the time, it made little sense to me. What were people supposed to hope for? Better times? Better living conditions? More money from the government? That the government would stick it to those rich folk?

But just three days after this historic election, I now know what it means to have hope.

• I hope my retirement account stops losing money as a result of the election
• I hope that if it still does have money, the Democrats don’t take it away from me
• I hope Obama runs face first into the realities of the political world and can’t further move this country to the left
• I hope he doesn’t do much damage to the energy industry
• I hope he doesn’t do much damage to the health care industry
• I hope he doesn’t do much damage to the economy
• As a matter of fact, I hope he doesn’t do much damage to business in general
• I hope I still have a job when his term as president ends
• I hope the news media treats Obama like they have George W. Bush (slim chance, I know)
• I hope Obama isn’t able to fulfill his promise to spread the wealth
• I hope that we can get back to MLK’s principle of “judging a man based on the content of his character”
• I hope we can get back to JFK’s principle of asking not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country

Yes, thanks to Obama, I now have hope.