Barack Obama’s unique journey has now taken him to the White House. That he is our first black president is only part of the remarkable precedent. His identity is so complex that in coping with it he found the inner strength and serenity needed to survive—and thrive in the political world.

His African father left him to be raised by his white mother and grandparents in the Asian-majority state of Hawaii. His appearance marked him as black, but there was no black community with which to relate. He went to grade school in Indonesia, where his language and manners marked him simply as American.

He came to the mainland at 18 to Occidental College, where I’d graduated seven years earlier. His dorm, his profs, his favorite pizza place (Casa Bianca on Colorado Blvd.) are fond memories of mine, as well.

It was later in Chicago when his marriage to Michelle (a tremendous asset) and new church ties (which almost undid him) helped him to become black enough to get elected to a South Side legislative seat. But his textured identity transcends race and helps create his broad appeal.

Above all, it was his calm demeanor, his grace under fire that won him the presidency. He created an identity that defied all stereotypes, which fit into no niche nor focus group. His inner discipline and unflappability stilled enough fears about his youth, inexperience and exotic background.

I don’t share his confidence in massive government involvement in the economy, and hope he has learned from the New Deal. We’d had depressions before, earlier called “panics”. The Panic of 1837, the Panics of 1893 and 1907 were all caused by over-exuberance and easy credit followed by a Wall Street collapse. These severe downturns lasted a couple of years before things were righted, but misguided government intervention can turn a panic into a decade-long depression, as it did in the 1930s.

I believe business cycle downturns can right themselves. Massive government programs and controls can make things worse. It wasn’t liberals, however, but Bush/Paulson who initially pushed the $700 billion Wall Street bailout, half of which is now gone and unaccounted for. It was McCain who proposed another bailout for overextended mortgage payers. Rewarding bad behavior only assures more of it.

Freed of an unpopular president and an erratic presidential candidate, what’s left of the GOP in Congress can return to its free market/limited government principles. I hope it can remember them. My good friend Tom McClintock’s narrow election to the House gives me some encouragement.

There are initiatives that Obama may well take right away that will limit government and extend freedom, such as ending the senseless embargo on Cuba. Americans should be encouraged to visit this last shabby showcase of communism to understand this failed ideology.

He will likely adopt a more enlightened drug policy, respecting state and local laws on medically approved uses of marijuana. Significantly, too, his election undercuts the rationale behind racial quotas in hiring and college admissions. He has the credibility to tell his own community that there is no power in playing the victim.

He must also get our troops out of Iraq. It is their country. We’ve spent enough blood and treasure there. My biggest fear is Obama may get us out of Iraq only to get deeper in Afghanistan. That vast, mountainous clannish land can neither be subdued nor governed. It was a quagmire for the Russians, the British and for empires all the way back to Alexander the Great. We can continue to target Al-Qaeda without a massive military build-up in a land from which there would be no good escape.

The incoming administration can blame the outgoing one for maybe a year or so. Democrats for a generation blamed the ’29 Crash on Hoover. Tellingly, though, Johnson’s Vietnam War soon became Nixon’s war. And soon, just blaming Bush won’t be enough.

Having reached out to McCain and attended a dinner at George Will’s home, Obama appears magnanimous and open to competing ideas. His amazing journey has taken him from the margins of America to its most powerful office. The toughest part lies ahead. Senators can get by with words. Presidents are judged by deeds—and results.