President-elect Barack Obama during his acceptance speech at Grant Park in Chicago, Nov. 4, 2008. (AP/Morry Gash) After Barack Obama's smashing defeat of GOP nominee John McCain in the Electoral College and his crossing of one of the most formidable racial barriers the country has confronted, even harder work begins.

As Obama suggested in his acceptance speech last night, a long road lies ahead. Commentators, grasping for parallels, compare his arrival in the Oval Office to Abraham Lincoln (a self-taught lawyer) encountering...