In a momentous event that many regarded as generations away, Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois has won the presidency in an election that transcended race. His election says as much about today's America as it does about the audacity of a man who challenged worn-out assumptions about how politics should work and government should operate.

Not only is Obama the first African-American to be elected to the White House, he is the first Hawaii-born president-elect and the first Democrat from north of the Mason-Dixon line to be chosen to lead the nation in nearly five decades. However, his victory should not be interpreted as a sharp left turn in American politics.

We soon will be able to confirm Obama's understanding of that as he begins to appoint members of his cabinet on the basis of intellect, judgment and public need rather than ideology. Republican names have emerged as likely selections and would enhance what Obama has promised to be a bipartisan and centrist approach.

Obama conducted a nearly flawless campaign as Republican Sen. John McCain stumbled. The sharpest contrast between the candidates followed the Wall Street meltdown. That crisis in the final months of an already disreputable Republican administration further damaged McCain's brand, as much as he tried to disassociate himself from President Bush.

  The reaction by the two candidates to the early October crisis added irrevocably to Obama's momentum and McCain's slippage. Obama immediately met with economic experts, including billionaire investor Warren Buffett and former Federal Reserve Board chairman Paul Volcker, then announced his support for the federal plan. McCain declared a halt to his campaign and parachuted into Washington - a foolish spectacle that ended in a crash.

During the lengthy campaign, Obama called for extending health care to those not already covered by employee-based insurance, reducing taxes for middle-income families, seeking climate-change legislation, pursuing energy independence and bringing a satisfactory and timely end to the war in Iraq.

The ongoing financial crisis will consume much of Obama's attention for weeks and months, first working with a lame-duck Congress on regulatory change and economic stimulus. Rather than send out tax rebates, Congress should extend unemployment benefits and increase food stamps, bringing dollars into the economy instead of seeing them placed into personal savings accounts.

The message from voters is that they want change - as Obama promised and McCain chimed in - but change coming from a sound and reflective president surrounded by knowledgeable advisers rather than from a onetime maverick who was willing to come home to his party's conservative base in exchange for its inadequate embrace.

The liberal leadership of a Democratic Congress would be mistaken to interpret these extraordinary circumstances as a mandate for a dramatic shift to the left.