I'd say it was the shoes that won me over...
This is the man who I hoped would be president.
There's a character in the Terry Pratchett universe, a nightwatchman named Sam Vimes. Vimes was always a favourite of mine, for his one characteristic that stuck in my mind - his shoes. He would buy the cheapest most worn pair with a sole still on them, so that he could feel the streets under his feet as he walked, so he'd have that crucial connection with the city he knew so well.
I feel that Barack has that same connection to our country. Those shoes tell me that he's walked the streets, seen the neighborhoods and heard the stories that comprise the larger history of the US. It was that understanding that I think helped him connect and energize the biggest and best run grassroots effort in our generation.
It's going to be interesting - I hope that at least some of the campaign issues will come to fruitition, including the one most dear to my heart: making it feasible for students to go into primary care, to somehow alleviate the embarrassing shortage of physicians in rural and underserved urban areas and once again allow doctors to provide care to anyone who walks through their doors without worrying if they can keep the lights on.
No matter what happens, I do know the steps of the next four years will be trod in feet that can sense the ground underneath them, and that more than anything else makes me hopeful.