I stayed up last night to watch the final hours of the US election unfold, courtesy of David Dimbleby and the rest of the BBC election team. I went to bed just before 3am, shortly after they'd called Ohio for Obama, the point at which little short of the second coming of Christ could save John McCain.

I'd hoped to have a little bit of a lie-in this morning, but obviously I was woken around half past seven by Dave the Husky. It's not clear whether he's an Obama or a McCain supporter, but he must surely be pleased to learn that one of Obama's very first appointments will be a new puppy to the White House.

Commentators far more knowledgeable and insightful than me will be discussing the repercussions of this monumental turn of events for months and years to come. I will say only that I am very, very pleased.

Eight years of Dubya may now be conveniently post-justified as a necessary evil to prepare the ground for what has just happened. Perhaps Bush's presidency was the terrible fire that extinguished the even more terrible plague of blinkered, superstitious, hateful, greedy, short-termist American Conservatism. Or something like that.

There are many challenges that will face the new president when he comes into office, and these are well-documented, but perhaps the biggest opportunity now open to Barack Obama in the very first days of his presidency is to execute the hardest-won and most audacious sight gag in the history of the Western world.

On Tuesday, 20 January, 2009, I will be hoping beyond hope that his first action after becoming sworn in as the 44th President of the United States, will be to head to the front lawn of the White House, unroll a prayer mate, face towards Mecca and thank Allah, in Arabic, for making him the leader of the free world.

Insha'Allah.