It’s now nearly 7 am in Austria. I’ve been up all night. And what a night.

I have supported Barack Obama for president ever since he announced his candidacy, in early 2007. There were times when I saw the rationale for this or that other candidate, but my preference was always Obama, never had a doubt.

On November 7, 2005, I attended a taping of The Daily Show, and the guest was the new junior senator from Illinois, Barack Obama. I was really stoked to see him. I went with some Austrian friends, who now insist that I was gushing all about Obama even then, telling them to “watch this guy… he could really go places,” and all that. I don’t remember being so effusive, but apparently I was.

But, as you will see if you watch the video, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist interfered with my one chance to see a future president up close by calling an emergency vote that would keep Obama in Washington, D.C., for the day. He appeared via live video hookup, and that was neat too, but … well, I wish I had seen him for real. Maybe I will someday.

At that time I was very intrigued by Obama but still had no real reason to place undue hope in him. About a year later, David Remnick conducted an interview with Obama, and a recording of the interview appeared on The New Yorker website.

I can remember like it was yesterday driving late one night from New York City to my home in Westchester County, and listening to that interview on the way. The interview ended a few moments after I reached the garage, and I remember idling in the darkness to listen to the end, the way NPR always says you do. And I remember thinking, Wow. This guy is something else.

I date my serious interest in Obama to that interview. In the turbulent years since, I’ve confronted plenty of Obama skeptics who want to know why I support Obama so thoroughly, in the face of a scanty resume and elusive rhetoric that seems to shirk the bone.

And I always say the same thing: I admire his cast of mind, I admire the way he thinks. I want a president who tries to confront as many sides of a problem as possible and forge the best possible answer that the political conditions permit, and Obama is the closest to that I’ve ever seen. And everything Obama has done and said since has tended to support that conclusion.

I never thought it would happen, and I always knew it would happen, at the same time. The next few years are going to be ones to remember.