America has cracked open

From an essay in today's Salon:

And then [Jackson] began to wave a small American flag on a wooden stick, like a kid at a Fourth of July parade. Elsewhere in the crowd was Oprah Winfrey, that most almighty American who, like Jackson, helped launch Obama's dream, but who on the night it was made manifest was simply a member of a throng that could only look on and weep as the uneven ground on which America was built became slightly more level beneath their feet.