Compared to the debacle of 2000 and the short-lived cliffhanger of 2004, this year's presidential election was a dream come true for East Coast newspaper editors.

Three key states - Pennsylvania, Virginia and Ohio - all were in Barack Obama's column by about 10 p.m. EST Tuesday, virtually assuring him victory, and the addition of California, Washington and Oregon at 11 p.m. officially put him over the top.

And for the first time since 1996 - when incumbent Democrat Bill Clinton easily beat Republican challenger Bob Dole - we were able to have the winner's name in large type on our day-after front page. The headline was, quite simply, "OBAMA" - in huge, all-capital letters.

That's a whole lot better than 2000 (when we had to go with "Cliffhanger") and 2004 (when the headline was "Waiting on a winner"). To be sure, there's nothing quite so frustrating in my line of work as having to print a post-election newspaper that fails to give readers the information they crave most.

And in case you were wondering: Had John McCain won on Tuesday, the headline, not surprisingly, would have been simply "McCAIN." And had it been another too-close-to-call scenario, we were prepared to use "We wait."

Thankfully, we only had to wait until about 11 p.m.