Much has been said about Tuesday’s historic election of Barack Obama as President of the United States. And it truly is a watershed moment because of what it signifies on so many levels to so many people in so many places.

But even as I feel this powerful, renewed sense of hope, I can’t help but think back to 1992 and the election of Arkansas governor Bill Clinton. It was the first time I was eligible to vote in a presidential election, and though I’d backed Massachusetts Senator Paul Tsongas in the primary, Clinton/Gore buttons, bumper stickers, and window signs were soon proudly displayed in my dorm room.

Clinton prevailed. And the candidate who spoke to a younger generation entered the Oval Office with high expectations for his first term, magnified because he’d have the benefit of a Democratic-controlled Congress. Remember how that turned out? The institution of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” as a military policy and a stalled health care overhaul, to name just two high-profile disappointments.

So yes, there’s still much (so very much) to celebrate about Obama’s victory. But while it seems like the revolution’s near (assessing my collection of Obama/Biden buttons, posters, and bumper stickers), I can’t help but feel that it’s all just a little bit of history repeating. Sing it, Miss Bassey:

“History Repeating,” the Propellerheads track featuring Miss Shirley Bassey (“Goldfinger,” “Diamonds Are Forever”), reached #10 on the Billboard Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart in July 1997.

To his credit, President-elect Obama addressed the public’s expectations in his moving speech on Tuesday night: “The road ahead will be long,” he said. “Our climb will be steep. We may not get there in one year or even one term, but America — I have never been more hopeful than I am tonight that we will get there. I promise you — we as a people will get there.”