That’s one of the photos Fauntleroy resident Chris Porter sent us for his story published here about being an Obama delegate to the Democratic National Convention in Denver in August. Chris has a lot of natural enthusiasm, to say the least — on Election Day morning this past Tuesday, we found him with cheering sign-wavers atop the Fauntleroy overpass:

Hours later, after an early stop at the state Democrats’ party downtown — which he was just leaving when the projected Obama victory was announced at 8 pm — Chris went home, “giddy, tearful, and excited,” to host his own party. Now he’s looking ahead to a trip to D.C. for the inauguration; we sat down to chat with him on Thursday and ask what he thinks as the country comes down from the high spirits of a history-making night and starts looking ahead to what “change” might really mean:

Chris actually bought his airline tickets to DC when then-Sen. Obama was officially nominated. “I’m an alternate elector, so either I will be there with a seat, or I will be in the crowd.”

As we talked at the Burien medical-office complex where he treats patients as a nurse practitioner, we turned on the WSB video camera to ask what he hopes to hear during the inauguration speech:

Click pic to play video

That trip will be a homecoming of sorts for Chris, who is a former resident of nearby Virginia. He has also lived in Texas, served in the Air Force, and finally moved to Seattle in 2005, living in Wallingford for one year before buying a house in Fauntleroy.

Two years ago also is about when he became a supporter of Barack Obama, even before the now-president-elect declared he was running. Chris was greatly impressed by the Obama book “The Audacity of Hope,” which he recalls made him think “this is someone who knows how this stuff works.”

Then once the nomination process began earlier this year, he began the arduous task of making it up through the ranks: “At the precinct level, you think you have a pretty good chance … then (further along), it turns out there are about 1,000 people vying for 7 seats, it’s not well-understood.”

But he made it, and made news (toward the bottom of the 34th District Democrats‘ home page, you’ll see a blurb with a collection of links from coverage that featured Chris).

In the months before and after the convention, it’s been a whirlwind of “mixers, fundraisers — you could go to one every week – parades, e-mail, phone banks.” Now, it’s time to see if all that work for the winning candidate will pay off: “I’m looking to see how he will bring forward this togetherness, this ‘one country’ that he talked about. I’m also interested in ending the war.” Chris expects to at least see some word of troop “draw-down” early in the Obama Administration.

We wondered if “togetherness” will be difficult given the inflammatory rhetoric that has seemed to intensify from some of those who had not supported the Democratic ticket. Chris is hopeful that even opponents will come around, and potentially find inspiration from the new president: “If the voice speaks differently … slowly we begin to tune in.”

There is another issue on which he is hoping to see some progress during the Obama Administration: LGBT rights. “He talked in his book, and brought it up at the convention, about the need to address the LGBT issue in this country. So many candidates in the past had avoided it, afraid it would drop their poll numbers. … He directly and poignantly spoke to it, in a way we have not seen any presidential candidate ever do.” Certainly there were bittersweet aspects to being a gay African-American on Tuesday night — watching the racial barrier broken at the White House level, while seeing marriage equality suffer a setback in California; Chris has hope that the forthcoming legal challenge to California’s anti-marriage-equality Proposition 8 might gain traction.

As a health-care practitioner, he also will be watching to see what happens with health care in the Obama Administration, though it’s an issue on which he says frankly both candidates didn’t seem to completely “get” — “It’s not just that everybody is insured — equity and parity of benefits is important. But maybe access is the first step.”

All that has to wait till at least January 21, 2009; on January 20, Chris Porter will be among those participating in one more celebration of yet another “first.”