I have a confession to make: I am under 30 and I did not vote for Barack Obama. This puts me in a fairly small minority among my cohort of 20-something Americans.

It’s not that I have formulated a strong opinion against our next president; I’m just cautiously skeptical. Regardless of whether you praise Obama as a political redeemer or criticize him on any number of topics, some more justified than others, you certainly cannot claim to know with any confidence how exactly an Obama administration will govern. In terms of policy, our president-elect is simply an unknown entity.

This uncertainty isn’t necessarily bad. There have been politicians who we thought we knew and who turned out surprising us. Sometimes we refer to them as Mavericks. Other times they are fiscally conservative Republicans who socialize our financial sector while growing the federal deficit to unprecedented levels and we call them George W. Bush.

So instead of chanting “Yes we can!” my mantra is the less sanguine “We will see.”

There is, however, one thing I am confident Obama can accomplish in the White House. For all the talk of the Decider-in-Chief, the president is also our Role Model-in-Chief. There was a short time after 9/11 when Americans remembered this. Heck, we even beamed with pride when Bush threw a near-strike for the first pitch at Yankee Stadium. Given Barack Obama’s bowling skills, I’m not holding my breath waiting for any fastballs (although I hear he has a mean jumpshot). But our 44th president has more than a few other abilities that rarely fail to impress.

Obama is the child of an immigrant, and he didn’t exactly grow up privileged. Yet he went on to graduate from Columbia University and Harvard Law School before becoming a professor at another prestigious law school. Then came his speed-of-light political ascent. He is thoughtful, intelligent, eloquent and accomplished. He is raising two beautiful children, and he appears to be an exceedingly wholesome family man. By all reasonable measures, Barack Obama personifies the American Dream. Add a picket fence to the White House and the image is complete.

I suspect no parent could resist being proud of accomplishments like Obama’s, even if their “elite” son grew up to prefer arugula. In other words, we could do considerably worse than having someone like Barack Obama for America’s youth to admire.

Why is this relevant?

Consider the recent, and much lauded, research by Harvard economists Claudia Golden and Lawrence Katz. In “The Race Between Education and Technology” they present rigorous empirical evidence to make the case, essentially, that too few Americans are graduating from college to meet our economy’s growing demand for an educated labor force. This, they argue, is the primary determinate of sluggish income growth for middle-class Americans and has resulted in increased inequality between the rich and the rest over the past 30 years.

Add to this the fact that the achievement gap is especially pronounced for black Americans. Politicians and pundits from every corner have identified educational disparities that leave African-Americans behind as the civil rights issue of the 21st century. Reasonable people can disagree about how these differences arise, but no one can deny the potential benefits when the latest fashion trend is a T-shirt with the picture of a man with Barack Obama’s background, education, intellect and stature.

That’s not to say we can neglect the real improvements that should be made to ensure our schools and educated labor force remain the envy of the world: investment in early childhood education; greater school choice; reforming the financial aid system; real accountability. The list is long. But for all the faults of our education system, the fact that, against odds, a self-made product of that system will soon hold the highest office in the land is nothing short of inspirational. It may just prove a crucial cultural impetus to improving education and reaching higher achievement levels for American’s of all stripes.

I won’t hesitate to criticize President Obama’s policies if I disagree. And, frankly, I’m more than a bit nervous of the corrosive effect a major shift to the political left may have on our economy’s free market principles. But I am exceedingly confident that President Obama will succeed as our Role Model-in-Chief and that alone could be transformative for America. On this, even a young Oregon Republican can be in the majority and feel a little hope.