Among Barack Obama's many extraordinary gifts to catch my eye—his capacity to seize the moment; his rhetorical flair; his attentiveness; and his nerve and ability to play the long game—is his stillness. Watch how he holds his head during pauses for applause and crowd reaction, and how when he sits he is at once relaxed and yet ready to move (a marked contrast with the urgency and meandering walk and manner of speech of McCain).

Obama's economy of gesture and movement suggests self-containment. It embodies perhaps a belief that when a move is made it should be considered and effective (and dramatic, precisely because unanticipated and forceful). Certainly, his physical style matches his campaign, which had both discipline and cunning, and, unlike McCain's, resisted the empty gesture and endless shape-shifting. It may also hint at how Obama will govern: cautiously, craftily, and with a minimum of fuss—both disarming and lulling opposition into a false sense of security, while all the time accumulating the capital and support needed to make victory inevitable.