John Lennon was a ‘man for all seasons’ and will be remembered for many things as he transcended the music of the Beatles, arguably the most popular and influential band ever.

President-elect Barack Obama’s success this week has stirred many feelings, old and new, for most Americans including the wide-eyed optimism that was felt when John Lennon wrote, “Give Peace a Chance,” which became the anthem for a new, new world order.

John Lennon and his new bride Yoko Ono, both master media manipulators used their celebrity for good, hosting a honeymoon "bed-in" for peace in room 902, the presidential suite of the Amsterdam Hilton.

The press avidly pursued them as they spoke out about world peace. It was the honeymoon as performance art, interlaced with a protest against the Vietnam War.

For a week, John and Yoko give interviews, ignoring the mockery and hostility to spread their words of peace to a global audience.

London’s Daily Mirror noted: "A not inconsiderable talent seems to have gone completely off his rocker." The media. as a whole, said that Lennon’s “Bed-in for Peace” was naive, egotistical and a waste of his celebrity which could be better utilized elsewhere.

Next, the Lennon/Ono campaign for peace planned a move to New York which was stalled by the US Embassy in London when they refused to issue Lennon a visa because of his earlier marijuana arrest.

Not to be deterred,the newlyweds headed to Canada, taking corner suite rooms 1738-40-42 at the stately Queen Elizabeth Hotel in Montreal on May 26, 1969 to stage their second week-long bed-in for peace.

On June 1, 1969, the call went out for recording equipment. A guitar was found for Tommy Smothers. Oversize lyrics went up on the walls. And John and Yoko, along with a roomful of people that included Dr. Timothy Leary, Montreal Rabbi Abraham Feinberg, musicians Derek Taylor and Petula Clark, and members of the Canadian Radha Krishna Temple in the chorus, recorded "Give Peace a Chance." The single is credited to "The Plastic Ono Band." Five weeks later, on July 7, the 45 was released in the United States. "Give Peace a Chance" reached no. 14 on Billboard’s chart — and inspired an entire generation to chant a song of peace along with John and Yoko.

And now, 40 years later, a new generation, led by the newly elected Barack Hussein Obama, has been given the opportunity to carry Lennon’s torch and ‘give peace another chance.’

The time has never been riper for another ‘coming together’ of inspired and motivated Americans to effect the kind of massive change needed to restore our ailing democracy. Barack Obama’s historic ascendence to the presidency is just the kind of thing necessary to fulfill America’s promise and role in a new, new world order.