For me, today is a day of great optimism. I'm immensely relieved that Obama was elected President and I expect great things from him. In fact, I think his win could increase optimism about the future of America enough to give the economy a much-needed boost.

Years from now, historians may look back and see Obama's election as kicking off a new virtuous cycle where people feel more upbeat, so they buy a few more items, and businesses do a bit better and hire more and...

Okay, I'm getting ahead of myself here. But while pondering what stock I would buy as a play on the new Obama America, my pick would be General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE). GE has long been a play on global economic growth. It is a huge conglomerate with businesses in consumer finance, media, energy and household appliances -- just to name a few. Its returns pretty much track the S&P 500 or other broad market indexes over time (although with more volatility than the index).

Given recent months of financial crisis and worldwide economic slowdown, GE's stock is cheap. It is trading today around $20 a share, a 50% drop from a year ago. It's price-earnings ratio is just 10 and its yield is a hefty 6%.

General Electric and Vestas Wind Systems are reaping the benefits as U.S. utilities assertively add generating capacity from renewable/alternative energy sources, Bloomberg News reported Wednesday.

For example, XCel Energy (NYSE: XEL), the U.S.'s largest provider of wind power, is buying 67 General Electric (NYSE: GE) turbines for a Minnesota wind farm, and GE expects its turbine sales to increase 25% to $6 billion this year, Bloomberg News reported. GE was the largest supplier of wind turbines in 2007, with a 45% market share. Siemens AG (NYSE: SI) and Vestas are two other major global manufacturers of wind turbines that should continue to benefit as wind power usage increases: each is opening manufacturing plants in the U.S. to accommodate increased wind energy-related sales.

GE's shares gained 89 cents to $34.29, while Siemens AG rose 20 cents to $128.20 in Wednesday afternoon trading.

General Electric Co. (NYSE:GE) delivered a solid fourth quarter, even showing improved results at laggard NBC Universal.

Profit from continuing operations rose 12 percent to $6.58 billion, or 64 cents per share, from $5.87 billion, or 56 cents, while revenue jumped 11 percent to $44.6 billion, the company said in a statement. Analysts were expecting profit of 64 cents on sales of $44.2 million, according to Thomson Financial. Our readers poll showed optimism, with 59% of readers believing GE would beat expectations.

There were gains in operating profit in every business but NBC Universal. All General Electric business showed increases in sales, helped by gains in sales of health-care equipment, power turbines and the growing popularity of NBC's primetime lineup. It also confirmed its plans to sell the plastics business. Yesterday, it announced the $8.1 billion purchase of the testing business from Abbott Laboratories.

Chief Executive Jeffrey Immelt has been disposing of some business and buys others with better growth prospects. He forecasted revenue in the current fiscal year of $1.97 to $1.99. The average Wall Street analysts' forecast is $1.98.

``We've got a pretty good track record,'' Immelt told Bloomberg News. ``We've been true to our word in reinvesting back into higher growth from slower growth.''

Investors pushed down General Electric shares in pre-market trading, indicating that they expected better results or more robust guidance.

Also check out some other earnings reports that we're following, and let us know your thoughts on earnings expectations.