For some people it's only beginning to sink in. In a week's time David Trimble will probably be First Minister-designate of the Northern Ireland administration. He will be to all intents and purposes the boss - subject to the overview of head teacher Tony Blair and external assessor Bertie Ahern - but master, alongside John Hume or Seamus Mallon, in his own classroom.
So yesterday's keynote speech should be seen not only as an election ploy but as an outline of his vision for the future, his olive branch, his handshake across the great divide.
David Trimble came out of his corner fighting. If he hadn't, people would have suspected an impostor. This handshake was offered only to those whose fists were no longer closed.
Unionist leaders, we are led to believe, have very little room to manoeuvre and that is why government heads in London, Dublin and Washington tend to take pressures from the unionist grassroots into account.
Mr Trimble was firm - his critics would say unyielding - on the issue of marches. If he has a compromise to deliver or facilitate he did not reveal it yesterday. One assumes such compromises are best worked on behind the scenes.
He was firm, too, on the subject of paramilitary violence. There has been much argument over the meaning of the Provisional IRA's acronym TUAS. Suggestions include "Total Unarmed Strategy" and "Tactical Use of Armed Struggle". Mr Trimble gave a new definition: "Threatened Use of Armed Struggle". This appears to be his description of the IRA's current posture and he wasn't having any of it.
The SDLP was not mentioned but one imagines its adherents found some comfort in the speech. It was not the "My name Is De Klerk, please forgive me for what my people did to yours" oration of nationalist fantasies but it did bespeak a willingness to deal, to talk turkey and, most importantly, it pledged to implement the Belfast Agreement as a charter for a new beginning.
There were no hecklers among the solid business leaders present in Malone House although the standing ovation was a bit slow in coming. The only prominent dissident on hand was the Rev Martin Smyth MP.
The UUP's PR operation grows ever-smoother: Mr Trimble must be the first unionist leader to appear on a "video wall", the technical name for the bank of 16 television screens projecting his image as he spoke. In such a small room it wasn't really necessary to have the electronic Trimble in addition to the flesh-and-blood version, but spin-doctoring isn't about necessity any more - it has become a form of art.
The speech was billed as "historic". It wasn't quite in that league, but it was pointing in a direction that moderate nationalists at least will find encouraging.
There were indications the UUP leader believes decommissioning may take place after all - but he couldn't say when. There was talk of pluralist unionism but the Assembly will show the true colour of his money. There were echoes of John Hume when Mr Trimble spoke of the prosperity that peace can bring. There was even a moment when his voice quavered slightly as he recalled how civility between the communities had enabled both sides to come through the worst of days.
He was offering, not so much blood, toil, tears and sweat as squabbles, votes, divisions and maybe, just maybe, the hope of normal life after so much violence and hurt. Like me or not, David Trimble seemed to be saying, what you see is what you get.