OH NO! OBAMA! NO! THIS COUNTRY IS SCROOOOOD! I'M PACKING UP THE FAMILY AND THE GUNS AND MOVING TO ALASKA!
(Just kidding. I don't own any guns.)

Seriously though, good game Barry. What a fight. You deserve it. There are a few very good things that can come out of this that I will concede. One is that racism is now dead in America, and we should be able to finally move past it. Whites elected a black man for president. Wow! Are there still racists in our country? Yes, and probably as much so as in any other country (if not less.) There will always be scummy people tarnishing the image of this great land, and there's only so much you can do about it.

Secondly, though our nation's image abroad is not of particular importance to me, it is to many, and Americans electing Obama shows the world that we can move in a creative direction and change our image if we so desire. Good things should come of this, and I, for one, look forward to them.

And third, for all the talk about unity and "bringing our nation together" I really want to see it. Of all things, Obama, I bid you: make it so. I happen to think that there will be some unity coming. I expect the defeated party (my side) will not lash out and riot, as some left wingers threatened to do if McCain had won. This country could use some unity, given what's at stake in the world. Anyway, that's a lot more important than our image abroad.

I can totally understand why Obama won the presidency. With two wars and terrorism and a collapsed economy and nuclear arms proliferation and growing fears of global environmental crisis, the man in charge will take the fall. He got two shots at it. Let's let someone else screw it up for a while! (Ha!) What baffles me is why anyone would choose to not only re-elect, but add seats to, the congress with the lowest approval ratings in the history of the country. With all the talk of Bush's approval ratings being so low, does no one notice that congressional disapproval ratings have hovered at 75% for over a year now? It's nearly impossible to find anyone in this country who thinks congress is doing a good job! At one point, it was even below 10% approval. (As one politician put it, that's family members and paid staffers!) Republicans got a truly astounding trouncing yesterday.

Add to the show that Joe Biden won twice last night (he held on to his Senate seat), Illinois needs a new senator (Obama's got a new job), and Alaska re-elected a convicted felon, who will serve out the beginning of his term from a jail cell while Sarah Palin selects someone to replace him. Crazy.

All told, the big winner was me! The local moms group has been bringing over dinner every night. I opened a nice bottle of wine and hung with my beautiful family. Plus: I got the week off!

Also, conservative talk radio is going to be really good the next few years! There's nothing like solid conflict to electrify the drama! For the record, my man in 2012 is Bobby Jindal, current governor of Louisiana. I heard he got on a plane for Iowa last night, kicking off his campaign. (No, seriously. He did.)

Lastly, on the way to the polling place yesterday, I noticed this just around the corner from my house, in my neighborhood:


I don't know where to begin with this. I do believe that racism, as we have understood it this past century, is dead in America -but other problems clearly linger. When we disagree in this county, we debate and hold a vote. The debate should be civil. The vote should stand. Obama is our president, o' ye with the can of spray paint and hate in your heart, and these are our laws. Grow up or get out.

I was chatting with the supervisor at my polling place yesterday. She said that one year she had a voter, a Russian immigrant in his seventies who had just become a citizen. He arrived before the polls opened and stood there in the rain. He wanted to see the swearing in of the poll workers. He wanted to see that the ballot box was empty and sealed. He wanted to say the pledge of allegiance. He wanted to vote. Then she told me that at the end of the day, this old man returned. She recognized him and asked him what was up. He wanted to make sure that the vote box was still sealed. He wanted to watch them count the votes. He just wanted to be sure that it was all real. Millions died in his old country. Millions.

To the guy that was waving the Russian hammer and sickle flag in front of the white house last night after Obama won: Wrong flag, sir. Put it away or get out. It's possible you don't belong here.

That kind of stuff just makes me mad. There is no place for swastikas or hammer/sickle symbols in this country.

No place.


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