I still can't believe it. I couldn't really believe it last night when it was happening, and I'm still having trouble processing it now. But the election is over and Barack Obama is going to be our new president.
As I was over at my friends last night watching the returns come in, I was cautiously optimistic because I knew what the polls were saying. And when Ohio went for Obama, I knew it it was over and Obama had won.
It's quite interesting witnessing history in real time. I don't know quite how to describe the relief that I felt that finally we knew who won and that person was the guy who I think has the mindset to bring the US back to the modern world after 8 years of pissing it off. And there was joy too. Hearing his victory speech and knowing that this was the best thing to happen to American politics in quite some time.
I know that just because he is elected, the country won't return to the right track over night. He's inherited a boatload of problems, a bad economy, two wars and crumbling relations with other countries…it's going to be tough. But I think that this is a step in the right direction. I hope people understand that he's not going to be some messiah that comes down from on high and snaps his fingers to make everything OK. That's what he's going to have to fight now. But I think he can do it.
Also, as an aside, I really liked McCains concession speech. It was the first time in a long time that we've heard the real McCain, not the fake one that's been running around campaigning for the last 2 years. That was the McCain I might have voted for.
The only thing that's really, really dissapointing about last night is that, on the night that can serve as such a symbol of overcoming prejuidice and bigotry, so many states passed ballot measures promoting a different kind of prejudice and bigotry…bans on same sex marriage. Why can people not see that this issue is just as bad as racial discrimination? That interracial marriage was banned for exactly the same reason, that it was a "sin" against "god". Totally ignoring the fact that a good portion of the country doesn't believe in that god.
It's a very sour note on what should have been a day celebrating the strides we've made as a people. Instead, it shows very clearly just how much farther we need to go before we can truly live up to the phrase that had been set down at the very founding of this country. "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness". All men. Not white men, not black men, not straight men, not gay men. ALL. MEN. (and women of course)
I have never been prouder of my country, and yet at the same time I have never been so disappointed.
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I try not to get political on here. It's not that I'm not interested in political type things…it's just that I prefer to keep my views to myself (and a small circle of close friends and even then…not so much). I'm registered as an independent as I don't believe that political party should influence my vote. I'll never really understand why some people vote straight ticket without even thinking about it…but that's another topic. Recently, I find myself identifying more with the viewpoints of the Democrats than the Republicans though.
So when Barack Obama announced that he was going to be running for president in 2008, I figured I should pick up his latest book The Audacity of Hope(which I was thinking about grabbing earlier anyway) and see if I can learn a little more about him and what his stand on the issues is. I had also heard really good reviews of it, and I was looking for something a little more…non-fictiony.
I read through the whole thing in about a week. It would have been a lot quicker, except that I was in Washington DC for most of that week and was largely too tired to really read. Obama is an incredibly articulate writer. The book was interesting, well organized and well written. I particularly enjoyed the way he brought in real life people and situations to help back up his points instead of attempting to discuss the issues in abstract and in a vacuum.
I'm not sure if I'm stuck in some sort of Obama reality distortion field or something, but after reading the book, I came away with a feeling that the author was a genuine. He admitted his biases up front, as well as bringing up several examples of when he was wrong in how he thought, or lucky. I came away thinking that he was just a regular guy, trying to do the best he can and help out where he could. I'm usually fairly good these days on picking out something that's insincere. Like I said, not sure if it was some sort of distortion field clouding my judgment there or anything.
It also helped that I agreed with a lot of what he had to say. His thoughts on the state of the political debate are refreshing, about how it's become less about the issues at hand and more about how electable somebody is, or what small thing they may have done in the past.
If you're at all interested in finding out more about Barack Obama or just want a good read on the political situation of the country (from the Democrat perspective obviously), you can't go wrong with this. You might not agree with everything he has to say, but I'd be fairly surprised if you didn't take something away from reading this book.
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