Thursday, November 6, 2008

Watching change

Spent last night with some friends at an alleged election night party that turned out to be a dark, loud, third rate rock concert directed at the binge drinking crowd. Had a pair of lousy g&ts and came home early only to find nothing of use on the computer. So I set the alarm for 5am because I knew that CA polls would be closing about then. Arrived on line just in time to hear McCain's concession speech. Found it heartfelt and sympathetic and he sounded like he really meant it. Then Obama's speech (in front of 125K crowd! How does he do it!!) which left most of us in tears. Missing only Al Franken victory, Ted Stevens repudiation, and Prop 8 failure. I was hoping we were going to see the end of the Abortion/Gay Marriage/Creationist distraction game but not yet. Dawn broke on a sparkling bright, shiny day where all's right with the world.
I'm not sure Americans know how much the people in the rest of the world cared about this election. Most countries I've visited love Americans even if they hate our government. And they really wanted to like us again. In my travels over the last two years, the third question asked of me, after where do you come from and how do you like Italy, is how we get rid of George Bush? And since January, I am nearly always the expert of choice: Hillary or Obama? I always said I don't care, any Democrat will do, but now I am really pleased that it is Obama because of his incredible "presidential temperment". The man seems unflappable! And I think the next four years will have molto flaps. I have heard many black Americans saying "I am so grateful I lived to see this!' Me too.

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