Tonight two years of mind numbing campaign blather came to a close with the victory of Barack Obama (spell check's got to learn those names). He wasn't my candidate but he is my president. God bless him and I hope he lives up to some of the things he sometimes talked about on the campaign trail. He can't be worse than the much of the last eight years (torture (more than anything else, that's the least forgivable thing attributable to the Bush presidency), unchecked spending, refusal to control illegal immigration, mismanagement of two wars, etc., etc.)
I was born two years before Martin Luther King was killed and now, in my middle age, a black man is the president of this most powerful nation in history. He did it by appealing to a call for change (it's still sort of fuzzy exactly what he means by that), and mostly running a pretty high minded and good natured campaign. It's a testimony to how far this country has really come in forty years.
By contrast, John McCain never seemed focused, looked old and tired much of the time and failed to address the economic situation in a way that at least assured people he maybe knew what he was doing.
I have my worries but they're more about the people clinging to the Democratic Party than the new president. The insane netroots will be pushing him to the far left and the corrupt hacks like Pelosi will be pushing him to expand their grasp over much of civil society.
Still, I have hope. He's not a dumb man and he knows he didn't win just because the Upper West Side and Berkley contingents voted for him. His support has come from across the board of America and I more than suspect he knows that. Also, there's no money left. Congress just gave it away to the bankers who put us in this mess.
So we'll see and hope and pray for the best.
