And now it's official: America has elected Barack Obama its next President.
This is a triumph for everyone who values freedom and democracy. First time voters, African-Americans, Latinos - and everyone else who saw the need for a new way of governing this country. It was a victory for the Internet, for grass roots organization, for common sense. A victory over the lies that the Republicans have been hurling at Democrats and the American people for decades now.
The electoral votes for Barack Obama are currently over 330 - Florida, Virginia, Colorado, Iowa - all of those Republican strongholds went to Obama!
This a revolution as great as FDR's in the 1930s...
John McCain just gave a very gracious concession speech...
I have never more more proud to be an American!
12 comments:
I can't be happier to agree with you on that, Paul.
Thanks, Jay - I'm happy to have you as a reader!
It's a great day to be an American. Once again we've had a peaceful transition of power, and what a transition -- from a class warfare Republican world view that is literally bankrupts, and in Greenspan's words, "wrong," to a brand new, 21st century, green tech, forward thinking, labor loving and utterly transcendent way of leading America.
Let's just hope Obama can deliver on the rhetoric. I hope he starts leading tomorrow since we now have a solidly Democratic majority in Congress.
Hey Zachary! :)
I think we have some good years ahead.
Congrats to all of you who wanted this so much. As an American I salute our new President and wish him the best of luck. I also want to thank Senator McCain for his years of service and hope he continues to give great service in the Senate. I also think he went out with a bang with an excellant, classy concession speech. Again, Congrats to all of you and the new President-elect.
Thanks, Frank. Your comments have added a lot of dignity to this blog, and I hope you continue commenting here.
I think I can speak for most of us on this side of the pond... And we all gave a huge sigh of relief when we woke up this morning :-)
He did it! Hi Dr.Levinson it's Rasheeda. You were one of the first people I thought of as I wiped away the tears from my eyes last night. All the long months of campaigning, analyzing the race in class -- my look at how far we've come!! I didn't think he was going to make it. And I'm sorry for ever doubting my country. We made the right choice!!!
Hope all is well!
Rasheeda
Hey Rasheeda - you know, I was thinking of my classes, all the times we talked about the election, and assessed Barack Obama's chances, too! :) We did make the right choice! I'm glad you came here to help celebrate! :)
steph: today is the first day of a new world!
Sure, Obama is our president elect and the future looks hopeful ... but did you see the hologram on CNN? Heh.
Yes, that was cool, too - I'm going to write something about that, in the next day or two!
I feel proud, patriotic and American for one simple reason: a conversation with my friend Lee. Lee is Asian American. It was obvious to me that the Obama victory had a profound effect on him, so I asked him if he was okay. He said: "You know, America always saw itself as great, and the rest of the world was always a little skeptical because America's actions did not always match its claims of greatness. Tonight we finally live up to our own hype."
I said: "What do you mean?"
He said: "I as a man of color may understand this better than you ever will. Over the years, I have encountered, from time to time, the persistent meme that being an American means being white. When someone says to me, 'Of course I can't speak Chinese - I'm an American' it means little to you, but to me it speaks volumes. He has an automatic association of his whiteness to his Americanness. But wait one damn minute, there are quite a few people like me, who can speak Chinese and yet are no less American than him, in any concievable way.
"In this election, we saw this harmful meme again and again. Some whites from the south and rural areas angrily asserted that Obama was not a real American. I recognized the subtext easily: he ain't white - only whites can be real Americans. So of course to them he was not fit to take high office."
I said: "It's messed up, I agree."
He continued: "The crushing victory proves once and for all, in the most visceral fashion imaginable, that the bigots are utterly wrong. We're finally the nation where any American, regardless of skin color, really has the possibility to achieve anything. It's no longer just an empty promise. The few who still subscribe to the despicable meme will eventually die of old age, some sooner than others. The new generation that replaces them won't have their prejudice. This is why you see so much emotion out there. I'm all choked up because I was born here and I've been a citizen all my life, but only right now, at this moment can I finally say that America is my country too. Maybe we'll screw up again down the road, but today we live up to the greatness of our highest ideals."
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