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It’s Morning in America

It’s hard to know what to say after an election that feels so momentous in so many different ways. So, I’ll start from the simple: congratulations to Obama on being elected the 44th President of the United States.

Obama Makes History headline

Next, let’s add some chaos here and see what emerges. So what’s on your mind?

And please, keep it civil in this election open thread.

19 comments on "It’s Morning in America"

  • Hawke says:

    Let me echo that congratulations… and may he find the having as inspiring as the wanting.

  • tim says:

    So what’s on your mind?

    That every anti-gay measure passed …

  • mckt says:

    So what’s on your mind?
    Preparing for the zombie uprising.

  • Cobb says:

    Look for a rise in sales of throwback jerseys with number 44.

  • Chris says:

    I feel similarly to how I felt when Apollo 11 launched, and when Mandela was released. Not quite the same, but “the same enough” to recognize it. Not sure what it means, but it seems big. The homophobic results are a letdown, indeed. however.

  • Rob Sama says:

    I had to go look at what these people had to say:
    http://www.hillaryis44.org/?p=773 [link no longer works]
    some people can never be gracious. We did dodge a bullet there.

  • Rob Sama says:

    Also, I predict the older daughter will start looking hot in a few years.

  • Tamzen says:

    I think the Obama win is amazing. I feel like I can breath again.
    But I am very disappointed that in CA we didn’t defeat Prop 8 and allow every citizen to get married as they chose.
    That was the first time I’ve ever donated money to a cause rather than a candidate. le sigh.

  • Fergie says:

    ‘Remember, Remember the Fifth of November…’
    Happy Guy Fawkes Night. 🙂
    – ferg

  • Fergie says:

    ‘Remember, Remember the Fifth of November…’
    Happy Guy Fawkes Night. 🙂
    – ferg

  • MikeA says:

    Being a ex-pat Brit, it feels very much like 1997 when “new labour”/Tony Blair swept the election back then – the country really needed a change and was looking forward to a new (and brighter) future. (the song of the election was “things can only get better”)
    I’m not saying that it’s going to happen here – I think Obama is a lot more clever than that – but new labour/blair really started to tarnish after they didn’t do the things they said they would, and over-reached in others.
    I’m really pleased to be in the USA right now – electing a minority into the most powerful position in the world is no small thing, and says a lot – all the reasons that I came over here in the first place (in a word – opportunity). What I’m *really* hoping for is that it’s going to be “the change we need” and not get bogged down in party politics and agendas that aren’t “for the people”

  • Wordman says:

    During the post-result speeches, the GOP faithful booing McCain’s mention of Obama and the Democrat faithful cheering Obama’s mention of McCain seemed for some reason to be a microcosm of what is wrong with both parties.

  • Ted says:

    Rob said:
    “Also, I predict the older daughter will start looking hot in a few years.”
    What’s the old saying? Guns don’t kill people, fathers with pretty daughters do.
    Expect President Obama to become a very strong supporter of the second amendment in about 6-7 years …
    😉
    And MikeA, I was an American Ex-Pat living in the UK when Tony Blair won in 97. It does indeed feel much the same way.
    Sure hope it works out better now. :-/

  • Vortigern says:

    We’ll see just how much “change” we get in a couple of months. If Obama doesn’t release the Guantanamo Bay prisoners, cancel “Secure Flight,” etc. then all the starry-eyed folks who are dancing around their teevees now will have some serious apologizing to do.

  • brons says:

    So what’s on your mind?

    I find that I’m getting misty-eyed during the day. I’m old enough that I remember the day that the miscegenation laws were overturned, and Rep. John Lewis when he was just some young man in Selma, Alabama, and the speeches of JFK and MLK. I remember Malcolm X, and the March on Washington.
    Images keep flashing through my mind, Rep. Lewis last night talking about just wanting to get rid of White waiting rooms and black waiting rooms; Jesse Jackson with tears running down his eyes; a coed at Spellman college falling to her knees weeping, Gene Robinson trying to describe calling his parents last night without his voice cracking. Mrs. Alexander, our black neighbor in rural Massachusetts when I was a boy. My father was able to buy the old farm house and 13 acres of land because being next to her so lowered the property values. My mother shaking the hand of Senator Ed Brooke, whose campaign she worked so hard on.
    Obama was not my first or even second choice in the primaries, but I’ve come to suspect that he will be a good president. He is, for all that the Republicans paint him as a radical and extreme liberal a hawkish center-left moderate who seems to think things through a lot and make pragmatic choices. I don’t expect him to usher in the dawn of a whole new era, but I won’t be surprised if he turns out to be a president remembered in the class with Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, FDR and JFK.
    Mostly what’s on my mind is how proud I am to be an American, to live in the land where the daughter of a slave can vote for a man of mixed race with a Kenyan and Islamic name for President.
    I keep thinking about McCain’s concession speech. As I watched him my reaction was that there was the McCain I remembered, that if he had conducted his campaign with the grace and integrity of that speech he might not have had to make it. And contrasting with that was the nasty booing of his followers. That the McCain that I had admired had been gone all these months, and the fear and hate in that booing, made me sad, and worried for my country.
    There is so much to do, so much to fix, so much to heal. Obama’s election and his speech gave me hope, as did his comment in an interview last week (was it the Daily Show?) that he hoped that the net roots mechanism they used to get him elected could be used to make the government more participatory and open. His very election has helped to heal the damage done to our credibility oversees. His people are talking about having a White House that is bipartisan, diverse and not retread, and the notion of a Lincoln-like cabinet has been raised before during the campaign. I won’t say that I am counting on his taking that route or on his being allowed by either party to succeed at it if even he takes it, but, I find myself hoping that he will. And that feels good. To have a bit of hope, a little faith, to be so very proud of my country after feeling guilty and ashamed of how it has acted. That feels good.
    Brons

  • Adam says:

    Vortigern,
    I’d be surprised if any of that rises above the economy, two wars, issues with Iran, Pakistan and North Korea, fixing New Orleans, etc.
    As much as I’d like him to fix secure flight, I’d be disappointed if that’s his priority.

  • Adam says:

    Vortigern,
    I’d be surprised if any of that rises above the economy, two wars, issues with Iran, Pakistan and North Korea, fixing New Orleans, etc.
    As much as I’d like him to fix secure flight, I’d be disappointed if that’s his priority.

  • Rob Sama says:

    Wordman,
    I find nothing surprising about your observation. It’s VERY easy to be gracious in victory, and can be difficult to be gracious in defeat. We didn’t see much graciousness in 2004 or 2000 from Democrat supporters. This has to do with who’s winning, not with who these respective people are.

  • Billigflug says:

    I am just so happy that the campaigns are over. No more eyewashes, lies and so on from 2 sides. Now it’s time for change.

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