Pride, great American pride.

I was home alone after spending most of the day as a poll watcher. The single image that's going to stand out for me was Jesse Jackson crying in Grant Park. He was on that balcony and saw Martin Luther King die. He had to be remembering.

All they wanted to talk about on MSNBC was the historical significance of a black man becoming president. It's huge - I'm excited that it happened.

But all those white kids who were jumping down and cheering in Times Square and elsewhere weren't doing it just because he's black. He gives them hope. He gives me hope - and I am not an optimistic person. More on my blog.

http://debbiedoesnothing.blogspot.com/

Last night after Obama's speech I walked down to the U St. corridor with a few friends to be a part of the energy and soak in the revelry. It was an amazing scene, a scene that brought tears to my eyes. On the same street where fires raged forty years ago on the night Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated, hundreds of people flooded intersections, stopping traffic in celebration to dance, sing and chant. The crowd was reflective of what we've come to expect from a typical Obama crowd: young girls and old men; white, black and brown; gay and straight. It was a cross-section of America. (Yeah, it was a Republican's worst nightmare.) It was beautiful. People were not only celebrating the hopeful night, but also sharing a cathartic exorcism, a release of negative demons in the form of ebulent energy and a flood of tears after eight years of George W. Bush. Obama's race certainly wasn't lost on anyone there. It was a big reason for the Mardi Gras-like atmosphere. But I don't think it was the defining reason. This wasn't a black thing. It was an Obama thing. It was a celebration that in America, opportunity is what you make of it. And Obama represents that idealism. Judging by that crowd last night, hope is not just a slogan. Four decades ago a group of people came to U St. to burn and destroy their own neighborhood. Last night a group came to celebrate a communal victory: In this country we rise and fall as one people.

http://pufferfish.typepad.com/

Anticlimactic, I should say. I expected more noise from the republicans and especially the McCain camp.

I suppose in retrospect, it was rather a study in for gone conclusions. McCain's concession so early on, even before the results from some west coast states came in, was rather a surprise. And surprisingly conciliatory considering the campaign he ran.

C

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/11/5/9298/09748/854/654096

I posted my experience on DKOS already. But here it is.

I was on the newsdesk at a daily newspaper in New Jersey. I looked around the newsroom, and everyone was calling out states for Obama. The suspense was over early, but everyone felt the historic vibe. I went home and woke up my 2 1/2-year-old twins at 2 a.m. They said, 'Hi, daddy'. I just said "obama" once. They repeated almost immediately with clarity and in stereo, "Obama". They giggled, smiling ear to ear. It was infectious.

I asked my husband to take a picture of me and my little 2 mo old granddaughter watching the news as Barack Obama was elected. I'm going to tell her that she was there when history was made by WE THE PEOPLE.

I cannot begin to put into words how I felt and am still feeling. After the polls started showing president elect .. wow .. Barack Obama winning I started having a glimpse of hope. And then when his lead widened I started thinking that we might as well pull this off. But I couldn´t let myself believe it after all America has voted for George W. Bush not once but twice! I was afraid that white voters might not vote for Obama. I was afraid that black voters might not show up and actually vote. I couldn´t allow myself to believe it until Ohio came in. And then I cried. For those that came before me, for me and for those next generations. It was amazing really. And I still can´t believe it. But I´m so proud .. Wow. Thank you America and greetings from Holland! By the way I went to sleep at 7 AM and woke up at 9AM to go to class. I had to walk around and show off my Obama t/shirt!

Since the beginning of Bush's fantasia in Iraq, I've been either angry or depressed. I can let that go now.

My mother knows the effects of racism first hand. As a child visiting relatives in the south, she was turned away from a food counter, forced to sit in the "colored" section in a movie theater, and expected to sit in the back of buses. I am so happy she is alive to see this. Speaking with her last night on the phone, I bawled like a baby because she herself was crying. It feels so good to let the anger go.

As the brain synapses started crackling in the wee hours, and Grant Park was clearing out, some muse put it into my head that wherever he is, the late Mayor Daley must be pleased that finally a skinny Irish kid from the South Side, though not Bridgeport, was elected President,,,,, and without the cemetary vote, ta'boot! Using the one drop rule, that so delights the wingers, Barack can be as Irish as he wants to be,,,, or needs to be.

Two observations about yesterday:

First. I worked a poll all day in Prince George County, Virginia, doing Voter Protection, and I saw something I have never seen: People were coming out of the polling place and having their kid or spouse or friend take their picture, usually posing in front of the precinct "Vote Here!" sign. While I was prepared for questions of a technical nature about the voting process ("Can I vote here if I moved away three months ago?" "What if I also asked for an absentee ballot?"), one of the most common questions was one not covered in the manual: "Can I take a camera into the voting booth?" At first I thought it was because some voters were paranoid, and wanted to record their vote. I quickly learned that people wanted a picture of the ballot they cast simply to have a picture of history.

Extraordinary.

Second. There was a major, sort of CNN-level newsworthy voting irregularity at the poll yesterday. The election officials at the precinct, which is near Fort Lee, was doing same-day registration and voting for military and spouses. Totally unacceptable under the Virginia law, and very likely illegal under federal law.

I raised this concern with a precinct official who became immediately defensive and admitted that same-day registration and voting was being done not only there, but down at the courthouse.

I had, earlier in the day, heard this official say that "busloads of soldiers from Fort Lee" were going to be arriving before the end of the day.

I called this situation in to the boiler room, which is the voter protection hotline. The incident was immediately escalated to the highest levels in Virginia and then Chicago, as well.

Here's what happened: I got a call back after a series of conference calls with various legal officials at Obama headquarters in Chicago and in Virginia. The final decision was not to challenge it. "We are going to let it go," I was told.

The reason convinced me I had backed the right candidate and team. "We do not," I was told, "wasnt to be the campaign that tells soldiers who put their lives on the line that they can't vote. If we lose Virginia, we lose it. But we're going to let it go."

The enormity of that moment will never be forgotten. They could have made a tactical decision, but they were thinking of the right thing, even if it cost them the state.

I watched the election returns with my 11-year-old daughter, who was beside herself with excitement every time a state went into the Obama column. During various lulls in the coverage, we began to talk about the significance of this election, about race, about the crimes of the current administration (some of which I'd been keeping from her intentionally because they're just so horrible), about what it means to be an American and what America is supposed to be all about . . . and I could see her awareness opening up before me, her understanding, the lights coming on . . . she was becoming a political person, a citizen, right before my eyes.

Unfortunately, she conked out before the west coast results came in . . . as I carried her to her room and tucked her in, the last thing she sleepily whispered to me was, "I hope Obama wins."

"He's going to, honey. Good night."

And then her shriek of delight this morning when I told her the news (which was, of course, the first thing she asked about as she was waking up).

Early on, at the Phoenix Phollies, did anyone notice how angered, enraged, pissed off, and ready to thump anyone Todd Palin looked? Somebody as taken away his power gig and he was definately not amused. Sicko.

For the first time ever, I switched to Fox News to watch them squirm and hopefully burst into flames. I indulged my nasty side by watching Palin cry as McCain conceded and smiling to myself and whispering "Heh heh .. you LOST". I know that is nasty, but after months of watching people sliming Obama, being dishonest, ably assisted by the likes of Wolf and Hume, it made me feel GOOD.

Grant Park. An amazing, amazing experience.

I'm a foreigner. When set to study abroad, I wasn't in a second's doubt - I would go the the US, where I took my BA and my MSc.

Years later, my love of the place was tested by the travesty of Florida, and the betrayal perpetrated by the Supreme Court justices.

My heart bled when 9/11 happened, and I called for all my friends to reach out in support of the USA, while I also sent an e-mail to the White House praying for a reasoned response to that attack.

Then came The Patriot Act, simply too vast and too comprehensive not to have been lying there, just waiting for the right occasion.

I was furious during the run-up to the illegal assault on Iraq, while also predicting the calamity it would become. I ranted in my blog, and I was livid when the bombs fell on Baghdad. (I'm Scandinavian, and have no connection to Iraq, but I have spent enough time in the ME to know how the people of Islam would react to American soldiers coming to "liberate" them of their oil.)

I therefore decided not to have any dealings with American companies, of any kind (that cost me a lot of money), nor to travel to the US (that cost me some friends).

The ugly I heard from the crowd that John McCain could barely control in Phoenix, was monumentally outweighed by the palpable, undeniable and unforgettable joy and relief demonstrated by the millions who showed the world a better USA. As I told my friends some months ago: It's an amazing country. They'll do the worst, and they'll do the best. Imagine an Al Qaeda chieftain having to explain to his acolytes how on earth the nomination of Barack Obama is even possible; and then having to rationalize his eventual election.

The Bush presidency has been a despicable, vile and horrible thing, for the history books, for all the wrong reasons.
Now let's do what we can to help Barack Obama show the world the greatness the USA is capable of.

And I do look forward to traveling to the USA again!

I just never felt so happy in my life, well that isn't exactly true, because the birth of my children was just as happy an occasion that also brought as many tears as last night brought. I am unbelievably surprised that 62 million American's voted in favor of Barack Obama and those American's come from all walks of life, they are rich, they are poor, they are democrats and they are republicans (or maybe former republicans). I was scared that something bad would happen, that yet again, Democrats would lose in a close race. I thought because of the last two presidential elections that maybe I couldn't trust the vast majority of American's to do the right thing. I was so glad to be proven wrong, absolutely wrong. I have never been so glad to be wrong in all my life. After crying for a while, and my daughter asking me why I was crying, she is 17, I couldn't explain it with words. We've lived through so much as a nation, so much in terms of race and discrimination. We've gone through so much. I am proud of my country. I am proud of 62 million Americans who pushed race aside and elected the best person for the job. We elected the smart guy! We did it and the world is proud of us too.
My parents are in Istanbul right now, they said people were dancing in the streets. It was a time when they were not afraid to tell people they were American's. It hasn't been great for American's abroad lately. Last night they got to tell people they voted for Barack Obama. They are proud too. They are in their 60's and 70's. I still find myself tearing up today. I still find myself dumbfounded at what happened, but I am happy and content. This is one of the best days of my life.

I'm in Arizona, so we had the "what if..." vibe going on here. What if he pulled it off and upset McCain here? The office was abuzz yesterday--most of my colleagues are Obama folks--and we couldn't wait to get the hell outta here and go home and park it in front of the TV! My husband skipped his ASU class last night to stay home with me and our 2 year old and watch election returns. I was nervous in the beginning because it seemed like the states were all going for McC in the early going, but once they called PA for Obama, I started crying and I never stopped. My mom in CA couldn't watch--she was so nervous, so she went shopping and called me periodically from Ross or Target to check in. My sister called me from an election party after they called the race, and she was crying and drinking champagne--my husband (a right leaning independent who changed his tune after Bush) and I just sat on the couch and we both cried. I wish my daughter was old enough to understand. Somehow, she knew what was going on--when I picked her up from daycare yesterday, wearing my "I voted" sticker, she pointed to it and said, "That's for Obama!" How did she know that?? There was no picture of him on it, but somehow, she knew. I was so proud!

Also, I work in the federal building where the Transition is being housed. The final touches were put on this past weekend, and I came in today through the heavy security to find a palpable sense of electricity and excitement in the air.

I work a couple of floors down from what will be, starting today, the temporary incoming White House.

And, pardon my French, it's totally fucking cool.

I was with a group of friends at a neighborhood bar in San Francisco's Mission District. Upon seeing CNN project Obama's victory, the entire bar broke out into a spontaneous, drunken and joyfully loud rendition of the Star Spangled Banner. Outside the bar car horns were honking and people were spilling out into the street. It brought tears to my eyes and chills to my skin. My throat is still sore, I'm blurry eyed and slightly hung over, but I'll never forget that moment.

You guys ha have to read this article about behind the scenes info on both candidates. Apparently there was an agreement with journalist not to release some stuff until after the election.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/11/05/obama-we-cant-solve-globa_n_141358.html

This is the biggest Fuck You! We could have given to Osama bin Laden and every other group who has been making hay off of the Bush Administration since the beginning.

This is the biggest Fuck You! we could possibly send those who think America is the great satan. I don't usually pay much attention to those people - I think the threat is overrated.

But it galled me to see our government back down and meet bin Laden's main demand - pull our troops out of Saudi Arabia, and continue to make extremists' jobs easy for them.

I think we have a president who will re-establish our strength.

I've never before seen my fellow San Franciscans, or my generation, so belligerently pro-American. It was an awesome sight to behold so many people dancing in the streets, waiving and wrapping themselves in the American flag, chanting U.S.A. and the name of our next President, OBAMA.

I was moved beyond measure.

I snapped a few pictures of my neighborhood street party last night. If you'd like: http://jessemerle.net/2008/11/05/dancing-in-the-streets/

Last night, I was at a small house party, with people I've mostly known for years, and we had TVs and a couple computers up. Lots of food, good red wine, and I have to say, for the record, that when Iowa was put up for Obama, giving him 207 EV, I called it - shortly before Josh put his prediction on the front page. I knew, as did Josh, that CA, WA, and OR would lock it in. At that point I set about persuading the rest of the people there of this. (It didn't take a lot of persuasion.)

And the phone calls began coming in and going out. Family and friends all over, some international, some here in the US, and the champagne came out, and we briefly got kind of loud.

And then we all went home tired and happy.

My best moment wasn't until this morning, when my two kids woke up and came running into my room to wake me up and find out who won. Sharing it with them made it real. I want to enjoy the moment, and then get to work on the other issues. I hope it doesn't take this long, but it may be up to those kids to fix the gay rights issues.

I'm not sure how many others are having this feeling, but I'm just drained. My wife and I did 2 hours each in a phone bank yesterday in Santa Fe for Obama and Udall. We then watched he returns while having dinner. When it was over I was happy, but completely tired. I woke this morning with a huge headache.

I hope that everyone takes a few days off. That's what I'm going to do.

Election Day was also my 62nd birthday, and Obama's victory was the only present I wanted.

I am a happy woman!

I expected to feel some sort of elation last night, but I didn't. I liken it to the feeling one has after being really ill for several days. You feel better, you're glad what you just went through is over, but you're still drained and in recovery mode, and hardly in any condition for elation.

In this case, it was eight years of being really ill, coupled with the knowledge that the road to recovery is going to be a very long one. But the worst is over, and now we can begin fixing the problem.

It is snowing, boys and girls, in Taos, New Mexico - it's really coming down.

I get to see the first snow here! Yay! This is likely the only snow I'll see, since it doesn't snow in Dallas much any more. Used to -

Conversation with my GOP friend here at the office this morning:

Him: So i thought Obama's speech was really good. If he is as inclusive as he says and really wants unity, he'll be a good President.
Me: He really means it, I think. He knows the politics of trying to f*ck the other guy in the ass doesn't really get us anywhere.
Him: (pause) Okay, so what happens to Lieberman, then?
Me: Oh, him we have to f*ck in the ass.

LOL, the story in Newsweek about Gov Plain is hilarious. Apparently the McCain camp refers to her and her family privately as "Wasilla hillbillies."
http://www.newsweek.com/id/167581

I remember talking to my nervous in-laws in Pennsylvania before the polls closed there. They were refusing to turn the T.V. on until 11:00. We called them back after PA came in and told them they could start celebrating.

At 11:00 when the race was called, my wife jumped up and ran upstairs to wake our five year old son. She kept exclaiming "Obama is the President!" Obama has unified the country. Things were a bit dicey in our house for a while when I was backing Obama and she was backing Clinton. We were both solid behind Obama going into this election but it was awesome to see her as proud of Obama as I was for the first time.

Driving my kid to school today was surreal. I felt this weird sense of feeling good about everyone I met. Just smiling the whole day long. I realized I hadn't felt this way since 9-11.

Remember those few days where everybody was just a fellow American? Nothing else mattered. Your job and everything else seemed irrelevant. That's how I feel now. Except this time, we're united in triumph instead of tragedy.

We'll be telling this story to our grandchildren (and anyone else who will listen) for the rest of our lives.

After my 8 year old son finally passed out my wife and I just sat watching it on TV, tears streaming down, shaking our heads in disbelief, astonished at actually hearing the words "President-elect Obama" spoken out loud. We cracked open a bottle of champagne a friend from Spain had sent us long ago. We'd waited for the right occasion - this was surely it. We toasted Barack, then we cried some more.

I was 10 years old in 1968. That horrible year shaped my view of my country for the next 40 years. For probably the first time since then I have real hope maybe my country is going to be okay. Thank God this generation of young people is replacing the Reagan-kids' generation. Now maybe we can really move our country forward.

I can't believe it's over. This campaign has lasted two years. I just can't believe its over.

There is a hell of a lot facing the next government, but I've decided to just savor this for awhile.

God bless America.

With friends at a small election night pizza party. I watched the returns and the happy moment at 11:00 PM when they "announced." Extremely moving. Due to transit schedules, I had to miss both the above-ground partying on the streets of DC and Senator Obama's acceptance speech.

I have never been prouder to be an American in my entire life. I want to put every cornball American patriotic tchotchke everywhere in my apartment. I want one of the blue and red off-tone portraits of our next president.

Yet I feel obliged to take ten drops out of my cup of joy. Prop 8 probably passed, and that is a grievous wound for the family and friends of mine for whom de facto second-class citizenship is a reality.

Alaska - Beautiful state: Ugly politics.

My enthusiasm is curbed. I am SO glad that Obama was elected, but here in Alaska Young has won and it looks like Stevens is going to win.

The majority here seem to react more than think. There are some painfully ignorant people here that are proud of their ignorance. It's kind of like living with an alcoholic. The conservatives are wrecking the house, and have no idea what they are doing. No matter what happens, they just can't put down the juice. It makes them feel good.

It wasn't so bad until Palin was yanked from our state to run as VP. The new plan is to push her into the national level again via Ted Stevens seat if/when he is pushed out of the Senate.

I feel more like we are starting the real marathon instead of finishing the race. We will have four years of Obama working to fix America and then the possible insanity of Senator Palin running in 2012 backed by rabid, right-wing fundies seeking revenge.

I wish I was down south. It would be a better environment to celebrate this historic victory.

I am proud of America and at the same time, I am looking out my window at breath taking beauty that I love wondering if it is time to move away from the state I grew up in.

October has often been a celebratory time in my neighborhood, given the proximity to Yankee Stadium. But last night, at 11pm, the call came in, and it was MADNESS.

I voted yesterday morning, seeing the faces of many first time voters, young and old. I saw the hope and confidence in their eyes and left the polling place and took a long walk.

I walked past Yankee Stadium, the old one and the new one, and crossed the Macombs Dam bridge into Harlem. I was terrified. I was so worried that the hopes of all those new voters, and the hopes I have for my three year old son, could be dashed at 11pm.

But it didn't happen. Instead, I heard the voices of young people running down Anderson Avenue shouting "Obama" at the top of their lungs. For many of them, it's a sign that their hard work CAN pay off in the future and that no one can take their strong minds and boundless hopes away from them.

I went in to give my son a kiss as he slept, and tears were streaming down my face on to his. I always had hope for his future, but now, it seems, that hope has a little extra something giving it some forward motion that it just didn't have yesterday. We found out my wife was pregnant a few days before Bush won re-election. At the time, it was so bitter, knowing he would be born under that administration. But if not for Kerry's loss, we wouldn't have what we've got today.

Here's to our future and the hard-ass work we have in front of us. No letting up. Yes we did, but now we gotta keep doing. No free passes for Obama like the others gave W. Let's stay on him day and night and make sure he doesn't let us down. I believe he will exceed our hopes. Let's hope he does.

Not an election night memory per se, but this morning, you can't buy an LA Times or New York Times anywhere in the city. People bought them all up in bulk.

I was watching the TV quietly, by myself, as my son slept, my wife went out to watch with friends, and I studied for the ethics portion of the bar exam that i am taking on Saturday.

MAJORLY anti-climactic.

I was doing Election Protection in Virginia too.

There was a lot of confusion when I got there yesterday morning at 5:30: it was pitch dark and pouring rain, and several hundred people were milling around. (Some had slept in their cars right there in the parking lot.)

But the local election people -- who were not looking to cheat, just overwhelmed -- eventually got it sorted out, people lined up and then were moved in out the rain.

During all of this, a group, say half a dozen, middle-aged African-Americans came up to me and asked what was going on. I walked them through the process, gave them sample ballots, explained how to use them, and asked if there were any other questions I could help them with.

"Yeah", someone said, "when did all of this get started?" For some reason I blurted out: "about two years ago, in Springfield Illinois." And one of the women started to cry.

I can't tell this story without choking up.

I watched the returns at a bar in Chicago with fairly apolitical friends, and then headed down to Grant Park for the speech, and walked up and down Michigan afterward with the people. Then I came back to my friend's apartment and re-experienced it all again as I would have had I stayed home through the magic of the internets. I love reading live-blogging after the fact. It's such a beautifully direct and real first draft of history, complete with all the uncertainty of lived experience. Also, David Kurtz was magisterial from Ground Zero. He expressed my exact, though unarticulated, reaction to the speech, noting the sobriety. He seemed quite moved, and with good reason. Josh and the entire team should be really hugely proud of what they accomplished last night and through the whole cycle. They have nearly achieved an almost unthinkable feat: a truly comprehensive independent alternative way for citizens to engage their democracy in order to alleviate total reliance on corporate owned media. Even though everyone will continue to consume network news and analysis, the presence of this alternative option radically transforms the information landscape that citizens face. And it has been done largely in the span of four years (think of where this site was in 2004...) and continues to expand its capabilities and offerings. TPM's performance is one of the (many, many) important developments to emerge from this campaign (see Nagourney's essential piece in Monday's Times for a wide-angle look). It will influence the contours American political communication for cycles to come. The people behind TPM (all of them!) deserve a pat on the back, and a REST!

***

On a lighter note: everyone do yourself a favor and pull up the video of Condoleeza Rice’s statement at the State Dept. briefing this morning. Just sit back and get a load of it. She’s absolutely beaming, almost despite herself. I don’t want to say she shouldn’t be proud at this moment regardless of party, but it makes you really wonder who she voted for. It’s something to behold.

It was bittersweet, we didn't elect Scott Harper and give Judy Biggert the boot here in IL-13 and the county candidates I worked my but off for didn't win either. We did get two and maybe three Dems on the board though. Two on their second try and an amazing win by a 24 year old first time candidate.

So anyway exhausted from the long day of doorhanging and canvassing that started for me at 2:30am I stopped at a RR crossing on the way home from the victory celebration about 11:30 just as a big freight train passed by. On the engine was a painting of a large unfurled American flag and for the first time in a long, long time the sight made me smile. For awhile after 9/11 it was a symbol of unity. Everybody had them, but they faded and tattered, or the cheap Chinese decals yellowed on windows. Most took them down. But a lot of the ones that remained, at least around here seemed to symbolize, like the stupid flag nonsense that the owner thinks he's more patriotic, a better American than we are. Not anymore. Last night we got our flag back, we got our country back.

I watched the returns at a bar in Chicago with fairly apolitical friends, and then headed down to Grant Park for the speech, and walked up and down Michigan afterward with the people. Then I came back to my friend's apartment and re-experienced it all again as I would have had I stayed home through the magic of the internets. I love reading live-blogging after the fact. It's such a beautifully direct and real first draft of history, complete with all the uncertainty of lived experience. Also, David Kurtz was magisterial from Ground Zero. He expressed my exact, though unarticulated, reaction to the speech, noting the sobriety. He seemed quite moved, and with good reason. Josh and the entire team should be really hugely proud of what they accomplished last night and through the whole cycle. They have nearly achieved an almost unthinkable feat: a truly comprehensive independent alternative way for citizens to engage their democracy in order to alleviate total reliance on corporate owned media. Even though everyone will continue to consume network news and analysis, the presence of this alternative option radically transforms the information landscape that citizens face. And it has been done largely in the span of four years (think of where this site was in 2004...) and continues to expand its capabilities and offerings. TPM's performance is one of the (many, many) important developments to emerge from this campaign (see Nagourney's essential piece in Monday's Times for a wide-angle look). It will influence the contours American political communication for cycles to come. The people behind TPM (all of them!) deserve a pat on the back, and a REST!

***

On a lighter note: everyone do yourself a favor and pull up the video of Condoleeza Rice’s statement at the State Dept. briefing this morning. Just sit back and get a load of it. She’s absolutely beaming, almost despite herself. I don’t want to say she shouldn’t be proud at this moment regardless of party, but it makes you really wonder who she voted for. It’s something to behold.

I only cried twice: first, when I saw a Black woman of my age (mid-40s) weeping at the Chicago rally - living in Philly, sending your kid to public school, you get a strong sense of how much this means to everyone. Part of the emotion is thinking about what a great role model he will be for the kids, who have just instinctively responded to him from the get-go.

The second tears came after the speech, after the families had left the stage and Barack was waving goodbye to the crowd while Michelle was waiting at the back for him. It really hit me that these are *real* people, not the faux populists dished up by the GOP - real people of intelligence and substance. Michelle has been integral in all this, not least in terms of being his rock. That image of these two people, together in the midst of this glorious maelstrom, unleashed the floodgates and I let go of 8 years of angst, anger, and antipathy.

In response to reader SC's email about feeling anger last night, I completely identify with that emotion. Last night I had tears running down my face, not only because of the enormity of the what was happening but I think more than anything I was letting go of all the anger and frustration of the last 8 years. It was like an enormous weight was lifted, the last 8 years have been the longest 8 years, it couldn't come fast enough for me. From the moment Bush was called President, i have been counting the days that he had left in office. I have been wanting this nightmare to be over for 8 years! And it is finally here.