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President-Elect Barack Obama

Published 11.07.2008 | Permanent Link | Comments (19)

First of all, let us review my election-night prediction and congratulate me on just how right I was. From the cupcakes to the drinking to the early concession. The fact that McCain conceded an hour earlier than I had guessed only shows how sometimes reality can one-up your most optimistic fantasy.

Like most of you, I'm still in a state of disbelief. The past two elections broke me. I wasn't ready to believe that America would ever make the right choice again. Even when all the polls showed Obama leading, when fivethirtyeight.com predicted that Obama had a 98% chance of winning the presidency, I still didn't really believe it. Surely the Bradley Effect would rear its ugly head, come Election Day. Surely deep-seated racism that people weren't even fully aware of would leap into consciousness and McCain would suddenly seem like the better candidate. Surely some secret right-wing cabal would undermine democracy, fix the votes, do something.

And yet it seems that we did it. The people stood up, and were counted. The Bradley Effect (and boy, I hated that name) never came into play. We actually voted in a black man as president. I keep looking at the headlines for confirmation. Yesterday I saw "OBAMA" splashed across the New York Times, and I burst into tears. I tried to explain to Henry the significance of this election, and I choked up. "This is going to be a moment you can tell your kids about," I told him. ("I'm not going to have kids," he informed me, but I ignored that part.)

There are things this election does not mean. It does not mean that racism has been eradicated. With gay-marriage bans passed in Arizona, Florida, and of course California, it doesn't, sadly, mean that everyone in the United States enjoys the right to marry whomever they wish. (Although I have more hope now that that day will come. And that someday we'll have a same-sex married couple in the White House.) It does not mean that our troubles are over, or that President Obama will arrive in the White House and perform miracles. The last eight years have left this country in a mess, and solving it will not be easy. I don't envy our next president the mess he will have to try and fix.

As he himself put it:

For even as we celebrate tonight, we know the challenges that tomorrow will bring are the greatest of our lifetime -- two wars, a planet in peril, the worst financial crisis in a century.

Even as we stand here tonight, we know there are brave Americans waking up in the deserts of Iraq and the mountains of Afghanistan to risk their lives for us.

There are mothers and fathers who will lie awake after the children fall asleep and wonder how they'll make the mortgage or pay their doctors' bills or save enough for their child's college education.

There's new energy to harness, new jobs to be created, new schools to build, and threats to meet, alliances to repair.

The road ahead will be long. Our climb will be steep. We may not get there in one year or even in one term. But, America, I have never been more hopeful than I am tonight that we will get there.

I promise you, we as a people will get there.

We've got a long way to go, but before we begin the journey, I think it's only fair to take a moment and appreciate just where we are in history, right now. This is an unbelievable moment. And we all made it happen.


Comments (19):

Ariel said:

I was in freaking TEARS! I still feel like weeping with pride.
We have come SO FAR! 60 years ago this wasn't possible!
Do I think he's going to wave a magic wand and make it all better? NO, but he's going to work really hard and TRY!

Posted on November 7, 2008 11:33

Matt said:

I was born in the deep South. When I was a child, it was common for service stations to have three restrooms - men women colored. The big department store downtown had separate water fountains labeled white and colored. I didn't have any black classmates until I was a senior in high scool - 1966 (There were 6 out of my class of almost 600, hand picked because they were straight-A students).

Two days ago I got to vote for a black man for President and he won. I'm crying again just thinking about it. We've got a long way to go, but I think it's appropriate to pause a minute and realize just how far we've come.

Posted on November 7, 2008 12:15

suburbancorrespondent said:

I was all choked up the next morning also. And doing dumb things like weeping and hugging my kids and saying things like, "You guys are so lucky!"

To which they said, "Does this mean you're going to make us some breakfast?"

Posted on November 7, 2008 12:26

steph said:

You said it all so much better than I could have :) I also have faith that some day everyone in the United States will enjoy the right to marry whomever they wish.

Posted on November 7, 2008 12:47

Operation Pink Herring said:

I'm a certified cynic, and even I'm feeling hopeful about our country right now. The last election really hit me hard - the country is going to hell in a handbasket and we RE-elected the clown that got us into all these messes? I was heartbroken and dissillusioned and finally... finally I feel like things are getting better. Man, it feels good to be hopeful again.

Posted on November 7, 2008 13:23

Robin said:

so...did you have ice cream sundaes wednesday night?

Posted on November 7, 2008 14:25

jenalda said:

What you said. I was so choked up watching Jesse Jackson--who, as I told my husband, may be little more than a punch line for a lot of people now, but who was a hugely important worker for the civil rights movement--watching him cry, and looking at the sheer volume of the crowd--everyone happy!--renewed my belief in America. I was afraid that people who thought like me were becoming a minority. Now I feel like I'm back home.

Posted on November 7, 2008 16:33

Donna said:

I agree with you 100% on everything. I also still cry when I think about it or hear another story of someone feeling the same way. I also had no faith that we would make the right decision but we did. I'm shocked but also proud.

Posted on November 7, 2008 18:09

Vikki said:

I wrote this on my blog the day after the election and thought I'd share it in this coversation:

"I had hoped to wake up this morning and feel the same euphoria I felt in 1992 when Bill Clinton was elected and Oregon’s Proposition 9 was defeated but that was not to be. Although the presidential election went the way I had hoped, the anti-gay ballots throughout the country did not. Arkansas banned adoption by GLBT people. Florida and Arizona banned same-sex marriage and it looks as if Proposition 8 in California will pass, taking away the marriage rights given to same-sex couples earlier this year. So, today my joy is tempered by the fact that equality for all of us is still so very far from our reach."

I cried tears of disbelief and joy when the election was called for Obama. I was so proud of this country. The next morning I cried as well...this time because I watched the rights of GLBT families like mine be stripped away. The GLBT community is under assault right now and I can't help but wonder when it will stop.

Posted on November 7, 2008 23:24

islaygirl said:

i had the same conversation with my five-year-old. ever since she saw five crucial minutes of A Baby Story on TLC, she's absolutely decided she won't have a baby.

i still well up when i think about this. i can't even articulate it, but i think it might be hope. And i'm so cynical that i can't even believe i'm writing that, but it's true.

Posted on November 8, 2008 00:22

elswhere said:

Wow! You even called the puppies!

Posted on November 8, 2008 22:13

Kathy said:

Actually, he's the first bi-racial president--his mother was white.

Posted on November 9, 2008 03:35

Gretchen said:

I think it goes to show that the country really is more conservative in their beliefs than in their politics.

Posted on November 10, 2008 08:43

neverbeenbarbie said:

I think it's appropriate to call Barack Obama "black" instead of "biracial." The vast majority of African-Americans have "white" blood running through their veins. Wasn't so long ago that a person with only one black grandparent was still considered "black."

But personally, rather than calling him "black" or "biracial" or "white" I prefer to call him AWESOME.

Posted on November 10, 2008 18:25

Beth said:

It was amazing. I only wish I could have been dancing in the streets instead of guarding a sleeping toddler.

But I did have to explain to her that even though we chose the right leader, her other mom and I got married three weeks ago, people chose that no other mommies could get married. She's 2. She understands "choosing," "follow the leader," and rules beginning with "no," so that's the best I could do.

But for Prop 8, I feel like, for the first time in my life, I could actually pledge allegiance and mean it.

Posted on November 11, 2008 19:49

MamaCass said:

Thank goodness! What a joyous day it was, for so many, many reasons. I was so happy to cry tears of joy for once on election night, rather than the other kind.

Posted on November 12, 2008 19:45

kym b said:

I am tearing up again just thinking about it. What a momentous night for America. I sobbed through most of his speech.

As a Nebraskan, I was in awe that such a conservative state finally split its electoral votes for the first time and District 2 (where I live) gave an electoral vote to Obama. However in this same election Nebraska voted to remove the affirmative action clause from our state constitution (WTF, NE?)

I was also moved by Jesse Jackson. I thought about what he has seen in his lifetime. From standing next to MLKjr when he was shot that evening in Memphis to standing there watching an African-American man become President of the United States. I am sure that is something he never thought he would see in his lifetime.

It has been 12 years since I voted for the guy who one and it has never felt so good.

OBAMA, FTW!!!

Posted on November 12, 2008 21:45

MARTY WEISBARD said:

I KNEW YOU WERE BRIGHT BUT UNTIL NOW I DIDN'T REALIZE THE DEPTH OF YOUR HUMOR AND INTELLIGENCE. YOU ARE PART OF MY DAILY READING. THANKS FOR BRINGING A SMILE TO MY DAY, AND I AM SURE TO MANY OTHERS. NO TEARS.
KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK,

Posted on November 13, 2008 14:09

Oddball said:

Obama won because he was the best candidate. Turning this into a racial issue diminishes his abilities.

Posted on November 18, 2008 14:55

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