I don't even know where to start this post. I am still so emotional I practically can't stand myself. Not to mention just a wee bit hungover. So if I appear to be slightly mad and just babbling, well, I probably am.
If you'd like to shed a couple (more?) tears of joy, head over to Bird's Blog. She is an excellant writer and I really felt like I was celebrating right beside her.
I watched the election returns on my computer last night. Poor DSD cared about what was going on, but does not like to get bogged down in the minute to minute details. I just brought up every news page I could remember and rotated through them, constantly hitting the refresh button. President-elect Obama only seemed to gain numbers when I wasn't looking though.
I was talking to my bff, P, at 10:00 CST. BabyBoy was at play rehearsal and called in on my cell phone to check on the progress. I had a phone in each ear and I was trying to give BabyBoy the latest numbers when CNN refreshed and there they were! Winning amounts of electoral votes. I couldn't even speak for a moment. Then I began yelling into both phones and into the living room at the same time. "He won. He won. It's over! Barack Obama is our new president." They were all talking to me at the same time. DSD turned the channel over to CNN, BabyBoy was repeating numbers to the other cast members, P was yelling for her husband. It was a moment I will treasure.
It wasn't all good news, of course, although Glen Hess did win for State Attorney. But Amendment 2 passed. BabyBoy was upset. He spent yesterday afternoon waving signs for people to vote No! He said he even spoke to several people who were undecided on how to vote and felt he had convinced them it was the wrong thing to do. But it passed anyway. In California also. Now when the law (in Florida) is declared unconstitutional, we will have to spend tax dollars for another election to have it removed. Does anyone remember the Bullet Train?
After the West Coast was declared for Obama, I switched from the computer to the TV. I saw John McCain's concession speech. Very classy. Did anyone else notice that he appeared more comfortable, more at ease, than he has in MONTHS? I wonder if he isn't just a little relieved? Why would have picked Palin if he actually wanted to win?
Then the moment we had been waiting for, the 44th President of the United States, Barack Obama. What a great moment for our country, what a great moment for us, and what a great moment even for the portions of this country who did not support him, did not vote for him, because I believe he is the one who will get things done. (I hope!)
I haven't watched him a lot. I didn't have to. I researched his beliefs on the 'net. I looked up his past, his present, his voting record, I didn't have to listen to him speak to know what he stood for. So it was just a huge bonus that I understood, while watching him last night, that while this country had elected an intelligent, caring, active man to be our next president that we had also elected an elegant, articulate one. (Nice change from the last 8 years, isn't it?)
After his speech was over, I got up to go to bed. DSD congratulated me that I had voted for the winner (he didnt' vote for McCain or Obama) and I began to try to explain that by casting my vote for Barack Obama I wasn't voting for Barack Obama, I was voting for AMERICA. The country that I have loved and served and yelled about and I promptly burst into tears! Poor DSD was horrified. Had he done something? Why was I crying?
I then tried to explain the surge of hope, the feelings of relief, the terror of this somehow going wrong. But I botched it all.
So I went to bed.
And woke up to the beginning of a new era.
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4 comments:
I was so happy that Obama won Florida! He did even better than I expected. What a great moment!
incredible, isn't it?
right before the polls closed here in california, folks in the bar i was at counted down the numbers, just as if it was new year's eve. then the place erupted in pandemonium when the electoral votes for california appeared on the television screen and CNN projected Obama as the next president. everyone in the bar was jumping up and down, crying, clapping, hugging each other, shouting.
the day is bright and beautiful here in san francisco. weather is cold, but the sky is a sharp blue and the city is glowing.
**lol**
I bet that scene - you trying to explain your happiness through tears, inadvertently causing your loved one to think they hurt you - was one that happened all over the world. Come to think of it, that would make for a really funny skit =)
My wife had left me at home to listen to and to look at the returns on my computer, while she attended a big Obama TV-watching party; And at about 11:30 at night she called, and, normally the very sanguine type, she sounded as if she was in tears, and I thought something bad had happened. But she was only calling to tell me that Obama had won, and her tears, like yours, were of joy.
I guess that was just after the West Coast projections were made, but the Air America people had long since counted in the West Coast votes and declared Obama the winner, when he won Ohio.
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