Wow

After getting a total of about 7 hours of sleep over the past two nights, I should catch my breath. But there is something palpable today in Washington (and it's not simply the inability to find a newspaper). How long this excitement can last is unknown, but the opportunity the election of Barack Obama offers is something that we have not seen in a while. Remember, this is the first time since 1996 that we have known the winner of the presidential election on election night. George W. Bush never got to celebrate until the next day in 2004 and (painfully) weeks later in 2000. And this is the first time a party has taken control of the White House with over 50% of the vote since 1980. I pray the Democrats use their power wisely.

A few thoughts:

1. For all the talk about GOP dominance in presidential elections, over the past 5 such elections, they have only won the popular vote once and none of their candidates received more than 286 electoral votes (both Bush '04). The Reagan coalition has long passed.

2. Barack Obama is George W. Bush's greatest achievement. Only with a presidency so disastrous would America be ready to elect an African-American named Barack Hussein Obama. To be sure, Obama could only have won because of his awesome political and oratorical skills and the running of a near flawless campaign, but Bush laid the groundwork to make this all possible. (He also made it virtually impossible for McCain to win.)

3. Nate Silver has entered my personal pantheon. He called virtually every state right.

4. Shortest meeting in history--this year's conclave to name Time's Man of the Year.

5. Should the other cities just drop out of the competition for the 2016 Olympics now? The odds of it not going to Chicago are pretty, pretty low.

6. Speaking of Chicago, does Obama's election mean it will get the 2012 Democratic Convention? It would make sense although Illinois is clearly not a swing state and using Denver this year was a boon in Colorado (although Obama would have won it anyway). Other possibilities--how about St. Louis--it borders Illinois, and Missouri was the one real swing state that Obama seems to have (very narrowly) lost. Charlotte? Atlanta? Heck, what about Phoenix--without McCain on the ticket, Arizona will be in play. Okay, I will now stop worrying about 2012.

7. I've mentioned it before, but I look forward to hearing Obama speak on February 12, 2009. No, I don't expect him to be wishing me an early birthday greeting. It is the bicentennial of the birth of Lincoln, and President Obama speaking on such an occasion in a sense says all that needs to be said of our greatest of presidents. (Obviously, the inaugural address has the potential to be an all time great.)

8. A shout out to one unsung hero of the election--Joe Biden. Sure he had a few gaffes, but you knew those would happen. But this sober choice served in marked contrast to McCain's selection, and Biden seems to have helped electorally in certain working class areas. Obama outperformed Kerry in Scranton and throughout NE Pennsylvania as well as in SE Ohio. (Did you know that Biden was from Scranton?) Biden spent a lot of time campaigning there, and it seems to have worked. And Biden will offer none of the drama Hillary would have had she been VP. There will, of course, be Biden putting his foot in his mouth from time to time, but right now he looks like the happiest man in America, and he has good reason to.

As I have been writing for the past few weeks, the implications of the election of Obama are amazing. Moreover, Obama has shown throughout this campaign and well before, a steely temperament, a deep intelligence, and a desire for justice that this nation needs. He offers such great potential not because of his race, and yet the historic nature of his presidency offers him even greater opportunity. Once again, America represents to the world an idealized image a world an which any person can become president and where all men truly are equal. Sarah Palin liked to talk about Reagan's shining city upon a hill. (Reagan was quoting John Winthrop, but I'm sure Palin knew that.) But it was Obama's election that has again made it so. Now, he must act to keep that shine.

Yes we did.

The Whole World Is Watching

In the past 40 years, the meaning of that phrase has changed, but tonight the eyes of the world are truly on Chicago. Yes we did.

Tomorrow

November 4, 2008, may well be one of the most significant days in our life. Indeed, other than the worst day in my lifetime--September 11, 2001--tomorrow, a day in which the United States of America will, in all likelihood, elect an African-American as its President will be be long remembered but for much different reasons. From the Constitutional Convention to the major crises of the first half of the nineteenth Century culminating in the Civil War to Reconstruction, Jim Crow, and the Civil Rights Movement, the issue of how this nation treats African Americans has been the central problem it has faced. (Over the past 230 years, the US has faced numerous international threats, from Britain to Germany to the Soviet Union to Islamic fundamentalism, but no one international threat has lasted the way the question of race has plagued the United States.)

The election of Barack Obama will spell in many ways an end to this American dilemma. No, tomorrow (assuming the polls are accurate) will not end racism or magically end the socio-economic problems minorities disproportionally face, but it will erase any doubts, both here and around the world, that the promises made in this nation's charters are not mere words on a page. That we will seemingly witness this, well before many thought that this nation could take a giant step, is something that deserves to be long celebrated.

Yes we can.

Thought of the Day

First, let me make a major caveat that I am not counting any chickens before there is any hatching. However, if Obama wins in 2 weeks (as I think will happen and is looking more likely by the day), is there any precedent for such an event in world history? You will have someone who is a member of a minority that was not only enslaved but was disenfrachished and otherwise discriminated against in much of this nation at the time Obama was born. In fact, his parents' marriage was illegal in many states when it occurred in 1961. And yet, Obama is at the cusp of being elected president despite African-Americans constituting only about 13% of the US population. (Yes, I know Obama's mother is white, but I don't really think that matters in this analysis.)

Has there ever been another situation where a member of a minority group that was disenfrachised and otherwise discriminated against and been at the lower part of the socio-economic ladder been elected to the highest office in that nation? Mandela in South Africa doesn't apply because blacks are the large majority there; once they were enfranchised, a black leader was predetermined. (In some ways, the election of a white South African president would be an interesting albeit imperfect comparison.) There has never been an aboriginal leader of Australia or a Maori in New Zealand. A Catholic elected to lead Northern Ireland (if they had such elections) would present numerous similarities but it too hasn't happened nor has an Isreali Arab becoming the PM of Israel? Can anyone come up with a parallel that has actually happened?

The seeming uniqueness of what the election of Obama would mean is a small but real reason to support him. His election would represent perhaps the final triumph of the idea of America. The nation has not always lived up to its ideals, but it has (often) aspired to them, and over the centuries moved closer and closer to them. My favorite quote from Bill Clinton is “There is nothing wrong with America that cannot be cured by what is right with America." This election will hopefully reinforce that point, and the election of an African-American president would be in many ways the final overcoming of America's original sin. (I should stress that this alone is insufficient reason to support him, but Obama's intelligence, vision, and temperament provide ample additional bases to support him.)

Finally, I point out that the day before the inaugural (which is on a Tuesday) is MLK Day. Something quite fitting in that. And 3 weeks later is the bicentennial of the birth of our greatest president, Abraham Lincoln. The idea of a President Obama presiding over such an event would, one imagines, have brought some sort of smile to Lincoln's face.

And one more time: Knock on wood.

Well, I Guess This Was Inevitable

When you select as your running someone whose foreign policy experience is based upon her state's proximity to Russia, whose executive policy experience is running an administration like Boss Hogg ran Hazzard County, and whose energy expertise, at best, makes her qualified to serve as King of Saudi Arabia, but who looks good, you only encourage this. Had McCain picked Lieberman, this movie would never have been made. (Of course, if he picked Charlie Crist or Lindsay Graham, it would have been in a very different genre.)

Quote of the Day

"John McCain has already tapped me."
--Sarah Palin

Well, I guess we now know why he picked her.

A Good Omen?

For the first time in 102 years, both Chicago baseball teams have qualified for the post season. (For those who don't remember, in 1906, the "Hitless Wonders," the nickname affectionately given to the 1906 White Sox, pulled off one of the greatest upsets in World Series history beating 4 games to 2 the Cubs of Tinkers to Evers to Chance and who had gone 116-36 (the best winning percentage in baseball history).) And who is from Chicago, you ask--Barack Obama, of course. (He's a Chisox fan.)

McCain's favorite team, the Arizona Diamondbacks, had a 4 1/2 game lead on August 29, only to collapse and lose the pennant to the Dodgers.

I'm not saying it means anything (and all the polling is a little more important) but . . . .

TAR

Hey everyone! Remember me? I missed you all!

Anyway, just wanted to make a plug for everyone to watch this season's The Amazing Race because I personally know one of the contestants. Sarah of Sarah and Terrence is my best friend's sister-in-law. Go Sarah and Terrence! Apparently they are heavily featured on this coming week's episode.