So, that big ol’ election dealey is over. Did anyone notice?
I’ll tell you who did notice. The giant marching crowd of celebrators I heard outside the Spartan Daily newsroom just after the result was in, that’s who.
I grabbed a recorder and got quotes from any number of them, and they said some pretty inspirational stuff.
The country saved by SuperObama? Let's hope. Photo apparently from http://www.Freakingnews.com
One guy from Nigeria said that it was now impossible to use race as excuse for poverty, because a black man is president. Another guy said that this was an election of firsts, with Clinton the first woman under serious consideration for president, and Palin as the first vice-presidential female candidate on the other side. Another girl said that things are great now, since Obama would help disintegrate stereotypes black families deal with.
I’m still taken aback. For one thing, I couldn’t believe that I knew who the president was before 9. BEFORE 9. We haven’t had a good old-fashioned, cut and dry election like that in over eight years. We didn’t hear the result weeks later, or at something like 4 in the morning, we heard it just after the polls closed.
It’s almost suspicious.
And there were no trick states. No senile people who don’t know how to work their ballots. No trouble with the polls.
The oddest bit for me is that we actually have a democrat in office.
I’d love to have a really cool statistic for just how few democrats have been in office for the last, say, 18 elections, but I don’t, so I’ll just say DAMN, it sure is weird.
Half of me expected for some freak breach of the constitution and the space-time continuum to cause Bush to be inexplicably thrown back to the throne.
There’s another thing. Pretty soon, Bush will not be president. It sort of seemed like his presidency would never end, but here we are, with cold, hard facts proving to us that Mr. Bush Jr. is all ready to hop out of the White House into the history books.
Here’s the kicker: The candidate who made it in was a democrat who people were actually, genuinely excited about. Holly mittens. Not just, as in the unfortunate John Kerry’s case, a “non-Bush,” but as a candidate that a surprising number of Americans were still willing to rally behind on election day.
That’s right, when the chips were down, these people didn’t freak and vote for the old white man, even though we’re used to being run by white men, and even if said white man did scrounge up the seductive Miss Alaska as a running mate.
The question creeps up: With Bush gone, who will we make fun of? What will we be pissed off about?
While we’ll surely find something, the departure of Bush leads to a discussion of the enormous pressure that now rests on Barack Obama’s shoulders. The people of America are just waiting for a savior, and pretty soon, the nation is gonna say “all right, enough fanfare. Now fix it.”
And I fear that when Obama doesn’t wave some magic wand and end the war, fix the economy, and get rid of Carrot Top, that the people as a whole will feel somehow betrayed.
But that’s a bother for a different day.
In the year 2050, I can tell some kid who runs over my lawn flamingos with his atomic scooter that when the reign of now mythical Bush was ended by the first non-white man to win the presidency, I was in the newsroom of the Spartan Daily, telling my fellow journalists that I couldn’t believe it.
And I really can’t believe it. I was damn sure that McCain was going to somehow pick up the vote.
Ever since he picked up Miss Alaska and the polls swung, however minutely, in his favor for about five minutes, I was sure that it was the end.
“It’s gonna happen again,” I told me, “The democratic candidate causes a stir and ends up losing.”
Hell, winning the popular vote wasn’t enough for Gore in 2000, and Kerry just couldn’t win enough of America over with his “I’m that guy who isn’t Bush” campaign.
While I am brimming with philosophical pondering about whether or not the U.S. could possibly be hoodwinked into voting Bush in again, were it possible, I think I won’t for right now. Obama won.
