I am still on a high from Obama’s historic win last night. I think he will be a wonderful President. As I was watching his acceptance speech last night I was struck by just how much charisma and charm this man has, along with how smart and unruffled he is. I think he’ s got the perfect temperment to be President and I can’t wait to find out how he’ll do.
That said, he is inheriting some horrible problems from George W. Bush, and I think his first term will be quite hard. I expect him to age about 20 years right before our eyes as he deals with the wars, the recession, the financial crisis, etc. Not to mention the fact that as the first black President, the hopes, dreams and expectations of an entire population have been placed squarely upon his narrow shoulders. He cannot afford to mess up in the same way that, say, Bush was allowed to, or even Bill Clinton. He has to be better, ALL the time. And, while that’s not fair, that’s the way it is. Thankfully, I believe he is more than up to the job.
I was so excited to watch McCain’s concession speech last night. I really have loathed him for most of his campaign and I was looking forward to seeing him squirm. I didn’t end up enjoying it very much. Instead, I thought he gave a nice speech and I felt rather sorry for him. Instead of celebrating, he had to watch his dreams die. For good. There will be no more chances for John McCain. I saw a bit of the man that I liked so much from the 2000 elections and it made me sad. The really gruff pat he gave Palin and the awkward hug he gave his wife at the end seemed to signal to me that here was a man barely in control of his emotions, who didn’t want to fall apart on the stage. I hope he got off the stage and was allowed a private place to cry. Or to, you know, trash his hotel room, get blazing drunk and pick a fight with a kindly secret service agent. Whatever.
I will miss the nightly election coverage. What will I watch now? It’s such a letdown. I felt the same way when the OJ trial was over. We didn’t watch the actual trial, but we did watch Geraldo every night because it was interesting and I felt like Geraldo was REALLY invested in the outcome. It was fabulous and wretched all at the same time, and so was the daily, no the HOURLY election coverage.
I started the night unable to watch at all becuase the early returns seemed to be going McCain’s way. I hid in the bedroom getting more and more upset as my husband yelled the latest at me. (McCain’s leading in Indiana and Virginia! It’s OVER!) I couln’t bear to watch until suddenly Obama took the lead and never looked back. I had two cartoons written. One for if he lost and one for if he won, but I refused to ink either one until the race was called, even though the last two hours we were just waiting for the inevitible. We were just waiting for California’s polls to close. Al Gore’s nightmare from 2000 was too fresh in my mind, I guess.
So, President elect Barack Obama–go and do good things. No pressure. No pressure at all. You’ve only got the whole world watching…
8 comments
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November 5, 2008 at 12:49 pm
Lyle Gentry
Congrats to Obama!
Now comes the hard part…he actually has to govern.
I think we should all pray for Obama and our country.
(And please, Dear God, don’t let some nutjob take a shot at him)
November 5, 2008 at 1:00 pm
Janet A
I too was amazed at the class of McCain last night. Now we can begin to clear up the mess.
I love your blog, and I love Clear Blue Water. You are a talent.
November 5, 2008 at 9:58 pm
Karen's sister Lisa
This was a weird day. But the bright spot is Barack Obama is the president elect. I feel the same as my sister does. It is weird that it is over.
I have played the 6 degrees of separation game with Barack Obama and I realized that I have 2 or 3 people separating us. Now I just have to meet those 2 or 3 people and then I can meet Obama and then he will want to hire me.
I am such a nut… all day yesterday I made my almost 3 year old son identify Barack Obama on the TV. And I kept saying, who do we want, McCain or Obama? And he would say “Mommy, we want Barack Obama to be our president” as if to say, duh Mom, how many times do we have to go over this… Then my husband would start yelling “O-BAM-A, O-BAM-A” and then we all would chant. It was a great day.
November 6, 2008 at 1:03 am
Rai
Well here in Aussie-land I can tell you I have a little 11 year old who’s still dancing at the results.
She also is becoming an addict for this strip – as much as her mother.
Congrats USA!
.
November 6, 2008 at 1:24 am
clearbluewatercomic
Lyle, I agree with you about praying for him. I have added him to my prayer list because I just want him to live through his presidency.
Janet, thank you! What a sweet thing to say. I appreciate it!
Lisa, will you just get toss that poor child a treat and be done with it? And if you are only 2-3 people away from Obama, then that means that I am only 3-4 people away! Introduce me too! Promise!
Rai, there’s so much hope here, it’s a very different feeling than it’s been the last 8 years. It feels so much better to be on the winning side than the losing side, and I’m so glad that Bush will soon be out of there. …JOY!
November 6, 2008 at 12:27 pm
Libertarian
I hope you guys are right about Obama. The 2 major political parties are better called Republicrats or Demopublicans–I don’t see little difference between them. Sure, they say different things, but they behave pretty similarly in office. I’m not convinced that Obama will be any different than McCain would have been, or that either one will be any different than Bush has been. Hopefully I’m wrong.
Even assuming the best about Obama, he does have a huge job ahead of him–the country is a mess and trying to lead it will be like herding cats.
November 6, 2008 at 1:31 pm
Ted Seeber
OTOH, fair traders beat out free traders for 37 congress seats. Obama’s Chief of State, who architected NAFTA, is going to have an uphill battle due to that.
November 6, 2008 at 3:29 pm
Cory
I was in Grant Park Tuesday night and it was surreal! I usually avoid crowds like the plague, but this was somewhere I felt I had to be since I live in the area and I have been SO waiting for this moment. I am so glad I went! The crowd was happy, open, and upbeat, and walking down Michigan Avenue afterwards (which was closed to traffic) was like a scene from a movie with people smiling, laughing, cheering, singing, playing instruments, dancing, etc. while the multitude of police, many on horseback, smiled and joked as well. It was indeed “the moment.” I hope it is just a small slice of what’s to come.
I agree wholeheartedly with your feelings about McCain’s speech. In the park they had two huge video screens and they ran CNN until Pres. Obama arrived. The crowd started out being very cynical when McCain’s speech began, but as it progressed, they mellowed out and even applauded. I do have to admit that there were a few chuckles in the crowd when McCain said, “I owe a debt of gratitude to Sarah Palin,” and I blurted out, “Yeah, so do we.” But we felt that McCain was very gracious. We were also glad that Palin was not given the opportunity to speak.