Someone I picked before the primaries won the presidency!

Barack Obama will be the next President of the United States.  This is the third presidential election I've voted in and this is the first time that my pick in the primaries not only won his nomination but won the presidency.  I feel quite good right now.  I feel optimistic for the future but I must make sure I keep that optimism in check, that I keep an eye on this administration and government and authority in general.  So, logically, after this post I'll be retiring the Obamafied avatar.

Today I managed to leave work a little early so that I could get to my polling place early, in case there were large lines.  There weren't so I just decided to hop in, and hopefully hop out quickly.  When I got there I saw a kid I've seen at my bus stop in the morning, with whom I've spoken regarding the MTA (The kids at University High School take the same bus as me.  As a result the buses are so crowded they pass us by occasionally.  I've thought that the kids should have their own buses so that they wouldn't have to deal with weirdos, and the school bus drivers would be able to control the rowdier kids.  But I digress).  He was volunteering at the checkout table for school, so we said "Hi" to each other.

I had done my homework, as you saw in my previous blog.  So, all I had to do was open up my piece of crumpled notebook paper and speed through the pages of the ballot.  In LA you insert the paper ballot into this book mounted on a stand, and the binding between each set of two pages has holes in it. You mark the holes with a special marker to vote and when you're done you put the ballot into the machine. After having spent hours on over more than a dozen questions, and half a dozen races, I can understand why.  But as I said, I sped through it.  I voted like a champion and slipped the ballot in the scanning machine so that I could get my sticker.

Then I did what has become a ritual on voting day for me in this neighborhood.  I walked up to Jay's Market to get some cooked pork for a big bowl of pasta I'd cook shortly.  I chopped an onion, a tomato, and some sauce and tossed them in with the meat and linguine, the olive oil, the parmasean cheese, the cinnamon, the pepper, the garlic powder, and butter.  It was good, it tasted kind of like a scampi.

Then I flipped on Comedy Central and watched them broadcast from the Bambified Obama headquarters and MC Escheresque McCain headquarters while I chatted with MB and hit refresh on CNN.com.  By the end of Indecision 2008's first hour of "Actually Live" coverage the election was called for Barack Obama.

I decided it was now time to switch to CNN for their coverage, and for a few minutes to Fox News.  On Fox they celebrated Mississippi's GOP incumbent Senator keeping his seat, and preventing a filibuster-proof majority.  They also stated it was a night of celebration for Barack Obama with a qualifier that it was despite whatever one thinks of him as a person.

I switched back to CNN in time to hear John McCain's speech.  It was absolutely wonderful.  It was classy and it gave us a glimpse of the man that the world used to know as John McCain, a man we can never be truly certain exists anymore.

Right now Obama's giving his acceptance speech.  It sounds much like his other speeches, which isn't a bad thing, but I'm only half paying attention now.  I'd like to say though: that this election was won because of the American people and likewise this Administration will be great, or it will fail, in large part because of what the American people does to change this country for the better.  It is not enough to rely on one person to save the world.

To borrow from SNL's Weekend Update:

Goodnight and have a pleasant tomorrow.