Election Day brings good news to both sides
I can still hear the fireworks outside my apartment, accompanied by shouts like “Obama all day, son!” and other nonsensical phrases you’d expect in a college town.
It’s official – Barack Obama is our next president.
The media led us to believe the race would be close, but as far as the Electoral College is concerned, it wasn’t. We heard about the possibility of a tie, voting machine malfunctions and other setbacks. Afraid of working until 2 or 3 in the morning, newspaper reporters hoped for a decisive winner with no complications, and thankfully for them and the rest of us, that’s what they got. This time there was no controversy, no contradicting popular vote, no hanging chads. Obama is our country’s new leader, undisputed.
Remember the long baseball season that just wrapped up? This campaign season started months before. Back then, gas was still over $3 per gallon, Michael Phelps only had six career gold medals instead of 14 and the economy was in bad, but not frightening condition.
Despite the importance of this election, the duration of the campaign season was almost too much to handle. Like a multi-day visit from an unwanted house guest, this process seemed as if it would go on forever. Neither McCain nor Obama would ever reach office, it seemed; rather, they would simply continue touring, continue debating and buying air time until both sides ran out of funding and went home.
Like boxers heading back to their corners after the match’s final bell, these two finally are returning home after their grueling five-month bout with each other and preliminary contests beforehand.
After nearly a year of non-stop election coverage, unofficial and misleading polls and Fox and CNN’s never-ending self proclamations as the best political team ever, I’m just glad to see one of these candidates finally start packing for the White House, regardless of who it is.
When all of this started long ago, America was a different place. We didn’t know Joe “The Plumber” Wurzelbacher (fortunately), Sarah Palin, Rev. Jeremiah Wright or William Ayers. We thought the word “maverick” referred to a basketball team or a Mel Gibson movie. Indiana was considered a die-hard red state. And it still seemed unlikely that America would elect an African-American president in the near future, contradicting the early seasons of “24.”
All those things changed throughout the past several months, as this campaign season provided more twists, turns and discomfort than our digestive tracts. There were moments both good and bad, encouraging and disheartening, informative and overblown. We learned a great deal about our two candidates – their good qualities and bad ones – and we learned that, given the right circumstances, Americans will vote and become involved in politics.
No matter which name you selected on Tuesday, there were several positives to take from this campaign season, including historical results. But we can reminisce and reflect on all that down the road. For now, it’s time to celebrate that it’s all over.
