So it is the day after The Day After. I am very glad things weren't so close that we are still doing the back and forth about who won and lost, at least on the top of the ticket. The signs are pretty well down, the horn honking and "firecrackers" in Oakland has long subsided, and for the most part, it was a good show for the good guys. The GOP is looking like it really can only count on Appalachia, but then, they have long made a virtue out of their shared worldview, so it is to be expected.
Most of the delight I might have otherwise enjoyed in the night's events passed quickly. I did watch Fox News awhile on Tuesday night, which was a bit of a hoot (if only to see the parsing of language done by an otherwise inarticulate bunch, but I really still can't look at those people. While I think it is the epic fail of the GOP that allowed Sen. Obama to win, I wish we could have carved this moment out of better circumstances. For the man from Illinois to succeed it is gonna take the country's A-game AND some luck. He really has his work cut out for him. There is plenty of time for the worryin' I suppose, for now, I just want to soak in the enormity of it a bit more. Being able to participate in one election with some history attached to it - and I don't just mean notoriety - isn't something we can control. We do control how we vote, and even if President Obama ends up worse than Fox News' most shrill alarms, it is still a watershed event. Every person I knew who voted for JFK weren't shy in letting people know it, whereas you rarely hear people brag that they, or their kin, voted for Nixon in 1960! I don't know of many records of kids boasting of their pappy voting for McClellan in 1864 either.
The joy of the night will stick with me for awhile (the horns honked and the "firecrackers" went off well into the night out in Oakland), and in seeing the crowd out to greet him in Chicago, I really wished I had been able to go. I read somewhere that it was an unusually warm night, and Chicago really looks so beautiful at night down along the lakefront, that I imagine the air was rare indeed. It is a great city, well-befitting a great moment for the the country, especially when one recalls the shame that the park held 40 years earlier. I would say that this was enough to reclaim Chicago's political karma for a good while.
I don't think the GOP is, in its current incarnation, capable of the kind of introspection needed to see a long-term turnaround. The same is true of the Dems. The Dems won a protest vote in 2006, and this year was pretty much the same. McCain is not a bad man, but he is the wrong kinda Republican for his party. He is that Western Libertarian type, not the Southern Sanctimony, or self-deluded Suburbanite-As-Atlas type. He is too socially moderate for his party, and they gave him begrudging support at best. I think that is how Moose Woman ended up on the ticket with him (a decision he seems to be regretting - ha!) Like Kerry though, he had no business running. Long serving Senators seem to imagine themselves entitled to a turn at the top of the ticket. It is no less true for Biden or Hillary. They take over the party machine, and thereby condemn their party to having to tolerate them. I have no idea how to stop them, but I think we might get better campaigns if we did. Sigh.
As it stands, I can't complain too much. While I would like to see Ted Stevens bounced from his seat, the damage is done; homeboy was dirty and now it is a matter of record. Not only that, I would be uncomfortable with one party having a total lock on the White House and Congress without so much as a procedural obstruction possible. There is enough room for the Dems to govern and they shouldn't need anywhere near 60 seats in the Senate to do it the right way.
I suppose I could keep up with the general kookdom and asshattery of those profoundly disturbed at the fact that they now must call Barack Hussein Obama "Mister President", but its width nor depth would shock me. Other than perhaps trying to see if the odious CA Prop. 8 results can be un-done in 2010, I am ready to sit on the political sidelines again for a good long while. I must also say, now that states like Nevada, North Carolina, and Iowa have rejoined modernity, perhaps I can go back to those places and enjoy myself. I do worry about the economy and the flashpoints of world politics, so it isn't like I am ready for a wild wing-ding "Come In From The Cold" blowout or anything. That said, the Drunken Prince is headed back to Hooterville, and we are truly going to give a new guy a shot. That is no small feat, and perhaps just in the nick of time. Hopefully we have heard the last from Joe The Welfare Queen, Turd Blossom, and Caribou Barbie - though I invite the GOP to send her back in 2012!
* barbie image and headline liberally lifted from Fark.com