I was cruising around the net today, visiting my old stomping grounds from 2003-04; mainly left-wing political blogs with fairly small readerships/participants to check out what the general mood is, and it's damned gratifying to read what these people are thinking and feeling now. They've waited a long time for the end of the Bush regime. The prevailing mood used to be anybody but Bush---literally anybody. So to have their long-awaited villains forced to hand it all over to somebody new AND to get a leader of the caliber of Barack Obama really is a dream come true for these people. I couldn't handle it after Kerry lost, and I ceased all my participation in all things political because I am a depressive wuss and cannot take it when I lose. I freely admit that, and it's something I didn't know about myself until then. But I won't be thanking BushCo for generating the situation that provided me with that insight!

I got a celebratory email today from my friend Paula in DesMoines. She's the one good thing I took away with me from my horrible year there (1988), and we've been friends ever since. She got me to thinking about Iowa. I am so proud of Iowa: they were the first ones to embrace Barack in the caucuses back in January. and I will always remember that the news of that win made us SMILE. We walked around the rest of that week with these goofy smiles that we couldn't help, and we didn't even know ourselves WHY. Barack Obama won, not the candidate whose win had been predicted countless times---so many times that lots of pundits were already referring to Hillary Clinton in terms of having the nomination, nevermind the primaries, in the bag already---but Iowa said not so fast...and so the winner wasn't the frontrunner for mostly-white, mostly-conservative Iowa, but BARACK OBAMA.

And we smiled and felt an unfamiliar emotion for us, who feel abused and violated and just beat to shit from 8 years of toxicity: hope. BARACK OBAMA WON THE IOWA CAUCUSES.  It meant EVERYTHING.  The possibility of surprise.  The dawn of the realization that one candidate did NOT necessarily just HAVE to be the nominee.  No, Iowa picked the smart, articulate black guy to whom we could listen talk seemingly endlessly.  Ah, the possibilities....!

And now....what got started inside both Perry and me back in January has finally made it to the White House, and along the way, Iowa turned into a blue state. And I'm going to stop using those terms, because Barack said it only divides us further: we are the United States of America. I'm going to try to be the best American I can be, because I know he's going to be the best President he can be.

I can't even try to understand the most liberal state in the country (California) and how efficiently they crushed their gay population and amended their state Constitution to define legal, recognized marriage as between a man and a woman, period. I thought I heard that they are allowing all the currently legal unions to remain so...in fact, it doesn't make much sense legally that they could go back and nullify all the ones that began while they were legal...I just keep thinking about Ellen DeGeneres,and how hurtful this must be even though she must be ecstatic about Obama's win.

So all the states that could have voted to outlaw abortion DIDN'T.
But all the states that could have voted to make it illegal for gay people to marry DID.

Isn't that odd?  Aren't we a strange, contradictory people? 

The last thing that kinda took the shine off the diamond for me was Al Franken's incredibly tiny (537 votes out of 2.4 million) margin of loss to incumbent lying useless moron Republican Norm Coleman in Minnesota. How can they be so close to Iowa, yet so fucking stupid? Results that close are automatically subject to a recount. Living in Texas and being represented by two really awful Republican senators who just keep winning, election after election, I am here to say I'd be OVER THE MOON to have Al working on my behalf. I owe much of my political activism and acumen to Al; his book, Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them was my first delve into trying to figure out WTF was going on out there with the hate and the fear and the bleak, black things that were coming out of Washington. I love Al, and Iove how much he loves America, even as he chronicled her hijacking by this group of people (neocons) with their bullshit agenda. I can't believe Minnesota doesn't want him!  I mean, why wasn't it a landslide?

If the recount doesn't prove him the winner, I sincerely hope he returns to his radio show on Air America AND writes a book about the campaign experience.  I am dying to know all the dirty details of Norm Coleman and his shady self written only as Al can.  When he's ready, and when he's receiving treatment for PTSD from the stress.

What is there to say that hasn't already been said?

I am so proud of my country tonight, and I see hope everywhere I look. It's the exact opposite of the leaden, dull, stunned feeling I've felt for the last 8 years every time a new outrage was perpetrated by the Bush Crime Syndicate. THIS is Barack Obama's promise and gift to me: relief mixed with pride and a lightness of spirit I haven't felt for a very long time.

AMERICA IS GROWING UP!

PRESIDENT-ELECT OBAMA!!!

♥ ♥ ♥

I've been super-cautious this time.

I haven't talked smack about the Republicans, about GWB, or McCain.  Haven't really commented beyond a "puh-leeze!" and some genuine laughter at Sarah Palin's ignorance and her attempts to cover for it.  EVERYONE knows which way I lean.

I've stayed away from the guessing.  The only poll data I see is what's put in front of me so that I read it reflexively, before I even have a chance to know what those numbers I'm reading ARE.  

I didn't watch any of the debates.  Zero.  What I know about each candidate comes from their websites, both of which contain their respective positions on just about everything, in writing.  And if I needed to know more, I could always read one or more of either or both's books (theyve both written books, who knew they had the time?)

But 2004 is still there in my mind.  I started out that year being absolutely committed to a candidate who was EXACTLY who I wanted to represent me in the White House, and that man WASN'T John Fucking Kerry.  It was Howard Dean.  But the DNC/DCCC thought otherwise, and so I voted for Kerry and tried to like him personally...but I knew we would win.  HOW COULD WE NOT WIN?  I had the facts down.  I had numbers---dreadful, stomach-churning numbers---of the Bush administration.  Everything from national debt to dead soldiers---with numbers like that, no man could keep the presidency, right?

Right?

Even the afternoon of the election, there were rumors on the web about "huge" Kerry wins in various precincts in various states everywhere.  "Landslides" were predicted.  Enthusiasm made people giddy.  Then something changed that afternoon, and suddenly there was Al Franken for Air America, live from Boston, looking distracted and upset, with no script and not much to say besides wait for Senator Kerry to say something...we'll all take our leads from him.  But it was glaringly obvious by then:  we were going to LOSE.  Yes, it was close.  But AMERICA---people I work with and play with and see every day and live side-by-side with---AMERICA chose that fucking motherfucking Bush for a SECOND TIME.  It was a couple of weeks before I stopped hating everything and everybody.

So this time, I stayed the hell away from it.  Clinton? That's nice.  Romney?  Gee whiz.  Giuliani?  Polite laugh.  Obama?  Sigh.  Wouldn't that be amazing?  Too bad he has no chance.  And I didn't watch Keith O. anymore.  I stopped all news except what Jon told me on The Daily Show and occasionally what Mr. Colbert said on his show.  But emotionally and mentally, I remained un-invested and unexcited, except for the day Obama won the nomination.  That was worth smiling for.

Today I say Obama is going to win.  I hope it's  by a good margin---an Obamandate?---but I'l take a 51-49, too.  BARACK OBAMA IS GOING TO BE THE 44TH PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.  And we are one helluva happy family, I can tell you that.

I wish Molly Ivins could see this.  I wonder what she'd say.  I know she'd be feeling elated, not just for getting rid of Bush, but for the awesomeness of this country electing its first black President.  Molly, if you're up there watching, I just gotta tell you that I actually saw a map of America's electoral vote count per state, and they had TEXAS showing as a BATTLEGROUND state!  High five, Molly, high five.

So that's my prediction.  If he doesn't win, it's because the Republicans have once again interfered with our voting process, for the third presidential election in a row.  And you know, this time, the Dems are not going to lie down and let these thugs walk over them.  They will fight, which is what we've been waiting for---a fighter.   Barack is definitely that.