Election Day

I woke up this morning and with great excitement drove with my wife over to the local firehouse to cast my ballot. The act of voting , especially in a Presidential Election always gives me a special feeling---almost one of reverential awe. When I think of the joyful faces of the Iraqi's a few years ago after they voted for the first time and I often ponder how much we take for granted in our own country.

There is no mystery as far as my vote. Obama! I think we are looking at an Electoral Landslide tonight, but even with that, I really wonder if our new President has any idea what he is about to encounter. We as a nation have spent ourselves silly. We are in the early stages of what could be an ugly recession and have very little ammunition to fight it with. Things could get ugly quickly. My vote for Obama had very little to do with policy ---I guess his opposition to the Iraq War would be one stance in particular. Taxes are probably going to go up, and who really wants to pay more taxes? It's pathetic that the current campaign dialogue has focused on taxes, yet almost nothing has been said about our prodigal ways. Who do we expect is going to pay the bill for all of our spending?

I said back in April of '07 that I was betting Obama on the come and my support was based more on hope than anything else. Well, hope is grossly underrated as a human emotion and something we've not had much of--at least in the political sense over much of my adult life.

As far as hope is concerned, this short essay from yesterday's CS Monitor is worth a read. It was written by a 55 year old white conservative Southerner who was dragged by his wife out to canvass for Obama. Here's a tid-bit:

I don't see either of the candidates as having all the answers.
I've learned that this election is about the heart of America. It's about the young people who are losing hope and the old people who have been forgotten. It's about those who have worked all their lives and never fully realized the promise of America, but see that promise for their grandchildren in Barack Obama. The poor see a chance, when they often have few. I saw hope in the eyes and faces in those doorways.