Victory

"Oh, in America

The land of the free, they said

And of opportunity

In a just and truthful way

But where the president

is never black, female, or gay

And until that day

You've got nothing to say to me

To help me believe."

-Morrissey, "America is Not the World", 2004

Now, we can all believe.

After eight long years of what will probably be considered the worst presidency ever, there is finally hope at the end of the tunnel. Hope that things are going to change. America's reputation with the rest of the world has been severely damaged. Now that the country has elected its first black president, those who came to hate us will start to take another look. If there's one thing this election has taught us, it's that anything is possible. People have put their prejudices aside and looked beyond race to elect the best candidate for the job. This is really a day to be proud of this country.

Unlike Bush, I kind of liked John McCain. Had he won, I wouldn't have felt the intense anger I had when Bush won in 2000, and then again in 2004. Bush, and especially his VP Dick Cheney, were just total selfish, arrogant pricks who had their personal agendas, and were going to follow it no matter what. I remember when GMA was interviewing Dick Cheney, they were talking about the war in Iraq

(here's the actual video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SypeZjeOrY4)

"Two thirds of Americans say it's not worth fighting." the interviewer asked

"So?" Dick Cheney replied.

SO?!

I can't tell you how angry I was when I saw this. Couldn't he at least be phony and say something like "I understand their concerns." ? The arrogance of this man.

I think the biggest problem with McCain's campaign was his choice of Sarah Palin as VP. I think that sealed his fate. Maybe if he had chosen Romney or Huckabee, the outcome would have been different. Palin just came across to me as a character out of the movie "Fargo." Of course, it also didn't help when he posed with Bush outside the White House shortly after he announced his candidacy. Those pictures of him hugging Bush were a democrats dream.

I really wish I could have voted in this election. From what I hear in Texas, my case was not an isolated incident. Many people who moved here from other states experienced problems when trying to vote. I guess the best I could have hoped for was a provisional ballot. I noticed that in the city of Austin, Obama beat McCain 64 to 35% If you look at the Texas map, most of the southern part of Texas is blue, while the north is completely red. Obama still ended up with 44% of this state, which for Texas isn't bad (in Wyoming Obama only got 33%)

I hope Republicans will give Obama a chance. As I said before, if he does a terrible job, just vote him out in 2012. Personally, I'm not beyond voting for Republicans. In my voting history, I have voted for a Republican candidate twice because I didn't think the democrat in office was doing a good job. The first time was when I voted for Arnold Schwarzenegger as governor of California. It bothered me that the current governor, Gray Davis, was increasing the vehicle registration fee to pay for the energy crisis. I know the energy crisis wasn't his fault (it was actually Enron), but he could have found other ways to handle it. The other time was when I voted for the district attorney of LA (I'm pretty sure his name was Steve Cooley). Gil Garcetti was the democrat and current DA, and since his team was responsible for losing the OJ Simpson case, that was enough for me to vote him out. So...I'm not a total diehard democrat. I'll cross the line if I want to. :)

So, let's all try to wish Obama good luck. He's going to need it.