5 posts tagged “2008 election”
How do you feel about the results of the election?
I know I've never felt as thrilled, as proud, nor as astonished. When I went to my friend Sara's house to watch the election coverage on TV, I didn't expect to make an early night of it. I expected an October surprise right up to November. But by the time I arrived around 7PM Pacific time, it was Ohio! followed shortly by Pennsylvania! New Mexico! Thank you, Cleveland, and good night!
For the next couple of hours the other guests and I munched on potluck, raised a toast to George W. Bush, whose presidency helped bring this moment to us, flipped back and forth between CNN and Comedy Central so much that we lost track of which was which, and waited: Florida? Colorado? How about Virginia?
Meanwhile, some of the guests ducked into the hallway to take phone calls from well-wishers in Europe and Africa, where it was very early on an apparently festive morning.
There were quite a few red states on the TV maps, of course, but they were bracketed by blue, and there was no denying the margin of victory. This wasn't the just-squeaking-by that was the most I felt entitled to hope for earlier in the campaign. We got quieter as the numbers rolled in, and the cameras turned to McCain's podium in Arizona-- is he really going to concede? Has Obama truly won?
And then it was time for the cameras to return to Grant Park, and the huge crowd, and the monumental stage, and the by now familiar silhouette of our tall, slim President. Moments into his speech even the men in our crowd were teary-eyed.
Four more years of this? Four more years of inspiring sincerity? Get out your hankies!
I went back to my hometown of Prescott, Arizona last week. My usual visits are infrequent and during the torpid winter holidays, so it was a nice departure to be there when the weather was mild and encouraged long walks. My mom and I took a nice stroll through some of the older residential neighborhoods, past those Queen Anne and Craftsman houses the Chamber of Commerce likes to put on its tourist brochures. I wasn't at all surprised to see a few "McCain/Palin" yard signs-- McCain is, after all, the senator for this region-- nor even the lifesize cutout of McCain on somebody's porch. For as long as I can remember, Prescott's been one of those resolutely conservative places where the only good book is the Bible and the only acceptable uses for the surrounding National Forest are hunting, logging, and growing marijuana.
But then we approached this house.
An Obama sign in Prescott?! What, is there some kind of October equivalent to April Fool's Day? This is a joke, right? I grabbed a photo with my Treo to commemorate this weird occasion, and then Mom and I walked a little further. We halted again in front of a house with not just an Obama yard sign, but a homemade Obama yard sign.
It had been, as I would expect, vandalized, but its maker insisted on displaying it in the front yard anyway, as well as a lot of American flags. I got a pic of this one as well, and we continued.
Just around the corner the yards were thick with blue "Obama/Biden" signs. I stopped taking pictures; there was no longer any novelty.
My friends, McCain is losing even in his own backyard.
I returned to Mom's house with my head awhirl. Prescott besotted with Obama? Is Hell freezing over? Then I started feeling grateful to...the Republican Party. Yes, that one-- the elephant in the room. I really want to thank the Republican Party for making this all possible.
Thank you, Republican Party, for changing from the Party of Lincoln to the Party of Rove. Thank you for losing concern about the problems of ordinary people with ordinary incomes, ordinary health problems, and ordinary anxieties about the futures of their children. Thank you for insisting on ruinous deregulation to create an ersatz "free market," long after that principle was assessed as worthless as Ptolemaic cosmology. Thank you for thumping Bibles so loudly that even some of the most pious Christians I know left you out of disgust with your confusing church with state. Thank you for lying so badly. Thank you for snubbing the rest of the world. Thank you for celebrating ignorance. Thank you for handing my hometown to Barack Obama.
It would be super just for the weather; that outrageous storm over the weekend is now a bad memory. Today is bright, clear, and mild in the East Bay. Turning out for the primary election can be easily incorporated into an early springtime walk.
The newspapers all have bazillion-point type on their front page headlines, frantic to say anything definite about the primary. The televisions over at Gold's Gym seem permanently tuned to one of those talking heads political shows. Barack Obama supporters, nearly all young, Caucasian university students, cluster at the neighborhood intersections holding endearingly crude handmade posters urging motorists to honk in support of Obama.
Supporters of the other presidential candidates seem unconcerned about my neighborhood. There's a die-hard across the street with her "JOHN EDWARDS 2008" sign still posted on her lawn, but little other overt sentiment. We didn't even get the usual dead forest of campaign mailers. But it's only the primary--- not the final episode for this show.
The Ron Paul campaign did remind us of its presence by virtue of an airplane overhead trailing a "RON PAUL REVOLUTION" banner. However, all of us in the Grand Lake neighborhood were on the reverse side of the banner, so the only letters we could read spelled "LOVE." Awww-- a valentine!
Granted, I'm on edge today; I'm expecting a couple of important phone calls. Granted, we didn't invest in caller ID on our land line, and I'm picking up the phone whenever it rings. But it's not even teatime, and already one telemarketer has disturbed the peace.
I'd call the police, but as with every unsolicited phone call at our house in the last month, today's telemarketer claims to be calling on the behalf of a Police Officers Association. I'm skeptical any money really gets to the "anti-gang" or "anti-drug" programs the telemarketers are trying to annoy me into supporting.
Meanwhile, I'm astounded this b.s. is entirely permissible under the rules of the Do Not Call Registry. It seems charity organizations, or at least ones that pretend to be such, are free to call any phone numbers, even those registered as "DO NOT CALL (dammit)" with the U.S. government. Political organizations are also exempt from the registry's constraints, which means that I, a dutiful female citizen with no party affiliation, can expect unceasing attention from the national political campaigns as the 2008 election approaches. My phone will be a-ringin' with hours of thoroughly unwanted, entirely unsolicited, wholly aggravating pleas for-- whatever. I never let them go on that long, so I never find out what they're calling for.
Oh, joy. Time to get Caller ID, it seems, among other things.
This display in the Albany airport bookshop tries to please everyone. Well, assuming you weren't behind Edwards, Romney, Thompson, or Ron Paul.
The t-shirt on the right says "Bill Clinton for First Lady"-- an historic moment in t-shirt design.
