Okay, admitedly i'm an undesirable alien (according to Lou Dobbs, despite being a technically qualified victim of the brain drain...) so i can't vote, however I have been a supporter of Barack Obama since before he was taken seriously over Hilary.
I can remember sitting in my room back in England, a few months before coming to the states reading about the election. I assumed it would be a Hilary dominated affair that she would win (and i would support her as much as a non-voter could do), when reading through some of the analysis (remebering this was back in early 2007) that there was a faint possibility that a mostly unknown junior senator from Illinois might be a democratic contender, although he had not announced any intentions. I remeber looking at his wikipedia page and thought about how unlikely it would be that he would even intend to run this time, let alone have any kind of chance. He looked young and idealistic, and even from a single photo he certainly had a certain charisma.
Once i came to America i felt as though my worst fears were realised... this was a country that while having a lot of free thinking compassionate people, there were a lot of self serving sociopaths. Meeting the first person who told me he didn't think poor people should get healthcare (particularly if he had to help pay for it) was an eye opener.
However as my initial shock wore off, and i realised that there was a majority of people who had a heart, and a brain (a lot of people just are taught not to use it). Then came the primary debates, and while i was impressed by all the candidates, the clear winner to me in every one of the debates was Barack Obama. I was honestly surprised that the Primaries were not over sooner, but i think it took a while for people to get to know him, and so Hilary Clinton seemed the safer choice.
I'm sure many were torn, i remeber a political cartoon of a figure representing the democratic party trying to tear itself apart because of its equal support for an african-american and a woman candidate...
However after a long and bloody primary campaign, the two very capable nominees shook hands and agreed to work towards a Obama run whitehouse, with a few mutterings from the Hilary Supporters for McCain (If you supported Hilary's policies, how could you support McCain...).
I have to say two things annoyed me a great deal about the primary campaigns, which to a certain extent were brought up in the main campaign.
The first was the guns and religion comment, which to me was very insightful, admitedly it wasn't the most tactful delivery, but its the truth about many in the rust belt states... its the reason there is a large NRA and conservative christian voting block in this country outside the bible belt...I felt while it came out as patronising, more people should have come out and supported Obama over this issue. That said, this isn't the UK, and the voting public can be very fragile about being criticised.
The second was the Jeremiah Wright affair, and i had 2 issues with this, firstly i listened to the "hate speech" and didn't even raise an eyebrow. It was a fairly mild if inelligent critique of American domestic and foreign policy, that is very common in the UK. Personally i would worry about the sanity and intelligence of anyone who cannot critically assess their own country's history...
My main contribution to all the campaigning was on sunday i got to call up people in Philledelphia to ask them very nicely to vote for Obama and whether they would like a lift to the polling booth... most people said no thanks, it was just downstairs... lucky students :P
However finally after all the mudslinging and political wrangling (and one major Obama betrayal over FISA... but then again nobody's perfect), we come to election day.
While it doesn't look like the requisite 61 senate seats were won, a new Lieberman proof majority is now in effect as well as significant gains in the house.
Which all pales compared to... at least 349 electoral votes for obama out of 538, which combined with a popular vote split of 52% to 47% (big in American politics) counts as one huge landslide.....
After it became clear, John McCain, got up on stage, and gave what i have to say was one of the finest concession speeches i have ever seen, and i was sad that i had not seen more of this side of McCain during the election, i still wouldn't have voted for him, but i might still have some respect for him.
Then President Elect Obama came on his stage and with a great deal of humility gave a speech about the days ahead and how difficult they will be, and how we all need to work together to help get this country back on its feet, and while i'm not American, and never will be in many ways (I'm a british girl, even if i don't like pg tips), i felt a great deal of hope and pride for this country that i happen to live in for the moment, and i have to thank both the people who did a huge ammount of effort, and the man who inspired it...
President Elect Obama, thank you, and please make this a country the rest of the world can feel inspired by again :)
For pure cheese factor...
"YES WE CAN!"
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