President Obama

I'm back from vacation and was planning on doing more normal journal postings tonight (a review and a picture), but the election was just too compelling. It's a wonderful feeling to watch an election with a sense of joy and hope and a sense of history being made by the good guys.

The path ahead is hard (my retirement statement today is sad evidence of that), but I can go to bed tonight hoping that our long national nightmare is finally over.

I don't think Obama will be a drastic change, rather than a gradual return to normalcy. He's far more conservative than the President I want to vote for. And I'm under no illusions that the US will cease to be a corporate-run country under his leadership.

But despite all of that, we elected the first black President in the history of the United States. We elected someone who is intelligent, thoughtful, and who surrounds himself with intelligent people. We elected someone who represents thoughtful analysis rather than "gut feelings." We elected a President whose speeches I actually enjoy listening to. The fear, the smear tactics, the lies, the pandering, the racism, and the bigotry didn't prevail today. And there were tears in my eyes watching the reactions of black voters around the country.

That's something to be hopeful about.

Normal life will resume tomorrow.