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mygif

Well said.

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mygif

Did you have a concession type essay prepared, too?

Anyways, nicely put. Let’s all just hope that it’s not Obama vs. Schwarzeneggar 2012.

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mygif

Very well written.

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mygif

Did you have a concession type essay prepared, too?

Yes. It consisted of “Well, fuck.”

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mygif

Ah, so you gave it equal thought, then.

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mygif

Beautifully written. The same can be said for your concession essay.

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mygif

Well said. And well said about America; there is a tendency in the world to dis our neighbour to the south, but from its creation out of revolution there has been a great deal to be impressed about, and that striving does come through.

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BitterCupOJoe said on November 5th, 2008 at 12:45 am

I am so proud of my country right now. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t fighting back tears.

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mygif

Beautiful piece. Another thing to consider:
It took mankind nearly fifteen hundred years to learn to fly once we started trying
And once we did, it took only 66 to land a man on the moon.

Imagine what we can do with this start.

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Nora Bombay said on November 5th, 2008 at 12:54 am

I am so relieved. I didn’t even now the weight of anxiety I was carrying until it was lifted.

I’m so proud of Florida and Virgina, my home states.

And today, I’m proud to be an American. With no qualifications. I am just.

Wow.

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mygif

“Anyways, nicely put. Let’s all just hope that it’s not Obama vs. Schwarzeneggar 2012.”

Fortunately, that would require a Constitutional amendment. Curiously, I’ve met the woman who was in charge of the push for that amendment.

We’re still waiting here to see if Prop 8 is going to pass, but so far, things don’t look good (i.e. it’s passing, damn it).

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mygif

I’m not against that amendment, as I think it would be a fair revision of an old law.

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Polychrome said on November 5th, 2008 at 1:20 am

Sometimes we fall behind, but that’s just because we are charging our SUPER DASH!!!

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mygif

I have seldom read anything I so profoundly agreed with, MGK. Thank you.

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mygif

Thanks, MGK. A great piece.

I have to say I had to struggle not to cry. It’s an amazing moment for me. Even though I’m from a deep red state (Arkansas), I feel a part of something much larger than state politics. I feel like a part of history.

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mygif

It’s times like these that I wonder why I never feel emotion at anything and if I’m fucked up. The last time I actually cried was when watching Click, which i dont even know why i was crying on.

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mygif

Since you said it so nicely, I will only say woot.

WOOT!

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mygif

This is why I’m glad your blog is back.

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mygif

Thank you.

Ive been quoting your “America can lap the rest of the world” statement to my fellow Texans since you mentioned it back during the primaries. Thank you again, for saying this so eloquently.

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mygif

I spent the time from polls close in Ohio to polls close in California at the Parma, OH, branch of the Obama campaign drinking heavily (or, at least, heavily for me) and now I’m sitting up paying for my sins. Last night and yesterday all together was a bit of a whirl wind, filled with every emotion known to man, and I’m stuck with the task of writing it all down today lest I forget even a detail. But one particular instance, that you just brought out to the forefront–

I had wandered back up to the front of the office, having collected a new beer, and came across a knot of people in the phone bank watching Fox News in vicious humor. Someone repeated the newest vote totals. I asked what happened, that McCain had shot up so much while Obama had held relatively still. My organizer, Carli, told me that Texas had been called for McCain and okay, we shrugged, no giant shocker. But then she said, you know, it’s still really amazing, returns are showing Obama has 46% of the vote there.

And it was like a switch had flipped in my very tipsy head. Somewhat caught up in the moment, I grabbed Carli by the shoulders.

“Do you know what this means?” I blathered drunkenly. “Somebody mobilized the Hispanic population to vote for a black man! Jesus Christ! It’s different! There are new rules! It works differently now!”

Carli gave me the hug I probably needed at that point.

Now, how correct I am in that assessment is a matter of debate — it’s certainly no giant feat to get lower-class Hispanics to support a democrat. But just this idea that we had overcome not only racially-driven antipathy, but possibly racially-driven apathy was like a bolt from the blue, making clear what had been the real shocker of the day — we tilted the axes of the world. American politics, from this day out, are a different beast now, with different strategies, different models, and different nuggets of wisdom. There’s an incredible amount of untapped potential right now, an incalculable current ready to bring us to life or burn us to a crisp.

Maybe a remark made out in the parking lot over post-California cigars sums it up better.

“Ten years down the line, when they’re writing social studies books, tonight will be where they put the paragraph break.”

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mygif

Oh, you dick. You outdid me… And I cried! You wrote this over the week, didn’t you? DIDN’T YOU?!? Rassum frassum punk should go back to Canadia…

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mygif

For me, this is totally the one about the kids. I don’t know what it does to a child to know that ‘people who look like me can never be president’, but it CAN’T be good. And it’s clear that children at a very early age knew damn well who got to be president and who didn’t.

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mygif

One of your best blog posts ever. You add to my regret of not watching last night, and especially not watching with a group of people.
(Though I did tell Laura when I ran into her that I knew I could count on your blog for coverage.)

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Lister Sage said on November 5th, 2008 at 2:17 pm

mdk: As my 17 year old sister said last night: “I’ve never wanted to vote for someone so bad in my life.”

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mygif

A few things nobody seems to be considering in all this discussion of racial advancement in America:

1) Obama isn’t “black”, he’s black, white, and middle eastern. Apparently the “one drop of black blood means your black” rule still applies? Technically, he’s the first biracial president, which is important because….

2) The prejudice against biracial individuals was so bad that some part black multiracial people would chose “other” when asked their race; they didn’t consider themselves either white or black, because neither truly accepted them.

That Obama got so much support from black voters is hopefully a sign that they too are moving past some of their collective racial issues.

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mygif

Middle Eastern?

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mygif

I’d argue that the UK has both a free electorate and a diverse population – a Sikh becoming PM, for example, would be equivalent. Or, for that matter, an Algerian in France.

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mygif

dirge93: I’ve pointed out on my website that his being of mixed ancestry makes his election even more important. Amongst bigots, miscegenation is worse than being of a different background.

I think MGK has brought all this up in the past, too.

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mygif

J.N., I agree completely about his bi-racial parentage. I had a bi-racial coworker in college, and she was sensitive about it because of the harassment she and her parents endured when she was growing up. I wish I knew how to contact her now.

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mygif

I hate the way you link “diverse population” with “progress”. The mono-cultural sovereign nation-state is the pinnacle of international justice, and sooner we get every human culture one of their own, we can put war and strife behind us.

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mygif

I literally couldn’t have said it better myself. Shame that a Canadian has better perspective on being American than most of us.

Thanks. You made tears come to my eyes reading that.

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mygif

Congratulations from Germany, it was a beautiful Victory.

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