nov. 4th + 1

he won. we won. everyone won.

i can say that last night was one of the most important events that i have personally ever been a part of. to think of it logically makes it seem predictable. to think of it spiritually gives such a complex set of conflicting feelings i don't know if i could ever explain it in words...but maybe you can imagine it.

for about a month the race has been pretty consistent. polls, attacks, speeches, direction...all pretty consistent. still doubt, but no worry if the course is kept; and it was. first PA was called, giving mccain only a glimmer of hope. then OH...and i could say without a doubt american had elected it's first black president.

i was lucky enough to have a ticket to the grant park event and was one of the lucky people to get there late and be at the very end of the field :) it didn't matter. i was there. i took a ton of pictures but have yet to see if any of them turned out. most likely not but i'll check tonight and probably post sometime tomorrow.

now i have all these conflicting feelings. we achieved the second goal, but what about the next step? we can't change the country without everyone pitching in. we, as a poeple, need to work harder and take bigger sacrifices to get out of this hole we are in. it won't work just because we have an intelligent person making our big decisions. we are in a deficit from all angles: money, global character, domestic health/jobs/energy/technology. we can break from this but no one person, no government is going to do it for us.

it's time to stop being stubborn about what we think is absolute and open our minds to new ideas on solving our problems. this is not our parents or our grandparents generation. this is our time now and we must progress from our past or end up repeating it.

i can't speak for anyone else, but i plan on doing my part.






Sean Quinn from 538 expressed his feelings about last night about the campaign and this race so much better than i could. check it out:
http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/2008/11/chicago-day-after.html

our generation speaks today

i'm <= 25 and i voted today. of course i did. of course ALL of my friends did.

this election has been gruesome. i've been obsessed for about 18 months, checking poll updates everyday, getting opinions from every person i could, just trying to figure out the logic of this thing we call democracy.

in this election i've seen a major trend, and without it barack wouldn't be winning. it's the youth push. maybe the youth aren't going to vote much today, the majority is lazy, but they are the ones that saw this election through. they are the ones that knocked on doors, made and answered phone calls, and did everything else to drive this campaign.

mccain had virtually no ground game compared to barack. barack had 10-30 offices open in nearly every state, mccain barely had any. barack's offices were packed all day and all night, mccain's barely kept normal business hours. if you think that it's because mccain had less cash than barack you're wrong. it was only possible because of obama's continued inspiration that kept his team going longer and harder than any other.

sure there are other factors; the money, non-youth finally getting inspiration, but they are not as important as what our generation has done to put this campaign over the top.

here's part of my ticket for the event tonight. i will be down there taking pictures, to be posted in the next day or two on wajiw.com/pics.php yes i will be finishing up the woggallery ver. 1.0 in the next day
. i'll post the source next week.

election blogs i follow:
fivethirtyeight.com (D)
politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com (D)
www.realclearpolitics.com (R)
pollster.com (I)
drudgereport.com (R)