¡Obama Wins!

¡Obama Wins!

So I finally have something to celebrate the day after a presidential election. After two extremely bitter defeats I woke up happy as hell this morning, a bit hungover but happy. I have never seen so many happy people the day after an American presidential election, joyously happy even. What could possibly be wrong with the rest of the world literally cheering the Obama victory? People here in Spain that know I am American have congratulated me. They are almost as happy as I am about the outcome. It was like the rest of the world was begging us to do the only right thing to do and put a wise and intelligent man in the White House. We have! Compare how Bush arrived as president, under the sleazy doings of a Supreme Court verdict. Then in 2004 Bush talked about his “mandate.” In the historic words of Gil Scott Heron, mandate my ass.

I knew Obama was the one when I saw a photo (above) in the New York Times of a rally in Portland, Oregon that drew over 90,000 people. It is a brilliant photo of Obama standing amidst this sea of people. I know that Portland, like Seattle, is totally left-leaning and hippie but still, 90,000 is a hell of a lot of hippies. I just can't imagine people cheering a Hilary victory and forget about McCain. His campaign was despicable, what a surprise coming from the Republicans. Obama ran a brilliant campaign and steered clear of most of the mudslinging. The problem is that the Republicans had no mud to sling. The mountain they tried to make out of the ridiculous Ayers molehill only showed just how desperately bankrupt they are when it comes to ideas. Their agenda has shown itself to be an abject failure.

I think my favorite scene from last night was Jesse Jackson—a great American—bawling his eyes out on CNN. And to all those who will say that I am an Obama-bot or that I am deluded, to them I say that I am not like the right-wingers, the people who defended the miserable presidency of G.W. Bush at every misstep and horrible blunder that he made. I love how some call Obama "slick talking," as if being able to form coherent sentences in your native language is some sort of liabilty. Now all we have to do is undo all of the damage done by Bush and the conservatives.

For now I will savor the victory and listen again to the very magnanimous and humble speech he gave last night in Chicago. I wish that I could accurately convey the pride I feel having Barack Hussein Obama as my president.