Electing a President

On 4 November, I spent the hours from about 4 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. (except for a twenty-minute drive from my office to home) at my computer, watching election events as they were presented at the BBC News site. The network had sent a news team to Washington, D.C., and broadcasters-reporters to other parts of the U.S., as well as to the small town in Kenya where Obama’s step-grandmother (stepmother of his father) lives; broadcasters from the BBC’s home office interviewed American expatriates in London. While I was watching the discussions, interviews, and so forth, I also tried to read the live text commentary, which I found almost as engrossing. The following are excerpts from e-mail correspondence in which some friends and I share our thoughts and feelings about the election.

3 Nov 7:26 pm

I’m not as confident as some of the people around me are that Obama will win. When I read [Frank] Schaeffer’s piece, I wondered if I’d been unwilling to hope and believe that a miracle could occur.

My friend George, who lives in Philadelphia and is a newspaper editor, is a big fan of the Phillies. He’d been writing me now and then about Shane Victorino, and when the Phillies won the World Series, he sent me a picture of Shane wearing a lei and hugging the trophy.

Obama’s win would be a miracle of an entirely different magnitude, of course; yet nothing else is acceptable to millions of people all over the world. They have to believe that it is possible and will happen. I have to believe too.

4 Nov 10:17 am

Proudly wearing my Obama T-shirt from Moveon.org.

I voted at around 7:30 this morning. Rainy, gray day in Honolulu, but humid. I walked the three blocks to the cafeteria of a school I went to as a teenager (a horrible period of my life, though not as horrible as the years to come) and voted for the Obama/Biden ticket. The cafeteria wasn’t crowded, but almost every voting booth was taken, and there was a longish line to the tabulating machine. Afterward, I walked to one of my favorite breakfast places and had two eggs over easy, a couple of pancakes, and two pieces of bacon (I’m trying to stop eating meat, but still haven’t quite made it).

5 Nov (throughout the day)

Gary: I know it was spiteful of me but I could not help thoroughly enjoying the local coverage of the GOP victory room, from the early returns where the utterly mean-spirited and vicious 5th Dist congressman, Virgil Goode–who used face-morphing technology in his endlessly repeated attack ads to make his opponent appear to be African-American–appeared to be ahead by 40%, to the hushed environment where it was Perriello 48, Goode 52, to the dead tie, to the final recount where Perriello was ahead by about 800 to 1000 votes, Virginia had gone for Obama, and the bar was empty with just the reporter and a couple of amused waiters sweeping up.

George: I think Obama’s top two challenges are disengagement from Iraq and the economy. The mess that Bush made will not easily be undone, but I think Barak will take a methodical approach to both. There’s another big challenge, perhaps bigger than the other two, which is the polarization of the country. Neocons’ reaction, I’m hearing, is vituperative, with buying more guns a prominent feature. They can’t very well leave the country unless they give up their guns, so it will be interesting to say the least.

If he can get a handle on those three issues, the rest of the mess will be relatively easy to deal with. Environmental issues, energy, infrastructure, health care, and restoring the graduated income tax will be easier to resolve, but by no means slam dunks. Restoring our reputation abroad will be the easiest thing to resolve. After he takes the oath of office, that will be his first fait accompli.

Neither the Phillies winning the World Series nor Obama’s victory has totally sunken in yet. I spent so much time and effort wishing for those two things that when the event happened a sense of disbelief set in. But the Phillies are the world champs and Obama is president-elect. The days of Junior and his demented Uncle are dwindling. High-fives and much rejoicing.

George: In West Virginia’s 2nd District, incumbent Republican Shelly Moore Capito narrowly defeated Democratic challenger Ann Barth. Capito torpedoed the proposed Seneca Creek Wilderness, so I was hoping she would be put out to pasture.

Me: Yes, that’s a shame. Maybe with a Democratic president and majorities in both houses, she’ll have to be more respectful of an environment-focused agenda, though.

Too bad the D.s didn’t get a [larger] majority in the Senate.

You might recall that our Republican governor predicted that HI would be for McCain. The final numbers, according to the BBC News site: 71.8% (298,621) for O.; 26.6% (110,848) for M.; 1.5% (6,526) for others.

Governor Linda can commiserate with her counterpart in Alaska.

George: I don’t think a Democrat administration will have any effect on Capito, or for that matter, any other Repugnican congresstwit. She did back Dolly Sods North, so that is one positive outcome. We just hoped she would lead on the issue and not follow the flock.

Me: One of the highlights of the evening for me was when the head of the BBC news team in D.C. interviewed Gore Vidal, who is now, it appears, nasty, uncooperative, and addled beyond help. When some minutes of this meandering unpleasantness had gone by and the newsman asked V.–pointing out that he had been close to the Kennedys–what he thought of Obama’s victory, V. said he couldn’t answer the newsman’s question because he didn’t know who he was. I should add that V.’s nice suit was too big for him, and his large head seemed to be nodding right, toward the floor, as if he couldn’t hold it up; he kind of looked like an aardvark, actually. The newsman then said to those seated around the table–which included Larry Sabato, of UVA–that maybe they should quit while they were ahead. Then he muttered, “That was interesting–not quite what we expected.” Har-har, that was a good laugh, and I laughed liberally!

Gary: It bears out what I always said–When you go to interview an aardvark, things are going to get awkward. Or as my old pal Andy Anteater used to say, “You can suit an aardvark, but it’ll be a cold day on the veldt when an aardvark suits you.”

Sabato’s on Cloud 9 because he actually called the electoral vote — exactly. It was a direct hit. The Polysci Dept also had Perriello within a few hundred of Goode one way or the other. Which was a much easier call than the electoral college.

Me: Sabato seems like a good egg.

After the BBC newsman returned to the people at the table, he asked S. a question, and S. started his answer by saying HE knew who the newsman was. Triggered a round of chuckles…

George: I have to say that when Obama delivered the keynote address at the convention four years ago, I realized that he would not only win the senate seat, but be a positive force in the party in the future. As the primary season unfolded, I realized that his vision was powerful, and it seemed to me that his time had arrived. I was on the bandwagon from the get-go, but the primaries were my primary (pun not intended, but cheerfully embraced) concern. I believed if he got the nomination he would go all the way.

I felt the nation was in deep need of a sea change or a course correction and he was the man to make it happen. Nothing that happened changed my belief. I was very confident that he would win, but I have to say that the McPalin street theater of the absurd made the win even bigger. I expected a much narrower margin. But in the electoral-college pool at work yesterday, I said he would take 325 electoral votes. I was too conservative. Somebody else picked a higher number, damn him.

Me: I did think, watching M. give his concession speech, that he was a good, honorable man. As one commentator said, though, it’s too bad he stopped being that person while he was campaigning.

6 Nov (throughout the day)

George: You’ve got that right. McCain was like bad theater. I forget where he was at the time, but he was making his speech in front of a very sparse audience and acting as though he was spotting friends in the audience, pointing out and giving thumbs-up as though he recognized someone. I thought to myself, okay John, you’ve now made more gestures than there are people in the audience. Get it over with so the sanitation workers can clean up the site and get home at a decent hour.

Gary: That McCain allowed the old Bush handlers to stage most all of his events as Potemkin rallies, script him up for Bushite attack speeches, and string Palin around his next like an albatross, basically demonstrated that he was a desperately bad choice for president. He had to actively let all that happen, and the inside story of it is going to be fascinating.

George: Bits and pieces are leaking out around the edges as we speak. Here’s the NY Times story about the schism between the McCain and Palin camps. It’s an interesting look.

Me: A paragraph from a Huffington Post article:

NEWSWEEK has also learned that Palin’s shopping spree at high-end department stores was more extensive than previously reported. While publicly supporting Palin, McCain’s top advisers privately fumed at what they regarded as her outrageous profligacy. One senior aide said that Nicolle Wallace had told Palin to buy three suits for the convention and hire a stylist. But instead, the vice presidential nominee began buying for herself and her family–clothes and accessories from top stores such as Saks Fifth Avenue and Neiman Marcus. According to two knowledgeable sources, a vast majority of the clothes were bought by a wealthy donor, who was shocked when he got the bill. Palin also used low-level staffers to buy some of the clothes on their credit cards. The McCain campaign found out last week when the aides sought reimbursement. One aide estimated that she spent “tens of thousands” more than the reported $150,000, and that $20,000 to $40,000 went to buy clothes for her husband. Some articles of clothing have apparently been lost. An angry aide characterized the shopping spree as “Wasilla hillbillies looting Neiman Marcus from coast to coast,” and said the truth will eventually come out when the Republican Party audits its books.

Me: Here’s something about Joe the P.:

Joe the Plumber has spoken. It seems he regrets the level of exposure he had from the McCain campaign. He tells the Guardian newspaper: “You know, fame is fleeting, leaves you hungry, leaves you cold, leaves you tired. Fortune never comes with it.”

The following is from a 5 Nov. message written by me to another good friend; I’m putting it at the end because it captures the intensity of my feelings on election day and the strength of my hopes for the future. I didn’t say in the text above that I cried frequently while watching BBC News, tears streaming down my face.

I was thinking about you yesterday, wondering if you were working or able to catch any news of the election. All sorts of things ran through my mind as I saw the numbers change on my computer screen, listened to the BBC News commentators, and watched the various events being filmed live. I saw all of McCain’s concession speech and Obama’s acceptance speech and got to listen to people like Ted Koppel and John Bolton, as I mentioned to you.

It seemed to me that the news commentators were trying to be objective while trying to rein in their excitement about what was happening. I’m sure I’m not the only one who noticed this.

It seems to me that Obama is not only a great political leader but a great spiritual leader, someone worthy of following in the steps of Martin Luther King.