It's a night thick with history, and countless others will write about it with more eloquence and insight than I ever could. I can speak only in my voice, from my perspective.
While I didn't support Sen. Barack Obama, I have the highest respect for his victory. My concerns about the policies he advocates are very real now, but I won't hesitate to assert that Americans elected the better leader.
Sen. John McCain ran a gallant campaign but ultimately a bumbling one. Now the Republican Party has four years to embrace change -- not the cliché campaign slogan, but the new American landscape it can no longer deny exists.
The candidates' concession and acceptance speeches provided a final contrast. In defeat, Sen. McCain spoke to a less-than-capacity crowd of 1,500 gathered on the lawn outside an Arizona hotel. Despite the nominee's sincerity, followers booed his gracious acknowledgment of Sen. Obama and Sen. Joe Biden -- and some even jeered his expression of gratitude to running mate Gov. Sarah Palin.
Sen. Obama held his victory celebration in Chicago's Grant Park, delivering measured remarks to an estimated 200,000 people. When he congratulated Sen. McCain and Gov. Palin on their campaign, his supporters cheered.That, ladies and gentlemen, is called a clue. It's not just the expected difference between winning and losing -- it's the difference between what worked and what failed, one campaign that set its tone at the top and another that never found its voice.
To wrap up this post, I'll share something I observed in my community this evening. Instead of watching wall-to-wall election-night coverage, my wife and I got haircuts (seriously) at a local shop owned by a friend of ours. We left the house about 15 minutes after the polls closed and returned around 9:30pm, traveling to and from on an always-busy four-lane thoroughfare.
We had the road to ourselves -- it was eerie, like driving at 3am on a Sunday morning. In a state that went for Obama-Biden and a county that swung for McCain-Palin, it seemed that everyone but us was home watching the returns come in.
American history was made tonight, and no one wanted to miss a minute of it. Regardless of my personal political leanings, I'm glad I was alive to see it.
