Full Thoughts

Wow, what a night. Mainly, I'm just glad I won't be totally screwed after college. Just, y'know...mostly.

Honestly, this was a night I've been looking forward to for...I guess four years now, but I really started getting excited after I saw Joe Biden on Real Time with Bill Maher and thought "God damn, now here's a guy I can get behind." So to speak. And now to think he'll have a role in shaping the next four years is just so awesome. It'll also be nice to have a Vice President again who knows his place. Also, it'd be a lot more fun to make jokes about Sarah Palin knowing her place, because she never, ever would. Not even when talking to third graders.

But hey, can I just say, props to McCain for a truly great concession speech to cap off truly one of the oddest campaigns I've ever heard of. Wasn't as good as Obama's victory speech, but...you know...it's Obama. I found it hard to truly hate McCain during this whole racket. Maybe partially because he used to be, you know, a worthy candidate for the office of President, and I still felt some of that, all the while wondering "what the hell happened to this guy?" Although that's not terribly hard to figure out - he lost when his time came. His time was eight years ago, and he lost. And that sucks. And now he got saddled with a campaign in a year when the Republicans would have had to resurrect Reagan to have a shot at winning (and I know, I was worried and scared McPalin would take this thing, but that's mainly because I'd had my hopes dashed once already, and couldn't be bothered to get them up again), with a type of Republican party very different to the one he's capable of reaching.

Because you can say all you want about the Republicans trying to distance themselves from Bush, but this was a Bush campaign through and through. It emphasized cultural issues and in terms of presentation and aesthetics was right in line with the campaign Bush ran in '04 especially, and there were so many times when you could tell McCain was not comfortable with this sort of campaign, trying desperately to grapple with this base that was shoved on him. But he probably realized this was his last shot, and since dirty politics did him in eight years ago, why wouldn't they work FOR him this time?

So, he listened to his advisors and selected Sarah Palin, for me the final nail in the coffin. Palin will, of course, benefit tremendously from all this and continue to be a figure worthy of scorn and amusement for people like me who relish in this stuff (although it's a stretch to imagine her running in 2012), but the one thing I knew is that the extent to which she helped or hindered McCain would set the tone for this country for the next four years. If they won, it'd be true, that this is basically a nation of morons so easily taken in by charm and likeability rather than vision and capability.

Because you can say all you want about people being taken in by Obama's charm, and there is no doubt that many, many people (young people especially) fell for him, at least in the primaries, precisely because of rhetoric. This was a very tightly-run campaign, and nearly every move was so specifically calculated that it'd be impossible to look at anything Obama was saying and take it as "real." There's very little that's "real" about Obama.

But that's okay. It doesn't make him any less qualified to run the country. I don't need a real guy in that seat. The point is that those who were fooled by Obama were fooled by the right guy, because this was the job he's been educated for and trained for just about his entire life. And yeah, he doesn't have a lot of experience, but that's easy to make up if you have the right people on staff (they're the people who will determine how Obama's presidency will go, after all), and think of how many people in upper-management coporate America are under the age of 50 (or 40 for that matter). They're brought on because of their youth, exuberance, new ideas, and willingness to embrace a changing industry. And the White House needs that right now.

Finally, props to America for reminding me the country isn't totally dumb, and making me realize that it's possible to win a political race without much negativity. And props to the 18-24s for getting off their asses.

Some random stuff...

In the cinematic adaptation of CNN's coverage, Bill Bennett would be played by John Goodman and David Gergen would be played by a turtle.

Anyone who says this is the most important election in the history of the country is an idiot. Lincoln's election puts this one to shame. I'll accept most important of the modern era, but even then I'm not so sure ('68 and '32 spring to mind immediately). Culturally? Maybe. Electing a black man to President is monumental, but I think it takes more than that to make this the MOST IMPORTANT ELECTION IN HISTORY.

Holograms are frickin' awesome. It is now the future.

Campbell Brown wanted John King so bad. And his magic map.

The McCain headquarters turned off the news by 9:30 EST, and just played music and hung out. This gives them much more in common with stoners than anything the Obama campaign has ever done.

I wanted a little more drama. Couldn't McCain have pulled ahead for a half hour or something?

Fun fact: The largest voter turnout in the last hundred years was when America elected William Howard Taft in 1908. Over 65% turned out for him. Maybe we are a fundamentally dumb country.