Unless you've been living in a cave, or you're from another country (and probably not even then), you know that on Tuesday Barack Obama was elected as the next President of the United States. Now that I've had a few days to take things in, I have a few thoughts.

This is the first election that I've participated in that went the way I wanted it to. The first presidential election I got to vote in was in 2000, when George W. Bush began the first of his two terms. At the time, and even more so after the 2004 election, it felt like things were just getting worse, and things would never go my way. I'm a liberal, I feel no shame in saying that (though I don't ascribe blindly to the Democratic Party, more on that later), and it seemed like all around me the country was getting more and more conservative. As the war progressed, our rights were threatened, and the government grew powerful in provocative and ominous ways, I never lost hope, but it did worry me greatly.

Finally, this time around, enough people seem to have become fed up with how things are going that a tidal change occurred. Obama didn't just win, he won decisively. He won in states that haven't voted for a Democrat in decades. And he won in the largest voter turn out in US history. If that's not a clear mandate, I don't know what is. A map that was awash with red only four years ago is now equally blue. This overwhelming support will allow Obama to do things that Bush and even Clinton (who enjoyed wide popularity while in office) could only dream of. It could also back fire terribly.

After the two year campaign, the tension and drama of the last few months, and the amazing outpouring of support - much of it from first time voters - if Obama fails to deliver, he'll be eaten alive. What Obama needs to do is what he's been promising all along: Carefully considered but bold moves designed to benefit the greatest number of people. He can't be afraid of being labeled a socialist, that was tried and the people chose him anyway. His easy celebrity must be used to the greatest effect, since that is what got him where he is. He can't be afraid to admit he is wrong and to take the advice of the experts, he can't afford to act out of hubris. If he turns out to be a lame duck president, or if his policies crash and burn, so will his chances of a second term come 2012, and so will the progressive tide (and rightly so, having been tested and failed, just as Bush's neo-con policies have).

I hope I've been right all along. I hope a bold, progressive, intelligent leader is what we need. I fear what will happen if I'm wrong.

Switching gears a bit now, what of McCain? I've spoken well of him in the past, citing both him and Maine's Senator Olympia Snowe as examples of conservatives I hold in high esteem. Over the course of this campaign, however, we watched him sell his soul to win the GOP nomination, and then descend into the depths of nasty politics in an effort to win. He had truly been a maverick; someone who did what he thought was right and who actually admitted when he was wrong. The “maverick” label was commercialized and packaged alongside policy ideas and campaign promises designed to placate the Republican base. It became just a word without meaning, and by and large the voters knew it. If the 2000 election had been McCain against Gore, or if 2004 had been McCain against Kerry, I'm fairly certain I would have voted for McCain. Not this time. Not after what he'd become, and especially not after picking a whack-job like Palin as his running mate (I'm all for a female vice president, or even president, just not her).

Then came McCain's concession speech. It's like the old McCain, the one I respected and admired, was back. It was a great speech, filled with respect and humility, and delivered with what appeared to be honest feeling. A sign of how divergent the real McCain had become from his supporters came when this speech was booed by the crowd in attendance. I don't think I've ever seen that before. There were hints of the real McCain now and then - such as when he corrected a woman about Obama being a Muslim(the implication being that he was a terrorist sympathizer and he was booed then as well - but the mean little troll always came back with vigor. Hopefully, now that the election is over, the real McCain will be back to stay. I quite possibly would have voted for him if he'd been running.

This is one of the greatest web videos I've seen recently, and I just had to share it.

EDIT: The original video disappeared, so here's a link to the same video on YouTube (in case it goes away again, it's a video of Obama and McCain having a dance off. It was done by digitally overlaying the candidates' faces over those of dancers. It was really well done):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMpcv2t6Er8

That's some pretty slick work, pasting the candidates heads onto the dancers bodies like that. And I love the expressions they picked for them, they actually fit well with the dance styles of each.

Man oh man. Major kudos.



...wait, did I really just quote Larry the Cable Guy in the title? Crap...