Post Election Dump

Where I offer some stream of consciousness thoughts on last night and the campaign...

It was great to see people dancing in the streets, particularly here in DC where much of the celebrating took place along U Street which was still smoldering 40 years ago in the wake of the riots that consumed much of the city after Dr. King's assassination...

It might have been even better seeing the folks at the White House, especially hearing about the various chants and songs...

In fact a friend of mine (on his blog) remarked that it was like every city had just won the Superbowl. I'd say it was even better, in light of the fact that so many sports celebrations of late have been marred by violence and destruction and last nights celebration was nothing but hugs and dancing and high fives and jubilation...

The internets certainly got excited too, in my RSS my favorite responses included

Kottke:


and Ezra Klein:

I mostly watched CNN (it comes in HD) and I thought they generally did a good job, the touch screen map that John King was running was cool and he actually threw out useful info, and when Obama was projected as the winner they just let the celebrations play without commentary, A trick they managed again after Obama spoke...

Obama won Virginia and (I'm pretty sure) North Carolina which will put him up over 350 in the electoral college which is the number I designated as a blowout at the start of the evening, hell yeah...

There were so many touching stories and images throughout the day (the whole campaign too) of people young and old who were so proud to be voting and so enthused by the outcome it was just great, especially the diversity of it all...

I even think it's pretty cool that the younger generations and voters (under 30) aren't quite as bowled over as our parents and grandparents, many of whom thought they'd never see the day that anyone other than a white man would be President. It says something good about where our society is going...

The best headline this morning is below the fold in the WaPo, it says America's History Gives Way to Its Future...

The reporting maps on nearly every website were pretty cool(update: Kottke has examples), I relied on TPM and NYT for the most part...

I'm kind of glad that the campaign closed on such a negative note from the Republicans. They threw everything they had in the fear-mongering basket at Obama and none of it stuck. Obama won BIG, Hope Over Fear indeed. Voters didn't care about Obama's middle name or the color of his skin, and they didn't buy (or care about) charges of socialism or questions of patriotism. I hope that that type of divise campaigning is over and buried for good (see EK and EJ Dionne for more)...

Tom Toles was good this morning:


Both Obama and McCain gave good speeches. McCain's should have been a bit shorter but he struck a good note (his friends in the media who have been protesting that he wasn't behind the negativity in his campaign will be delighted no doubt to declare themselves proven right) and Obama pretty much nailed it...

The difference in the reaction of the crowds to the mention of the opponent's name was one of the most telling of the election and the campaigns and arguably of the nature of today's political discourse. Obama's crowd politely aplauded McCain, while McCain's crowd booed and hissed at the mention of Obama and McCains offer of congratulations and support...

Obama voters stood for something this election, McCain voters were just against something, and thats a huge and crucial difference (and a big change for Democrats who were more against W than for Kerry last time around). It also shows who paid attention to the issues and who paid attention to character attacks...

Here are the speeches (just in case):





Isn't great to have a President who can really give a speech again?

Welcome to a brave new world, it's morning in America...