President-Elect Obama
I was up at 5am yesterday and worked until 8pm in the nonpartisan Election Protection command center at the ACLU of Nevada's office, so by the time I realized that Obama had it in the bag, I was feeling rather delirious. It was a great day for American politics, only tempered by a lost wallet, now found, and lost rights in California, the recovery of which will be longer in the coming. Other post-election nuggets:
- All my hard work in Washoe County paid off, as Obama destroyed McCain in both the county and in Nevada as a whole. Alas, the local elections were more of a mixed bag given my preferences. (E.g., my state supreme court choice lost, and a really awful eminent domain initiative passed.)
- Bill Ayers gave his first interview since he became an election issue to the New Yorker, and he seems like a decent but flawed guy who was heavily caricatured.
- 2009 will be the first year in 45 years without a Dole or a Bush in elected office.
- The Marijuana Policy Project, my former employer, had a successful day winning both medical marijuana in Michigan and decriminalization in Massachusetts.
- Newsweek has an article reporting some campaign items that they couldn't reveal until now: a "foreign entity" hacked into the systems of both campaigns, Palin may've spent more money than was even originally reported on herself and her family, and violent threats to Obama increased sharply in September and October at the same time when the Palin rallies were getting scary.
I wish I lived within driving distance to D.C. for January's shindig.
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i love you walletfinder.
is walletfinder that new iphone app? i hear it's killer!
i teared up during his speech. i'll admit it.
poor prop 8. it was so close.
I was weakly expecting MA Prop 2 to fail-- I wouldn't have been surprised by it squeaking through, either.
But two votes in favor for every vote against? Wow.
Late last night in Davis Square, after it was mostly empty, there was a dude sitting in front of the T station bellowing "Yes on 2!" every ten seconds.
That's funny. I lost my cell phone yesterday in all of the excitement, only to have it returned quickly by a very kind woman named Monique.
I thought of you when I saw Nevada going blue. I figured you were involved in some way.
A tiny piece of my heart is broken by Prop 8.
I know that rhetorical skillz are far far far from the only thing we're worried about here. With that rather obvious caveat: I really only started paying attention to politics during the Bush presidency, and so in a major way it's just been sort of normative for me that when the president speaks I either retch or throw things. Obviously there have been American presidents in the past who have been great speakers and who have given great speeches, but in my day to day existence the Bush mode seemed so pervasive, and to me it even felt inevitable, irrevocable. Of course I've been amped about Obama in a number of ways for a while, but when he delivered his acceptance speech last night it really hit home for me that beginning in January, not only will I not be enraged by the president's every word, but I will actively look forward to hearing him speak. How awesome is that?
I share your enthusiasm for the change of tone and discourse. Has Bush in 8 years ever uttered the terms "gay" or "disabled" or "the world beyond our shores" (except when talking about terrorism) into a microphone? This candidate (or rather President-elect) and the active participation of "ordinary" citizens may be the silver lining to the Bush administration, and I hope Americans will work hard to keep the momentum going.
Did you hear this one: Rosa sat so that Martin could stand so that Obama could run so that we could fly...
(it's way to easy to get caught up in the Disneyfication of the whole thing, but seriously it's big).
Thanks for getting the vote out there, Marco.
bright side: last night we elected the guy who will appoint the supreme court justices who will help to overturn gay marriage bans.
jbg, what conservative justices are ready to retire in the next 8 years? Obama will be great for the rest of the federal bench, but there doesn't seem to be an impending shift at SCOTUS. Best case, he replaces Stevens and Ginzo with Deval patrick and Elena Kagan. But that keeps the balance in place, nothing more.
Have to agree with Snarf here -- the conservatives on the bench are all pretty young. But I bet Souter and Stevens are breathing sighs of relief.
Interesting factoids about the marijuana initiatives: (1) In Massachusetts, Question 2 not only passed 2-to-1 but only lost the popular vote in a total of two cities statewide; (2) In Michigan, medical marijuana won in 83 out of 83 counties; and (3) both initiatives did better than Obama in their respective states.
i'm so in love.
check out all these fab pics!
http://www.scouttufankjian.com/main.php
good work, marco, you rock!
Thanks. That reminds me: I should've thanked above my 3 friends from the Bay Area that took slow trains and drove through mountain snowstorms to canvass for O. Kick ass.
Those are good pics.