YES WE DID

Posted on By Wil

ObamaWins.jpg

I just called Ryan at school and told him to look around, because he’ll want to remember where he was when Barack Obama was elected president.

I’m too giddy and relieved for deep thoughts, and there’s a bottle of champagne that Anne and I have been waiting to open for a long time, so I’ll just say: The nightmare is over. Now, it’s time to get to work.

(image yanked from kos)

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Comments (226)

  2. I’m so thrilled about Obama! I feel so proud to be an American right now, and so excited to have an inspiring, well-spoken person poised to take office. I thought that his acceptance speech was incredible.
    I’m really nervous about Prop 8 here in California, though. It’s not looking good, and it’s breaking my heart. Two of my dearest friends got married a couple of months ago and are now expecting their first child. If Prop 8 passes, they will no longer be married tomorrow. How is that good for anyone?

  4. This isn’t a night for more partisan bickering, history was made and it should be celebrated by all. Obama says he wants to be everyone’s president and work with both sides so let’s give him the benefit of the doubt. If he doesn’t live up to that, he’ll be on his way out faster than he got here. Let’s celebrate this historic moment for the next few months, and then we can start the political debate in February 2009.

  5. I plan on staying up all night to keep an eye on the Prop 8 numbers. Arizona, Arkansas, and Florida failed the gay community, and I’m hoping California doesn’t follow suit.
    Watching Obama’s speech again on my TiVo is giving me renewed hope. We’ll see how long I can make it last though…

  6. I love that people went out and voted!
    I love that here in Canada we were excited about American politics instead of just anxious. America you might be alright after all
    (and good golly Obama is a charismatic man.)

  7. SAL:
    Carter in the least had true leadership experience in being governor, had real-world experience in being a business owner, and had military experience in being a navy nuclear engineer.
    And all Mr. Obama has is being a constitutional law expert, actual Charisma, and being really smart.
    Oh, and by the way, let’s all give thanks for the Repubicans in the mid twentieth century who got so honked off at FDR for winning four presidential terms that they passed a constitutional ammendment to limit the president to 2.

  10. I am so proud to be an American right now. I really feel President-elect Obama has galvanized a majority of the community to get involved and CARE about their country. He’s right when he says that this is not the end, but just the beginning. There is so much work now to be done. I, for one, am excited to start doing more to support my country.
    I will admit to tearing up during Obama’s speech tonight. It was powerful and uplifting. This night makes me so happy.
    As for the haters I can only say that I pity them and their lack of ability to participate in intelligent discourse. Xenophobia and the desire to label anyone they don’t like a socialist, marxist, communist or some other -ist that sounds scary to them is not what America should be about. If all they can do is display their devotion to partisan bickering instead of a desire to also work to make America an even better country through cooperation and respect for those who have different views than them then they can please return to the caves from which they crawled out from. I’m seriously so over the hate and the fear.
    I couldn’t imagine a better time to be alive and be an American. It’s time to fix our country. Yes we can.

  11. It was so moving translating the speech to my mother-in-law and explaining the allusions that I kept having to hit pause — the speech took at least twice as long at our house. 🙂

  13. Craig Steffen:
    I am by no means a major Carter fan, but you’ll never convince me that Obama can match Carter’s intellect.
    And whining? If I were whining, I’d be spitting vitriol and hate at Obama and fellow DNCers that made gains in Congress, droning on about how I lost my country/I want my country back/I’m not longer proud of my country/etc.

  16. The props from abroad demonstrate the catastrophic nature of what has unfolded today.
    What unfolded today was a referendum on
    1) spending hundreds of billions and countless lives on a war based on complete fabrications
    2) ignoring laws and the constitution to spy on innocent Americans.
    3) Taxing less and spending more (on DHS and the war) and thus driving the economy(which was was running fine in 2000, thank you) into the crapper.
    The referendum was called, and I believe the answer was something like “We’re mad as hell and we’re not going to take it any more!”
    Oh, and we’ve now elected somebody who can make complete sentences without a Telepromptr(TM). Not a fundamental requirement, but it’s the little things that make the difference.

  17. Oh my God, this is wonderful. You don’t know how many Germans here are absolutely happy and relieved. If I could have voted for Obama, I would have, but I could only hope and hoping was what I did.
    YES!!!
    Congratulations, USA!!! This is simply wonderful!

  18. Since I work at a WingNut Radio station I’ve spent the last 12 months listening to Obama dirt. True or not it jaded me so I’m really not getting why people are getting anything in their eyes tonight. So this is a plea, help get me excited tonight. Show me where I can go to fall in love.

  19. That’s one piece of good news… it’s not looking that great so far tho for prop eight, why oh why would they care who loves who? it’s just fucking WRONG. Love is love, dammit.

  20. To add to what Craig said, but not to start a fight (because you & I were getting along so nicely, SAL), we also have someone who can pronounce words like “Nuclear” and “Geophysicist” correctly. Being able to prounounce words correctly is also a plus, if I recall correctly.

  24. Anna:
    Ooh-ooh–that’s true, I hadn’t thought of that. I can’t remember any president that could pronounce the world “nuclear” correctly. I haven’t heard Mr. Obama say it; I guess we’ll just have to wait.
    I’m breathless with anticipation! You never know–he probably even knows what it means (having to do with an atom’s nucleus; not something radioactive that blows up).

  25. I never fight on teh Internets, but I will state my POV. Besides – look at this place – it could use little ying to all this yang!
    If anything this is an indictment certainly on the GOP – both parties have swung far away from a true constitutional republic respecting freedom, property, limited government and minimal taxation.
    However may the indictment stand, the GOP is FAR closer to the original American ideals than the DNC – but still much too far.
    Four years of Obama could very well usher in a true conservative (i.e., classic liberal) government that is the embodiment of the true America as described in the second paragraph.

  27. @chilipepper: That’s quite ironic, considering I was a pirate for Halloween this year. Guess this is the first & last time I can say I was on both sides of the “Pirates vs. Ninjas” debate! 😀
    @Craig: Good luck to him on pronouncing it…I can’t even pronounce it! He does seem like he’d know what it actually is. Maybe he even knows what a geophysicist is! I swear, that’s what kept me from feeling the pain of getting a tooth filled: mentally laughing my ass off at President Bush pronouncing it as “Geophysist.”

  31. indictment certainly on the GOP – both parties have swung far away from a true constitutional republic respecting freedom, property,
    True. The Bush/Cheyney presidency and CIA/FBI/NSA now consider the 4th ammendment to be optional at best, for American Citizens or not.
    limited government and minimal taxation.
    Agreed again–the creation of the Department of Homeland Security was the biggest government paper-pushing boondoggle since the New Deal; all done by the party that prides itself on “less government”.

  33. @chilipepper: Huzzah!
    @Craig: To be honest, I never did quite understand WHY they created the Department of Homeland Security, or WHY they needed to take PA’s governor at the time away to run it…they took Ridge away, and we got stuck with some guy who ran Philadelphia into the shits and looks like the dad from Dinosaurs. 🙁

  36. “I can’t wait till I go abroad and am “congratulated” on the Obama win, and see the faces when I tell them that it was the single worst day in American history.”
    SAL, on behalf of all of us who live “abroad” please do us a favour and stay in your own country with that attitude.

  37. To be honest, I never did quite understand WHY they created the Department of Homeland Security,
    One reason was to increase direct control of the agencies swept under the DHS by the Executive Branch. Among other things, the creation of the DHS suspended federal hiring laws (about discrimination and so forth) for agencies under the DHS umbrella.
    Creating the new department was an exercize in pushing a lot of paper and funneling a lot of federal funding to things; it creates a lot of noise which makes it easy to cover other expenditures.
    “The Regional Governors now have direct control. Fear will keep the local systems in line. Fear of this Battle Station.”
    –Grand Moff Tarkin
    STAR WARS

  39. Kirk vs. Picard!
    Well, since this is Wil’s blog and all, and I think he really votes Picard, I think we have to table that argument and find another one. Hmmm…
    Transformers vs. GoBots?
    Voltron vs. Mighty Orbots?
    Marvel vs. DC?
    Street Hawk vs. Knight Rider?
    Airwolf vs. Blue Thunder?
    vi vs. emacs?

  43. Ah, I get it now. So basically, it was created as an excuse to do a dance on the rights of the people?
    Keep in mind, I’m really not the most politically informed person; this is mostly just my own speculation.
    My answer to that:
    I don’t think that the DHS was a molevolent act in and of itself. I’m sure there was a noble reason for it somewhere. However, I think that it was pushed through and executed because the White House needed to be seen to be DOING SOMETHING to PROTECT US. I don’t think it was specifically harmful, just a huge titanic waste of money and resources.
    Ordering (or hinting, or whatever happened) the CIA/NSA/FBI to spy on Americans because the 4th ammendment doesn’t apply if the President doesn’t feel like it–I believe THAT was (is) dancing directly on the rights of everyone. But that was an invasion of privacy and personal santity and an act for which everyone involved should be prosecuted.

  46. @Craig: Oh, ok, I get it now. I’m not the most politically informed person either…this election was the first one I actually did research on.
    Man, I hope they didn’t spy on me during IMs with friends. The sheer amount of insanity that happens when me and my friends chat on instant messenger would’ve driven them to their breaking points. 🙂

  50. Honus:
    Yeah, it looks that way, unfortunately. As of this writing, with 10,000 of 25,000 presincts reporting, it’s listed as YES (to ban) winning by a margin if 52-48%.
    Argh. Alas, as a citizen of the Commonwealth of Kentucky, I can’t cast a NO vote in that one. Of course, I think KY is would probably be one of the last states to legalize such things anyway; you can’t buy beer in my county, after all.
    *Sigh*

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