Well that was kind of strange.

I voted for the Libertarian candidate this time.

That isn't odd, I almost always align myself with the Libertarian party (I'm an intelligent single white male working in the information technology industry, it is practically my duty).

I hesitated before I did so however. I almost went with Obama.

In the end however my ideals won over my sentiment, and for me that was the right choice. It was the choice that for me contained the most personal integrity and I don't regret it.

I can say however that I am proud of the person my fellow Americans helped to elect.


The thing that strikes me most is my sense of being able to relax a bit more.


When Bush won in 2000, I felt that the country had chosen poorly. But I also felt that Gore ran a very mediocre campaign and lost the election more than Bush won it.

Shortly after 9/11, at the first mention of I Iraq I began to feel 'out of touch'.

It seemed very odd to me that so many people could even briefly be fooled by Bush's (or rather Cheney's) rather clumsily obvious push for war against a country that had zero to do with 9/11.

What really made me nervous though was the 2004 election. It seemed very much like the election had literally been stolen. If it was or wasn't is besides the point though. The odd thing wasn't it being stolen, the odd thing was the lack of complaint. The passivity with which the other side seemed to cave in.


Add into the mix a series of freedoms lost/American principles forgotten (no fly lists, Guantanamo Bay, official approval of torture, domestic spying, etc...).

Then the 2006 elections happen. Americans seem to wake up. However the Democratic party, even when given a pretty clear mandate still seems to be asleep. The absolute refusal of the Democrats to consider impeachment, when the president had clearly gone a bit power-mad, was just fucking strange. I mean come on, Clinton was impeached for a blow-job, Bush illegally wire-tapped the whole country!


Lets just say that I've been getting successively more and more creeped out by the entire 'political system'.


Tonight however I feel something I haven't felt in a long, long while: hopeful.

I don't know what kind of president Obama will be, but one thing I feel confident of is that, finally, the weird waking-nightmare of the last eight years is finally over.

Looking back all I see is destruction. America fiscally, morally, and physically weakened. The Republican party seemingly utterly destroyed, left only it seems with a core of bigots and religious fanatics. Nobody won, we all lost.

I look forward to some future historian explaining to me just what the hell happened these last eight years and who we should send the bill to.