05 November 2008

Morning after

Quite sleepy today but pleased that Obama won. My alarm woke me rather harshly at 5.30am and I put the TV back on to find that McCain had already conceded and Obama had given his victory speech. Despite the fact that lots of the results are still forecasts, it seems pretty clear cut and everyone has accepted Obama won.

So then I went back to sleep until 7, and now the news is just cycling around and around announcing his victory again and again. I'm glad I stayed up for Ohio, they always say you can't win the White House without winning Ohio, so once he had that one it was fairly clear he was safe.

I feel an unusual urge to go back to America now. I really enjoyed our trip there, and there are so many different places to see. Maybe we'll go back, it's a shame it's so far and expensive. I might wait until we're getting a few more dollars to the pound at least.

I just hope Obama doesn't get himself shot by white power extremists now, but I suppose getting shot at by someone is a hazard of the job for any president.

So sleepy, clearly not doing any work today.

(Updated a bit later on)

It's quite astonishing actually, I've just been through the list of key states I printed off yesterday, where the BBC said "Obama really needs to win this one", or "a victory for McCain here will keep him in the race", and for basically every single one Obama won. He didn't even need to win all of them, but he has, and sometimes by quite big margins. They include Indiana, Virginia, Ohio, Florida, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, Colorado, New Mexico, Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa and Nevada. Poor old John McCain only seems to have won the safest Republican states, and it just wasn't enough.

Clearly the mobilisation of the black and youth vote really made a difference for Obama. I wonder what the overall turnout was? Might look that up.

2 comments:

Nel said...

I'll admit, I've never been huge on politics. I do feel a bit bad about it at times...especially within the last couple of years, seeing how many of my friends are very involved. But this election was really something, to say the least. I did my part, and I'm glad Obama won! Yet here in California, it's a bit of a bittersweet feeling. Though not all the votes are accounted for, looks like the big "Prop 8" we've been fighting (to ban gay marriages) is passing. So that really sucks. Last I saw it was like 52%/48% or so. Who knows...miracles can still happen I guess. hehe But if now, I know the fight won't be over.

superlative said...

The BBC are reporting that Proposition 8 has passed now, unfortunately. If it were going to be defeated anywhere it should have been California, it's such a shame. I still don't see the logic of the argument that gay people getting married somehow undermines straight people doing so.