Here We Go

Watching the election on the internet at five o’clock this morning with a fellow Peace Corps volunteer was a pretty moving experience. It’s hard not to wish I was in Grant Park for Obama’s acceptance, but sitting and watching it with a friend was definitely a moving experience. Obama’s a big job ahead of him. He’s got to fix Bush’s mistakes – mistakes that are, unfortunately, ongoing – and he has to fight against the media’s inexorable pull towards the right – excuse me, center. But that can’t distract from all the other things this election means.

The thing that stands out for me most – beyond even Obama’s cultural heritage and race – is the competence, the skill and the class with which he ran his election. Several times over the course of this cycle, I noted to myself the way that McCain seemed to run against Obama, while Obama barely mentioned McCain. Part of that, of course, was the fact that Obama was running against Bush’s legacy. But more of it is the fact that McCain didn’t have a positive agenda. He just had Sarah Palin, a boxful of Karl Rove’s shopworn tricks he picked up at a Bush family yard sale and a quickly-fading reputation. Obama, unapologetically, ran on a platform – a progressive platform. More than anything, after two razor thin elections, it feels refreshing to see a candidate win.