"Man is by nature a political animal" ~ Aristotle

I'm sure the blog world has been positively inundated by political posts in the last week or so. However, since the reason for this flood is indeed incredibly important, you will have to put up with mine as well.

I was ecstatic when Barack Obama won the election last Tuesday. For the first time in my life, I paid close attention to politics. I also watched CNN and wasn't bored for the first time in my life. As more and more blue states lit up on the map of the United States, I grew more and more excited. As a resident of Virginia, I was more than gobsmacked when our state went blue (that is, democratic) for the first time in about 40 years. The final map (according to wikipedia.org) looked like this.


I do believe that Barack Obama will be the start to the changes we so desperately need to see in America. I believe that he will listen to the people of America, even those that do not agree with him. I believe that he will be tolerant and moderate, and follow an agenda that is best for the American people and not simply best for him and his constituents. But we will have to see; I hope that he will be everything we dream him to be and more, but only time will tell. I am so proud that this was my first election and that I cast a vote that helped bring this man to office. I can only hope that our dreams will be realized.

I'd like to take a moment to just say how fantastic his campaign was; I mean, really, his campaign managers should get an amazingly huge bonus because they knew exactly what the country needed to hear and see. I remember last year, before any election nonsense had started, my roommates and I were straightening each other's hair and saying that after Bush, we need someone young and charismatic to unite the country and blur the party lines that seemed so ironclad during Bush's administration. We all agreed that we needed someone like Kennedy. And now, examine if you will, this portrait of Kennedy.

And now, the very familiar posters used in the Obama campaign.


Look familiar? And you can bet it is not a coincidence! This was an incredibly well-done campaign: politics at its very best.




















I'll leave you with the first part of President-elect (!!) Barack Obama's acceptance speech at Grant Park in Chicago, Illinois, credited to Youtube user USATalk2008.