OBAMA WINS!!!

Today's issue of the Daily Emerald naturally featured articles and opinions on the election. One humorous writer took the linguistic metaphor of "at the wheel" and expanded it to a metaphor of the "America Bus." He noted that "George W. Bush hasn't so much been driving the America Bus as repeatedly crashing it."

You wouldn't think that would be anything striking to point out, but it did strike me. All my teenage years - my years of political awakening - have been spent under George W. Bush. Ever since my parents marked their 2000 ballots at FuJin, I have grown up watching two businessmen - a moronic failure and a corrupt success - drive this country into two recessions, mishandle two wars, one initiated under false pretext, and re-elect themselves under circumstances of plausible (some would say likely) electoral fraud. I've understandably come out of this with the feeling that presidential politics are about fending against evil and stupidity.

How exciting, then, to have had the choice I did this election! To vote for a charismatic, idealistic leader whose election represents a smashing blow to one of our most peevish glass ceilings, and a smart-as-hell veep. Candidates, an entire ticket I actively liked. It was such a painless victory, too. One of my friends suggested Bush would declare of a state of emergency and stop the election somehow. My stepdad predicted drawn-out recounts. Everyone wondered about the Bradley effect. Yet by the time Oregon polls closed, Obama already had 220 EVs. A countdown to eight o'clock, and then CNN declared his victory, swept up by the West Coast. Minutes later, McCain was giving a concession speech.

I'm so excited to keep up on the news and to see what this duo does. What happens when the bus driver is actually competent at driving? Oh, my childhood enjoyed Clinton, but I wasn't paying attention back then. Obama even took Virginia, which hasn't voted Democratic since the sixties - and both of those sticky Bush states, Florida and Ohio. Isn't it all just amazing?