Frankly, I gained some respect for him, at that point. I think he ran a pretty ugly campaign, overall, so to have him admit defeat like that showed integrity. His concession speech was classy, too. Obama's speech, was nice, of course, but really, that's all just political rhetoric, in the end. Still, it was good to hear. I spent my formative years down South, and I'm proud of that, even when I'm not proud of some of the other things that come from that region. I grew up around people and in areas where racism was the norm. For me to watch Americans elect a black President, well, that was a momentous occasion. Maybe we can finally be putting that crap behind us, and start to see the man behind the skin.
Sadly, it seems that sexual orientation is going to be the racism of this generation. Somehow, the lessons of the previous century are just going to be repeated, with a slightly different subject. I hope I live long enough to see that issue become, at least legally, a non-issue. There will always be people who will doggedly hang on to whatever out-dated discriminatory feeling they have, with no other reason than they find it personally icky, but just as the law and the climate finally stopped saying that anything other than "white" skin was OK, one day, the law will also say that who one chooses to love will not be an issue, either.
No, I'm not going to go apeshit and say "yes, Obama's in, everything's gonna be great now" because I don't believe that. He's inheriting a country that's in a shambles, and he's got a lot of work to do. He's going to have to fight the whole way, and the Republican pundits are going to point out every little mishap or false start, implying that things are his fault, but not saying anything about that fact that the situation he's trying to clean up was there to begin with. No, he won't make everything great, but I think he stands a MUCH better chance of getting that kind of thing started and running than McCain would have. At the very least, we have the chance for things to be different...and the last thing this country needed was four more years of the same.
Am I happy about it all? You bet your ass. I'm sad to see and hear some of the comments about it from elsewhere, but those are to be expected (though a few have come to me from some fairly unexpected sources, and they do sadden me a little more). It's not in my nature to be hopeful, but I do think it's a good thing, what we did last night...good for everyone, good for the country, not just good for one part of it (though that part may not agree). Now, it's time to roll up our sleeves and try to help get this country back on the rails and runnin', put it back on the road to greatness. I do think it could happen, and, for a change, the majority of the country agrees.