An Election to Remember

November 4th has come and gone. One for the history books. After an evening of sneaking peeks at election returns on my iPhone during a middle school band concert, I arrived home just as Obama was being declared the winner. After the last two contentious presidential elections, it felt odd to have everything settled before bedtime.

I do think it's unfortunate that John McCain's best speech of this campaign was probably his concession. It was as well written and as naturally delivered as any I've seen him make. I wish we'd seen more of that McCain, closer to the one in the '04 primaries, this time around. But once he was the nominee of the GOP, he couldn't be himself. And he and his party couldn't escape a failed presidency with 25% approval ratings. To quote Chris Rock, "Bush has made it hard for a white man to run for president. People are saying, 'After Bush, I'm not sure we can take another chance on a white guy.' "

I'm optimistic for the new administration. But I wasn't expecting all the immediate attention on the obviously historic aspects of electing the first African-American president. For me, Barak Obama did such a good job transcending race, I'd actually stopped thinking about it. Obviously, so did a majority of voters. But it certainly seems appropriate to stop and acknowledge what an amazing accomplishment it is. Then on to the real work. After 21 months of campaigning, the actual job he's been fighting for still doesn't start until January 20.