President Barack Obama.

Obviously everyone knows this by now, and I’m trying not to talk about it in BlackBerry shorthand. I am surprised it went so easily; I had so much of that democratic paranoia after the last two elections. When they called my home state (Pennsylvania) early in the night, I was concerned–were they jinxing it, like with Florida back in 2000? But state after state turned blue, and the large ones that turned red might have made the map look intimidating, but they lacked the electoral votes to make a difference.

John McCain’s concession speech was classy. If he had been that John McCain since summer, he could have been president-elect right now, but he chose to go a dirtier route and pick the Pitbull. McCain is not a bad guy. I have nothing but respect for him, and I am glad that he conceded with couth. His audience hurt my soul a little bit, but McCain knows that what happened will be good for the country, so he’s not going to be a sore loser about it. Thank you.

I’m looking forward to listening to Obama’s speech at midnight, but, to be honest, I will probably be in pajamas by then.

America, we’ve voted for change.

Congratulations!

As I was getting ready for work this morning, the Today show was showing Barack Obama voting at his local polling place. He and Michelle had the girls with them, and it took me back to when my parents took me in the voting booth with them. I was born to vote Democrat, and this is the first year since I turned 18 that I debated not doing so.

I’ve come a long way from that jaded Hillary-loving moderate that toyed with the idea of voting for John McCain out of respect for his service for the country and admiration for his time in Senate. This is the first race in which I had to become a truly educated voter (because seriously, I would have voted against Bush even if I’d had a lobotomy in ’04). The more I learned about McCain, the more I realized that I could respectfully deny that he represented my beliefs.

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