Barack Hussein Obama was elected the 44th president of the United States on Tuesday, sweeping away the last racial barrier in American politics with ease as the country chose him as its first black chief executive.
Mr. Obama’s election amounted to a national catharsis — a repudiation of a historically unpopular Republican president and his economic and foreign policies, and an embrace of Mr. Obama’s call for a change in the direction and the tone of the country. But it was just as much a strikingly symbolic moment in the evolution of the nation’s fraught racial history, a breakthrough that would have seemed unthinkable just two years ago.
via the New York Times
As I started to type up this great news here, I was watching McCain’s concession speech. A couple of things about the speech caught my attention…
- McCain still comes across as a really creepy guy. Seriously, is he human or an alien wearing a human-suit?
- While physically a creepy guy, McCain’s words tonight (mostly) seemed reasonable and intelligent. If he’d gone with a campaign based more on that rather than the campaign of fear, he might have had a chance at winning.
- Lastly, I swear he must of have been paraphrasing Galaxy Quest in one spot. He said something like “… never quits, never surrender…” while in Galaxy Quest they said “Never give up. Never surrender.”
Just started watching President Obama’s acceptance speech. Biggest difference so far, when Obama mentions McCain there are cheers (faint, but they are there). When McCain mentioned Obama, there was booing.
Don’t know if you’ve seen it, but here’s a video of both candidates recently at a friendly roast. McCain is actually very funny, and it’s obvious he has a sense of humor and irony (which makes his bitter ham-handed attack ads all that much more disappointing and pernicious).
http://scienceblogs.com/dispatches/2008/10/candidate_comedy.php
Yup, I saw those back around when they were first put out. Good stuff.