I'm getting nervous…

…NPR is already calling states for Obama.
I look and see that 14% is in, 17% is in—I know that the poll people think they have it wrapped up but I keep thinking that there is still 83% to count and I don't feel comfortable.
They're saying Pennsylvania is going to Obama—looks like the "bitterness that leads them to guns and religion" hasn't blinded them to where their best interests lie.

I think Obama will be the better President (he's certainly the one with the best chance of surviving his first four years) but McCain really deserves to lose. The wretched campaign he and the wolf-killer VP candidate have been running with the smears and exaggerations and lies only exhibited the bankruptcy of their candidacy.

8:38 PM

81 electoral votes to 34 according to CNN, for Obama.
MSNBC has 103 to 58.
NPR is holding with 103 to 34.

8:45
Younger voters in Ohio going 64% to obama. Young voters heavy for Obama all across the nation.
Way to go you whippersnappers!
I know what my kids are voting, God bless'em. Chips off the old block. I'm so proud.

9:15
Obama isn't Mr. Pure. Witness his going back on his promise to use public funding, for example. He is a savvy politician. And ambitious. But McCain has turned into the real political whore. I'm sorry for him. What did it cost him to change the way he did? Or was it the real John McCain who came out for this contest?

It's too bad that it seems to have taken a major political crisis to bring so many people into the Obama camp. The difference between him and McCain are so clear, and so positive on Obama's side. Can't people tell a mendacious politician unless their wallets hurt?

So far CNN, MSNBC and NPR have Obama around 175 electoral votes. McCain at 49–76 depending on who you look at. What I'm interested in tho, is that the "popular" vote is only around 100,000 in favor of the big O.

I'm glad my guy is ahead, but i really wonder if this electoral college thing doesn't need some revision? Like maybe having electors for precincts or representational districts or something like that, and especially getting rid of the winner takes all thing most states have.

10:15
I'm getting more hopeful. My natural Slovak pessimism is starting to dissipate.
Ohio, my home state, has apparently gone for Obama. In Virginia, he's about 1400 votes ahead. Talk about a squeaker. He can still lose there.

This means a lot to me.
Back in 1964, I was a member of the Congress of Racial Equality in Cleveland. My freshman year in college. I went to meetings in the ghetto and wondered why there were so few white people there. I heard my friends asking what "those people" thought they were doing. I remember getting yelled at while marching around some public building in downtown Cleveland. Cleveland was very racist at that time, may still be for all I know, but I hope not.
All through the sixties I argued for equal rights, and was dismayed at every assassination and death among those who died in that struggle. This night is for them.

Viola Liuzzo, this night is for you.
Goodman, Schwerner and Cheney, this night is for you.
Medgar Evers, this night is for you.
Malcolm X, this night is for you.
Martin Luther King, gentle giant of a man, this night is for you.
And for all those who died or were beaten and jailed for fighting for their dignity, this night is for you.

As of now, 10:21, 207 to 129 for Obama on NPR and CNN.

More encouraging news:
The misbegotten bid to get rid of the income tax here in Massachusetts went down to defeat.
South Dakota defeated an anti-abortion bill, Colorado defeated a resolution to make law the idea that human life begins at conception.

I'm still waiting to hear about the vote for de-criminalizing marijuana possession is going in Massachusetts.


12:30 AM Nov. 5, 2008

OKAY!
Obama is declared the winner, McCain has made his concession speech. McCain was gracious and intelligent and respectful and courageous, all the things he was NOT in the last month or so leading up to tonight. Well, better late than never. He did good.

Obama, well, his acceptance of the election wasn't up there with the Gettysburg Address, but what is? It was still a damn good speech. I am so psyched. After my experiences in the 60's I could not have imagined this night.

I just pray some wingnut doesn't try to negate this election in a violent way. When one has seen Malcolm X and JFK and Bobby Kennedy ripped out from the fabric of one's hopes and dreams, 0ne develops a level of paranoia.

Anyway I believe that this country has a chance to be a real beacon of light to the rest of the world again. I go to sleep happy.

Oh, and the bill to decriminalize marijuana in Massachusetts passed. Sanity reigns tonight.

12:43
My son called from NYC. He's walking down 1st ave. A thousand people in the street, all smiling.
What a great day!