Tuesday, November 4, 2008

Here We Go...

Well, the election has started, folks.

The first two cities to hold elections,  Dixville Notch and Hart's Location, went for Obama, but the voting only just started. I'm still in Korea, which means for us, it's 12:13 AM as I type this, Wednesday morning. It's just past 10 AM, Tuesday morning, in Toronto, or New York, or Florida. 

Which means polls have opened, or are opening, and the first votes are being cast. I read one blog mentioning how this election feels for some like an exorcism. Particularly, an exorcism of a "regime," that of Bush-Cheney. The blogger, Gavin Hewett of the BBC, mentions that word as if it suggests illegitimacy.

Perhaps that's true, but I cannot recall so many elections in the past that have been or, at least, seemed, so important. Yes, I know, I myself once wrote with concern about Obama. I worried then, and I worry now, that he might turn out to be a Democrat in the manner of JFK, or Clinton, who, while popular, and given a kind of glowing review by liberals, often acted in ways that were similar to Republicans. Kennedy's examples include the Vietnam War, the Bay of Pigs invasion and the handling of the Cuban Missile Crisis, while Clinton can be thanked for the bombing of Kosovo and other issues. Let's not forget that it was Clinton who deregulated everything in the markets, leading to our current crisis after so much growth: Bush just wanted to do more deregulating.

So, I'm still worried. However, I cannot honestly recall a more exciting campaign, or one in which I felt genuinely hopeful of the outcome. It feels, unlike 2004, or 1996, like it did in 2000, but for the opposite reasons. Then, I think, a lot of us were just worried about a Bush Presidency. Now, eight years later, we know the cost of such poor decision-making. We have, as Hewett puts it, a chance to set things right.

Or, more accurately, the American people do. 

We'll see.

Chris

2 comments:

Kar said...

did you send in your absentee ballot?

Chris Taylor said...

For the Canadian election, yes. I'm not a US citizen, but a number of people in my family live there.