Politics

It's strange how a topic that I usually find repellent and terrifying--politics, not arachnids--has sucked me in so much over the past weeks culminating in the last few days of fevered attention. Considering the record voter turnout, I imagine I am not alone in this.

CNN and BBC were clearly good websites to hang out on, in the absence of TV...in fact I think they were better than TV, though I wish I'd seen the speeches, both McCain's and Obama's. BBC radio at least obliged me with most of Obama's victory speech this morning.

BBC's website was nice in that it gave running updates, both from BBC reporters and analysts leavened by some comments from the general public. I never did figure out how they selected those comments--I've had gripes with BBCs forums in the past--but it did add a certain flavor to things as sentiment shifted through the night.

*warning* My political views become glaringly obvious beyond this point, so if you don't want to know, read no further.

CNN on the other hand was thick with tools and statistics, and was far more wary of announcing results such that I felt more confidence in them once they were announced. It was interesting to play with their electoral votes calculator, running scenarios if this state or that voted this way or that. I could also feed in the predictions from the BBC site and see how things were progressing. So it was that as soon as BBC announced Ohio had gone Blue, a quick run through the calculator adding California, Oregon, Washington and Hawaii to the Blue section showed 271 votes. I hadn't dared believe till that moment. It was at least another hour till even more quick jumping BBC said that Obama had to have it.

CNN also let me customize things to easily follow a large number of other races. The Propositions most caught my interest. It was sad to see so many states--including California--choose to specifically ban homosexuals from marriage. I hear the gay pride flag in the Castro flies at half mast today. It was a tight thing, and there is some hope that the state supreme court may overturn it. Homosexuals are often portrayed as and scorned for being promiscuous. And yet they are not to be permitted, let alone encouraged, to engage in a committed lifelong relationship to one other person?

I found myself digging into the data CNN put at my fingertips: break downs on votes by gender and age, by county lines. Strange to see counties side by side voting so radically opposite. My own county back in Georgia was no longer an island of Blue and nor was it faintly Blue like in 2004. Of the less than 1000 registered voters, 643 voted for Obama! And that is in the rural South! Of course Georgia as a whole went Red, but only by a 5% margin. And it was amazing to see how many states that were Red last time turned Blue this time.

I still think the electoral votes system is strange and ungainly. I mean, Obama clearly won the popular as well as the electoral vote. But actually not by as big a margin. At present, with two states still too close to call for sure (there's only about 6000 votes difference between McCain and Obama in Missouri right now) the electoral votes stand at 349 to 163, a huge difference. And yet the popular vote gives it as 53% to 46%, significant, but not landslide. An odd system.

Anyway, I am actually proud of my country today. The huge voter turnout, the classy speeches from both McCain and Obama this morning (ok, I've only seen quotes from McCain's. There are *some* disadvantages to not having video coverage). Today, I actually feel like there is hope to make a difference, to change things for the better.

It has been very strange going through all this abroad. There are fireworks going off in the background as I write. They are not the impromptu fireworks of celebration like in San Fransisco and elsewhere today in the US. They are, rather, long-planned celebrations of bonfire night. Remember, remember the fifth of November... Well, I have to say that in the after effects of the 4th of November this year, I completely forgot about the 5th.