By 4am I couldn't sleep. I'd already been up twice during the night to check the results on BBC News, and at 3:30am I was lying in bed willing myself to sleep but at the same time imagining the results map, thinking of the voting stories that had been posted up on the Daily Dish, wondering which way Florida went - and all this for an election in a country thousands of miles away that I have no particular vested interest in. You think I'd be like this for a UK election? In 1997, perhaps, but that was utterly squandered by Blair after his disastrous friendship with Bush, and now this whole country seems to be slowly drowning in dead-eyed cynicism and selfishness. America could be forgiven for being in a similar state after the last 8 years of the Bush administration, and a McCain win would've been proof of this, but instead they've chosen hope, positivity, potential. After so long feeling nothing but despair about American politics and the direction the country has been dragged in, this is downright dizzying, in the nicest possible way. No-one should expect miracles from the man - and there's still plenty of destructive mischief that the current incumbent can make in the next few weeks - but as a figurehead for the one global superpower Obama presents a very different, uniting and inclusive face to the world. How rare to have some glimmer of hope in global politics again. These are going to be interesting times, but in the best of ways.
Here, remember this post, four years ago? I should start making more requests of nations...
Anyway, I've been watching Obama's victory speech - and it was a blinder, well worth watching by everyone - and it's not long now until 6am and I can start the day normally (I just heard the central heating start gurgling into life). We're still awaiting the results of Prop 8 in California, which could yet cast a cloud - the thought of supposedly progressive California actually voting yes to such a vile, discriminatory proposition seems boggling. The toasting begins with a cup of tea in 10 minutes, but will no doubt hit the harder stuff later on, and I wish I could give every Obama voter a kiss, a hug, a hearty handshake. You really can't overestimate what this means for so many of us non-Americans, who have no vote yet ultimately live with the consequences. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
And now, courtesy of the mighty Funky16Corners, with the supremely appropriate Funky President, ladies and gennelmen, MR JAMES BROWN!
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