Wednesday, November 05, 2008

"I'm Ralph Wiggum, and I've been a good boy."

Good morning, Comrades!

I have a few thoughts about the election.

First, I am very happy with the results. I believe that Barack Obama will be a great president and that he will work to inspire Americans to become better and work harder so that we can once again become a beacon of hope to the rest of the world.

Second, John McCain was a real class act. His concession speech was well-written, centrist, inspiring, and sincere. He even quieted the boos and catcalls against his opponents. If he had given more speeches like that during the campaign, he might have won. Also, I think it's funny that while Obama had a huge outdoor public gathering that anyone could attend, McCain, in true Republican fashion, had a small gathering of invite-only guests at a fancy hotel.

Third, KSL is the second-worst news station in Utah. Not only did their break-aways add nothing to the coverage being provided, they also spent a half-hour interviewing nobodies and wasting time with meaningless reporter mumbo-jumbo while NBC national was calling the election for Obama. It took 10 minutes before we even heard which state pushed him over the top. I would have liked to have watched another station, but since I live in a dank cave, KSL is the only station I can get with a clear signal. Hey, KSL, if you're Utah's number one news source, then maybe you can afford some producers that have a clue!

Fourth, I was disappointed with the coverage provided by all the news outlets (that I could see) after they called the election. Once they called Virginia for Obama, they stopped reporting on the election and went straight into "perspective" mode, analyzing how "historic" and "ground-breaking" this election was. The election wasn't over! As of the time I'm posting this entry, it's still not over! Missouri and North Carolina are still reporting. Plus, I think it's fair to say that history will be the judge of what is historical.

Fifth, I have mixed feelings over whether or not this is a victory for African-Americans. Obama is only half black ("Tina, it's not half-black history month.") and in either event, his race didn't affect my vote at all. On the other hand, it does show that racism is dying in our country - especially since it appears that the polls were correct in showing him in the lead. My only worry is that people might attribute his victory to "white guilt" or some other phenomenon that forced people to vote for a black person over any other candidate. I believe that Obama's appeal came not from his race, but from his personality and party affiliation (Thanks to W., it's a tough time to be Republican). As far as I am concerned, Obama won it on his credentials as a politician and a person, despite anything Justice Thomas says or does to the contrary.

Sixth, I thought that Obama's acceptance speech was great. It ran about two minutes too long, but otherwise it was very well done. It was inspiring, energizing, reassuring, and showed us what Obama can really do. I'm looking forward to the next eight years. (That's right, EIGHT!)

Finally, I hope that SNL gets someone else to play Obama. There's a lot of comedy to be had there, and it's going untapped with Fred Armisen doing the character.

1 comment:

Kirsten said...

If people didn't vote for him because he's black, then why did NPR spend three days only talking about how he is black? (And for the record, he's half white! He represents everyone but the Asians and Hispanics!) Oh, and them seemed to talk a lot about how people voted for him because he's black, because they're black too. I'm with Stephen Colbert: I'm color blind.