Well played, sir.
…many of the international dopers have been watching the elections with interest: and I won’t pretend to be anything but an unashamed Obama fanboy. Obama reminds me a lot of NZ’s most impressive statesman David Lange: a very intelligent and smart politician who commanded a great deal of mana.
and when Obama mentioned people in other countries huddled around their radios listening in to his speech, I was huddled around my little TV set, watching Prime TV’s very poor reception of an absolutely fantastic speech.
America has chosen well: congratulations.
McCain lost a lot of my respect during the campaign but as I was driving home after work I listened to his concession speech. It was a brilliant, moving speech that showed the heart and the soul the man truely had but thanks to his handlers never had a chance to show. Well done McCain: that was classy and he gained back my respect.
Lastly Starving, despite what many say about you, you have always been one of my favourite dopers. It is absolutely no surprise you started this thread, so despite the fact I am still after my beer (!!#@!!) as always you are gracious and cool. Take care man.
Thanks. I suspect that we will be eyeballing him as much as you will.
President Obama, don’t fuck this up.
That’s the side of you I’ve known for a long time. Classy thing to do, old friend.
McCain said just the right things tonight. I expect to see him continue to work across the aisle.
Thank you for your sportsmanship. I hope we can not only change the tone around here, but also in Washington.
Indeed. I hope the McCain we saw tonight is at the core of the Loyal Opposition.
I am a registered independent voter, and until this election had never voted for a major party candidate for President.
The vast majority of my time the past 2 months has been spent reading, watching and listening to the candidates, and eventually I could see that Obama may have motivated enough people to actually have the support to Get Some Things Done™. I heard real ideas coming from him about things that needed to be improved, things that needed to be started, and things that needed to be curtailed. I heard little (or none) of that from his opponent, or from his opponent’s supporters. For that reason, I cast my vote for Obama.
I think there are many like me (and LPN) who feel that the country that was “sold” to us in our childhood was not in fact what we found when we got older. I am hopeful now that I will see a better country than we have had, and the world will see again that America is a shining beacon on a hill, a precious thing to strive for, and a country like no other this world has ever seen.
Congratulations to President-elect Obama, to all his supporters, and to all his opponents who campaigned honorably.
I never have understood what RWs have against Hillary that they don’t have against Barack, who is not five degrees to the right nor to the left of her; but, I hope I may one day; and, all the same, your congratulations are gratefully and affectionately accepted as offered! 
Being over 60, I remember when bipartisanship wasn’t a dirty word. I believe it when Obama says he will listen to those who don’t agree with him. I heartily wish for that United States of America mentioned in his speech tonight. As a unabashed liberal with many conservative friends, I hope we can work together, making sure all voices are heard, getting our economic house in order, and restoring our global credibility.
Thanks, Starving Artist, for starting this thread.
Easy there, BG. The world is celebrating this. Obama, everything that he is, winning at all (let a lone by such a commanding amount), and especially after all the crap we’ve dealt with the past eight years, this is friggin’ astronomical.
For such an awesome moment in American history, I can deal with one somewhat inappropriate GD thread.
(Isn’t this where all the politics ends up getting shipped off to anyway, regardless of content?)
Honestly, I had seriously planned on a serious gloating thread, but McCain’s concession speech was just too much of a class act. He seriously impressed me and honestly I think I can forgive him for running the kind of campaign he did.
Anyway, I don’t know what to think of it. On some level I guess I’m somewhat prepared, but of course I’ve always had that small amount of reservations. So now I have to let that go and see what happens. It’s quite amazing.
I really want to say though that McCain was more gracious than he was required to be tonight, and for that I really respect him. Let’s hope that the future GOP appeals to it’s better demons. I said to myself, “Man, he must be really happy to be able to leave that rabble behind.” I feel like McCain was never happy with his position as rabble rouser in chief, and I hope that is something we can leave behind.
Way to go, Obama. Nice job.
Agreed. Like I mentioned in the other thread on this theme, I hope the McCain we saw tonight remains at the core of the loyal opposition. Rather than pandering to the worst that America has to offer, I hope sincerely that he provides principled opposition that will temper some of the excesses of the new regime.
I agree that McCain’s speech was the most natural, comfortable, human-sounding speech he’s ever made; however, I was mortified by the “boos” that were quite audible whenever Obama was mentioned. That was totally prickish, disrespectable (to both candidates, I feel) and immature. Oh, well…
I have never been happier for or more optimistic about the future of my country!
Forgive me, but I’ll wait til you don’t start another thread in the pit about your being pitted and start actually debating rather than throwing strawmen left and right while ignoring actual responses and reasoned debate to think you have any real idea on sportsmanship.
I mean, as long as Hillary didn’t get elected.
I whooped and hollered and laughed. And then I too cried. I hadn’t expected that. It was seeing the growing crowd in Grant Park and then the celebration in Barack’s paternal grandmother’s village in Kenya. I knew that some of you in England were watching with us and assumed that many were on the continent as well. It would certainly be grand to earn our way back into your good graces.
And in the middle of crying, I thought about “all my lovely babies” – the teenagers that I taught so long ago. It helped me to remember why I went into teaching and why I chose the inner city. I hope those rascals are having fun tonight!
The President of the United States is a public servant. It is his (or her) duty to honor the office by fulfilling the oath that (s)he takes and by acting like a servant, not a king. One of our duties is to keep the servants on task.
I do not expect to show more reverence for the President than he does for the people he serves. Whose government is it anyway?
Ireland too. When it was announced on all stations at 4am I heard cheers come from at least two apartments around me.
I though of opening a Pit thread and really saying what I thought of Bush-supporting Americans on this Board (in the unlikely event I hadn’t made said point clear enough in the past, mild-mannered Social Democrat that I am), but after listening to both men speak – and ignoring the unsightly “boos” scattered throughout the McCain crowd – I’ve decided against it.
Instead I’d like to congratulate Americans for once more taking their rightful place as the most inspiring nation in the world. Truly a night I’ll never forget…tears included.
Welcome back to the World, USA, trust you’ll make it back to being the country I grew-up to love and admire – so much so that I chose it as the nation of birth for my only child. Can’t deny that for almost a decade, I’d lost most of that admiration and felt I’d made the wrong choice.
Yes, I know, tonight was just a New Beginning…but even Hollywood couldn’t have come up with a better script.
Here’s hoping – and thanking you – that you’ll once again rise to your rightful place as the world’s number one Country. Trust me no “Shock and Awe” can beat what you’ve accomplished in this mind-boggling election.
Be proud, very proud of tonight! I know I am even if by proxy…
Well done, America. And thank you all that made it possible.
Peace – if that’s not overly silly. And even if it is…
~Red
To those of you offering your thanks, I thank you as well. Your comments are very much appreciated. (Hi, Bear, that beer is still in the offing.)
And to those of you hoping that Obama will indeed prove to be the president of all the people, I want to say that that is my hope too. He struck me that way during the primary season and I even posted about it several times on this board.
Many conservatives are scornful of Arnold Schwarzenegger because of the way he works with Democrats in California, but he brings people together in a spirit of cooperation and mutual goodwill, and he gets things done. Obama strikes me as someone who may very well govern in the same way. I hope so.
It takes charismatic people to inspire social change, and Obama certainly has that in spades. It would please me very much to see someone in the White House who can bring people together and work to effect postive change that we can all feel good about, and to put a stop to the bickering and hatred that has so long characterized the relationship between the conservative and liberal ideologies here in the U.S.