baby girl at polling station
My daughter voted for the first time yesterday.
Our candidate lost, quite dramatically, here in Deseret, but won, quite dramatically, the popular vote, electoral vote, and the election.
Voting took all of fifteen minutes. After we voted, we went for coffee.
I settled in for a night of watching the election. She went out with friends.
I was very nervous how the election would go. For the first couple hours I could only bear to keep track online, via live bloggers and twitter feed. Nate Silver's tweet, "The writing. On the wall"- a personal favorite. I surfed between real politics, guardian news, the economist, fox, huffingpost, and the daily beast. I texted with friends from both parties throughout the night. When the states started lining up for Obama, texts from my friends hoping for a Romney win, went silent. I felt sad for them.
When real election results from states started to come in, I turned on the television and channel surfed PBS, Fox, NBC, CBS, ABC. Karl Rove's absolute denial, and subsequent implosion was a moment. So was Jon Stewart's assessment of getting absolutely nothing for the money, as in [390] million dollars resulting in 0-6 loss. Colbert asking Andrew Sullivan if Rove would now have to go into the witness protection program was much needed comic relief.
During the long process, I fully embraced stress eating: I ate an entire bag of Parmesan pepper popcorn, two handfuls of pistachios, three mini Halloween candy bars. I drank a liter of pomegranate Italian soda, two cups of coffee, and probably a gallon of water. I am so hitting the gym tonight!
Romney's concession speech was gracious. And generous. And heartbreaking. He voiced his concern for the country. His final words brought closure. He said he and Ann would pray for the President.
Obama's speech was somber. And sobering. And inspiring. He admitted the sometime smallness of the campaign, and his role in it. He vowed to do and be better. The President/President Elect circled back to his promise of 2008 of one people, one nation.
It sounded to me that Obama hinted at a possible future role for Romney. That would be remarkable.
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