Oh, this is what winning feels like...

In the wake of the elections in 2000 and 2004, I had almost forgotten that sometimes you wake up the day after election day and feel GOOD about what happened the night before.  I'll return to something like substance soon, but for right now what I really want to say is so simple.

Yes, we did!

Rachel Maddow gets it.

I live in a state now that votes entirely by mail.  To me, that's the most democratic way to conduct elections, since it allows me to vote at will, after careful consideration.  I can research.  I can consider for up to two weeks who deserves my vote.  Once I have done so, and the ballot is complete, I can mail it on my own stamps, or I can take it to an official drop box here in town.  They look like white mailboxes, and there's a fair number of them around.  I never need to worry about taking time off to go vote.

When I did need to go to place to physically vote--when I lived in Kansas--my voting precinct never had more than a 10 minute wait.  I can't imagine being an hourly employee and arriving at my polling place to a 6 or more hour wait on election day.  Had I ever confronted that on my way to work, I wouldn't have been able to stay and vote.  That such things happen in my country is outrageous to me, and that they happen disproportionately in poor districts amounts to the kind of covert racism that has no place in a 21st century democracy.

I can only hope that the new administration and the 111th Congress make lasting and thoughtful election reform an act of the first 100 days.

Early Voting...

Man, these Google voting videos have been amazing.

Here's the most recent one:

You know you gotta register, right?

You can find the information you need about getting registered here.

A friend of a friend recorded this....

Too funny. :)

Electioneering

Some good news about the election numbers at FiveThirtyEight.

Notable quote from the article:
Democrats have no reason to be complacent. Although the situation looks dramatically better for them than it did two weeks ago, so too have the stakes of the election increased. The next president will face perhaps the most challenging set of circumstances of any since Franklin Roosevelt, and could potentially have nearly as much impact on the future direction of the country. Obama could very easily lose, and even if he wins, odds are that there will be at least one more swing back toward McCain in the intervening 37 days.

I believe James Carville said it best, though. "When your opponent is drowning, throw the son of a bitch an anvil."

The last eight years have taught me not to hope. But I'm sort of feeling like maybe we're looking at a pivotal point in American history. It's not a time for complacency, not with so much on the line...