I think everyone by now must have an election hangover. My Korean sister, Hyun Jeong, asked me if I was happy about the election, through Twitter. (That's the best way to talk with her because it's immediate through our cell phones. I love it.) She told me that her fiance voted for Obama and then she asked me, "What about you? you like McCain?" I'm wondering... does she assume I voted for McCain? And why would she assume that? Is it because I live in SWMO? Surely she doesn't know the political make-up of Missouri, but her fiance, Glenn, may have told her something about the Midwest.Anyway, I don't know how I will respond to her just yet, but I do have some thoughts/questions...and am wondering what other people think.
1. How did Missouri lose its bellwether status? Bummer, I kind of liked saying that MO was always right. Missourians voted for McCain, though it was pretty close betweeen Obama. However, the interesting thing is that many McCain supporters opted to choose Democrat Jay Nixon.
courtesy LA Times2. Is the world setting up Obama for failure? It's like the new South Park episode (Jim makes me watch.) I mean, is it possible for Obama to accomplish all that he says? He's still one man. When I was in STL for election night, everyone was cheering in the streets and honking their horns for hours. It was really kind of neat, but at the same time, I was thinking, "Are they going to be dissapointed later?" When you put someone on a pedestal, they are bound to fall off, right? Hmmm...
3. Will any of this actually change my life? I mean, I am in the middle class. We just bought a home, and we make too much money to get any grants (why?!) but at the same time, we watch our money. We're not at the top of the food chain or anything... We are on a tight budget like many Americans, and I still plan on keeping my job at the library because 1) I really love it, and 2) it helps pay the bills. Just because we elected a new president and a new governor doesn't mean that I'm going to start taking baths in Evian water.
4. I feel sorry for my friend, Dave Catanese. What is he going to do with himself now?
4 comments:
Just to be clear - You DID NOT vote for McCain, did you? Because if you did, we can no longer be friends. :)
Michelle, I did actually hear a statistic, not really sure where now, that McCain had a large Korean (and Asian) backing. Perhaps that is why your sister asked if you had voted for McCain.
Max...
hmmm... very interesting. I guess I didn't read enough news about his appeal to Asians. Last time I went to Korea there seemed to be a lot of anti-American sentiment in Seoul, so I would think more people would be apt to support Dems. Who knows.
As far as people honking their horns for hours in STL, I'm totally not surprised because Obama had a ton of support there when I lived there this past school year. There were some Hillary supporters in the primaries, but everybody really was gun-ho for Obama.
I think people probably realize that he's only one man and can't quickly bring back change. I think, though, that people have been so depressed and down in the dumps with Bush and his administration that they wanted something and someone who was totally opposite. His win on Tuesday night gave a depressed people a sense that maybe it's possible to get out of war, decrease the deficit, and just get up out of the dumps that we've listened to for several years on the news.
Obama does preach hope and asked everyone at the rally in Springfield to try to remove that pessimism that they have developed of our nation and economy. I really think he believes that we can come together as a nation and get a lot of people back on track.
At this point, his heart still seems to be in the right place. He was elected president on Tuesday and has already developed committees. And for Pete's sake, his grandma (who raised him) died on Monday. I think we all would've understood if he took a day or two off to grieve, but it doesn't seem like he has. To me, that just speaks to the dedication he has to his cause.
It's probably a little obvious that I'm an Obama supporter, but I have to really hand it to McCain for his concession speech. I think that healed some of the McCain supporters who were crushed and maybe will get them to think that it is time to come together. I think had McCain showed the same humility and respect during his campaign as he did during his concession speech, he might've picked up a few more votes.
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