One more day

Leapin' for Obama
Originally uploaded by Delta Niner

So the longest, most expensive and quite frankly most bizarre election in US history is finally drawing to an end. People are pulling stats the way that they used to pull entrails from chickens - 'proving' everything from the 'fact' that rain favors the Republicans to the more obvious 'the old white guy always wins'

Looking back we had the strangest line up of Republicans standing. Crazy old guys, cross dressing mayors, actors and 3 that didn't think that evolution really held. The Mormon was supposed to win, holding out until all of the others imploded. It was an okay plan - but he proved just too hateful and lost his nerve before he lost all of his money. Probably wise... expecting people to come around to you as the least mad of a bonkers bunch is a good plan only if you're not too detestable to ever contemplate.

In the end it went to the guy least like George Bush. McCain came back from the dead and Zombie like stumbled into a campaign against Obama that mirrored the failed campaign of Hillary Clinton.

The he picked Sarah Pallin. A woman with no record (and therefore no real ties to Bush) and with a vagina. Turns out she WAS a vagina (or something similar, I'll not use the word here, though I don't know why)

Cynical yes. Brilliant - well no. Her numbers broke faster than her water and much of the campaign was spent trying to hide her from the media while exposing her to the far right wing that McCain needed.

Obama ran a quieter campaign. He was measured. He never raised his voice. He looked calm. He gave one great speech that took race off the table in terms of campaigning and then went about looking as Emperor like as possible... from the Caesar tilt of the head to the ramrod straight stance... it was all about looking and sounding like a statesman.

So who'll win? The press has it as an Obama landslide. The Obama people are worried that this will mean a lower turn out amongst their voters... people assuming victory and thus heading to the grovery store rather than the polling booth.

McCain thinks that the polls are wrong - and he has the advantage of recent legislation on his side. Many poor mexican and black voters will be turned away from the electronic booths owned and run by Republican Party contributers. But it will need to be close to be stolen.

Either way it doesn't matter too much to the individual. The economy is in the toilet. The stock market has gone mad. It's too late to save the auto industry. We're mired in two wars. The Patriot Act is still in force. Katrina victims have spent too long visiting the dead and returning to their prefab homes. The US is still the country with the one site the publically flaunts the Geneva convention and several more secret black camps where the worst torture happens. There are still more people who hate the US today than there were a decade ago. The deficit is still at record levels. And cynicism is still at an all time high.

What Obama offers is hope. Perhaps we can change things after all. Change the way the world views us - and the way we view the world. Hope that a different path can lead to a different result. Hope that this could be a pivotal point. As I heard recently "The country doesn't need another Clinton, it needs another Lincoln"

Obama may not be up to that. But there's a chance. And that's what we need. Let's see if tomorrow brings it.