I have been blaming the Republicans for everything the past few months, so now it is only fair that I express eternal gratitude to them for helping us to elect Barack Obama. Their message of fear, insinuations that you were less of an American for not supporting the war, that if you lived in a blue state you did not live in "real" America and the outrageous insult that being intelligent and competent made you somehow elitist was a crock that American thankfully wasn't buying. And last, but not least of the Republican contributions to a Democratic victory, was that gift that I said from the beginning would keep on giving - Sarah Palin- ya' betcha, blink, blink! And of course the continuing soap opera "As the Stock Market Plunges" certainly added that certain something. But I hope the reason for his resounding victory is that America really wanted to be changed. A friend from France emailed me to day to wish our new president well and to share the excitement the French also feel. Already I feel our stock is rising abroad and that as Sarah Silverman said - we will no longer be in the running for the assholes of the world award. Last night we watched the returns with close friends in Rochester. By 7:30 I was such a nervous wreck that I opened my laptop and retreated to my yahoo election map where I could obsessively track each state's vote count. By 9:00 I knew he would need only 20 electoral college votes to win and it dawned on me that this was really happening. He was going to win. When CNN called the election it was almost as if we couldn't believe it. And to have the house and senate with him. It's a brand new day. But it's filled with responsibility. To those of you who didn't vote for Barack, my wish and hope is that you will benefit from his presidency and that while we may disagree on issues, we will all agree that we are all good Americans no matter what party we belong to, that no part of America is more American than any other and that smart is good and to be commended. My party did not win last night. America did. Because I believe this election was the saving of America. I really do. Go Obama. May you fulfill your promise in the days ahead.
