Ones and Zeros

My wife and I, like other Texas residents, had Bush as a leader for four years in Texas then for eight more as President. After those long twelve years we were more than ready to see him go. But more than that, we are overjoyed to see Obama take the office. This is the first politician who’s speeches I actually believe.

So, despite the cold weather and the anticipated crowds, we went to the inauguration. I attempted to post twitter and flickr updates to friends and family but as soon as we got to the National Mall that failed. Just too many people were using their cell phones in too small an area.

What follows are the time-stamped twitter posts that got through interspersed with my later and more complete comments. I’ve fixed typos and grammar problems in those posts that came from typing with my thumbs. Note this is rather longer than my usual posts.

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Unless you’ve just come out of a two-year case of amnesia you know. The world knows. America has repudiated the last eight years and elected Obama through a massive turnout and decisive electoral victory. In a gracious and conciliatory speech, Senator John McCain conceded last night. While he acted with dignity his crowd did not and booed Obama’s name before he stopped them.

President-Elect Obama gave his acceptance speech in Chicago at Grant Park last night after accepting calls from both Sen. McCain and President Bush. The President told the President-Elect, “What an awesome night for you”.

After eight years of the Bush administration, and years before of having a Governor Bush, my wife and I feel light. A weight has been lifted off of all of our shoulders. We all have regained the country of our ideals and are once again moving toward higher principles instead of away from our fears. We again have the American of our dreams and not of our nightmares.

As President-Elect Obama (I love typing that phrase) made most clear. This is not the end but the start of the work. We have two wars, an economy close to meltdown, and major environmental issues. None of this can or will be solved quickly. It’s taken us many years to create these problems and will take many to solve them. Those are posts for another day.

We now have the possibility of solving those problems. So today I am happy.

I’m for Obama. That’s probably obvious. After two years of campaigns, speeches, ads, mud, and fact checking I’m pretty sure anyone capable of making a decision has made one by now.

For the one or two people who haven’t, here’s a summary of my reasons for voting for Obama. First the reasons against McCain.

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I was tired last night so I confess I wasn’t paying much attention to the words that either McCain or Obama were saying. But, when I did pay attention those words were quite familiar. So I gather they were treading familiar ground. As this campaign’s been going on in one form or another for two years now I have a hard time understanding why there are still undecided voters.

What I did notice was McCain’s Turette’s Syndrome grimaces and blinks and weird smiles. It was like he wanted to blow his stack but was barely restraining himself. Or perhaps it was that he knew he was lying and the cognitive dissonance was showing through on his face. He’s smart enough to realized what he’s traded from his reputation for this shot at the Oval Office.

The staffers that told him to make sure he smiled probably regret that now. McCain’s “smile” was as unnatural as boots on a frog. It would have been better if he’d let his face be more honest even if that meant a scowl.