Although there's no telling how the next 4 years will play out, it was still incredibly encouraging to see Obama win (convincingly) tonight. If Obama's victory speech was any indication of how he will lead the country in coming years, I think we are going to start seeing an upswing in the state of our poor country come Jan 20th, 2009... or at the very least a halt to our downward spiral. One thing that stuck out to me was his honest assessment that our country is, to paraphrase, "in the crapper right now" and that it would take a lot of time and hard work to fix it. I was also pleased to hear him say that winning the election was just the beginning and that the true success had yet to be achieved through the actions and decisions of the incoming administration.
Finally, I was also glad to hear him acknowledge the millions of people in other countries who were following the election. I wholeheartedly believe that the view of the United States by the international community has already improved with the election of a progressive candidate. The mere fact that millions of Americans mobilized in unprecedented numbers to emphatically call for change in our government is enough to warrant some positive attention from outsiders. Like it or not, many countries judge our citizens by the actions and words of our most prominent leaders... and unfortunately we have had a bumbling idiot as our spokesman for the past 8 years. In Barack Obama, I see someone who has the potential to earn back some of the respect lost over the past two terms. Honestly, I'd be happy to be able to travel to another country and proudly say "I'm an American" without having to immediately shake the perception that we are a bunch of arrogant, gas-guzzling, war-hungry cowboys!
