Wild night yesterday, right? You start saying to yourself President-Elect over and over, you watch the interviews, you look at that big blue map... butit's late at night. You're a little tired. It seems like a crazy dream. But slowly, slowly it makes sense to you. A moment comes that smacks you upside the head with how huge this is.
Here's what made it "real" for me.
Do you remember Rick Warren's Saddleback forum in CA? Certain people here were apoplectic because Obama spoke at length and in depth, and we all knew complicated didn't win. Defeat Evil was what wins elections. We all knew that, it was basic, and it was a non-negotiable fact of American voter psychology, period.
But. The guy who said this got the most votes:
But what it also means, I think, is a sense of obligation to embrace not just words, but through deeds, the expectations, I think, that god has for us. And that means thinking about the least of these. It means acting — well, acting justly, and loving mercy, and walking humbly with our god. And that — I think trying to apply those lessons on a daily basis, knowing that you’re going to fall a little bit short each day, and then being able to kind of take note and saying, well, that didn’t quite work out the way I think it should have, but maybe I can get a little bit better. It gives me the confidence to try things, including things like running for president, where you’re going to screw up once in a while.
and the guy who said this lost:
: Offshore drilling, we’ve got to drill now and got to drill here and we’ve got to be (DROWNED OUT BY WINGER APPLAUSE)
The guy who said this:
Now, the one thing that I think is very important is for to us have some humility in how we approach the issue of confronting evil, because a lot of evil’s been perpetrated based on the claim that we were trying to confront evil.
scored a LANDSLIDE victory over the guy who said this:
Defeat it!
The guy who said this:
You know, I remember what my mother used to tell me. I was talking to somebody a while back and I said the one time that she would get really angry with me is if she ever thought that I was being mean to somebody, or unfair to somebody. She said, imagine standing in their shoes. Imagine looking through their eyes. That basic idea of empathy, and that, I think, is what’s made America special is that notion, that everybody has got a shot. If we see somebody down and out, if we see a kid who can’t afford college, that we care for them, too.
scored a landslide victory over the guy who said this:
So, I think if you are just talking about income, how about $5 million?
The guy who said:
You know, when you meet the troops, they’re 19, 20, 21-year-old kids, and you’re putting them into harm’s way. There is a solemn obligation that you do everything you can to get that decision right. And now, as the war went forward, there are difficult decisions about how long do you keep on funding the war, if you strongly believe that it’s not in America’s national interest. At the same time, you don’t want to have troops who are out there without the equipment they need.
So all those questions surrounding the war have been very difficult for me.
Mopped. The Floor. with this guy:
I’d probably have to say that one of the times that probably was one of the most trying was, when I was first a member of Congress, and I’m a new freshman in the House of Representatives and very loyal and dedicated to President Reagan, whom I still think is one of the great, great presidents in American history — (APPLAUSE) —
Ignore the policy for a minute and think about what we got here. I thought about that forum... and I've decided that Obama's election violates everything we've ever thought we knew about the American electorate. The nuanced, rational guy isn't supposed to win these elections, man. He's not supposed to win Ohio. Or Florida. Or Indiana. But it happened. Change ain't no slogan, man. It's here. It's now.