I'm first going to say, I think this is great. Obama appears to be the most promising president I have ever known. I'm very glad that he will be next in charge. The tyrannical rein of George Jr. will come to an end, and I am full of hope and reasonable amount of expectation that the next 4 years at least will be a big improvement for our country.

Now I have to rant a little. I talked to a few people today. Naturally the conversation ran to Obama. Everybody was all excited. I mean really excited. Kind of scary excited.

First: Lots of black people are excited because he's black. I'm sorry but racism goes both ways. Liking a person because of their skin color, is just as prejudicial as not liking them.

Second: Lots of people are crazy happy because the better man was elected. I'm sorry but I'm merely comfortable with our selecting the best man. That's what's supposed to happen. It's like cheering somebody who drove a car a cross town for the 44th time. Hey That's great! You didn't drive into a building by mistake!

My enthusiasm is largely tempered by the fact that the popular vote only had him six points ahead. That's barley a lead. Certainly nothing to be proud of. It means nearly half of us still voted for more of the same policies we had for the last 8 years. Scary.

Third: In the Senate, Democrats needed to bash the Republicans down to 40 or fewer seats. They didn't. That means that any legislation the the Republicans don't want to see through, still won't. They can still filibuster anything they don't like. That will limit what can be done.

So Instead of being excited, just remember, all we did is barley pass with a C. We didn't come close to getting an A+, or anything really great.

Congratulations world! The United States of America have selected your new leader. You should all be proud.

His name is Barack Hussein Obama II. Born August 4th 1961 in Hawaii, to father Barack Hussein Obama, Sr. of Kenya, and mother Ann Dunham of America. He lived with his mother in Indonesia until he was 10, then was raised by his mother's parents in Hawaii.

After High school he moved on to Occidental College in Los Angles, California. After two Years he transferred to Columbia University in New York City. There he majored in Political Sciences, and specialized in International Relations. He graduated from Columbia in 1982. In 1988 he started in Harvard Law School, becoming an editor and later the first black President of the Harvard Law Review. He graduated with a Juris Doctor (J.D.) magna cum laude in 1991.

In 1992 he started teaching Constitutional Law at the University of Chicago. In 1995 he published a memoir Dreams from My Father. In 1997 he became a State Legislator. In 2005 a Senator. Now in 2009 he will become the first black President of the United States.

After 8 agonizingly long years, we have a leader who doesn't go with his gut. Congratulations to us for not being our usual superficially stupid selves.

This is sad. One of those things where, in the movies, she would have held on until it was announced that he had won the election. Then she would just slip quietly away while everybody around her was cheering at the television. But not in the real world. She dies the day before the election. Never knowing if he makes it or not.

Of course the cynic in me now won't be surprised if get some additional sympathy votes. That makes me pretty cynical doesn't it.

I always had a issue with voting. I did it, but mainly because my parents pressured me into it. I questioned why I should bother, since mathematically there is no possible way it would mater. The best logic I came up with was that if everyone saw how pointless it was, nobody would vote. So to stave off the infinitesimal chance of world threatening disaster, I voted.

Now I vote, because I actually kind of like it. Not sure why.

When a voting machine company blames software they shouldn't need for a problem they are having... Well I can't understand why, after 8 years since the first problems with these machines, they are still being used. They are crappy, poorly designed, and secretive. They give no tangible indication of a properly recorded vote. How did they get approved for use in the first place?

Update: Honsetly though.. The big mechanical curtain machines we still use, also don't give feedback to the user that their vote was counted properly. The difference is they are not secret boxes that nobody is allowed to look at. So even if we can't be sure our vote was counted correctly, we do know it's not counted secretly.