Congratulations to the new president of the United States!
Richard P Grant
Scientist, poet, gadfly
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Wooohooo!!!!
Now to start catching up on all the work that I should have been doing instead of following the election results.
You and me both…
McCain is giving his concessionary speech. Good on him.
I’m a very happy little vegimite.
I think i’ll even shed a tear.
Our office is stoked. Especially the guy from Ohio.
I was the happy bearer of glad tidings:
“McCain’s conceded!”
“What, already?”
About freakin’ time, IMHO.
Time to remove the old Shrub-bery, with a very sharp pair of hedge-fund clippers …
Heheh 🙂
Half an hour after they closed the polls on the west coast. The Dems had big gains in the house and senate. Hopefully it sends a strong message.
Very quick, wasn’t it?
Say what you like, McCain acted honorably. It was a gracious speech, and conceding early was a good move. I don’t have time to listen to Obama, unfortunately… need to harvest some cells!
Ooh, statesman-like from Obama. Moving stuff.
Just woken up. Hooray!
My clock radio woke me up with the Obama speech – I was laying there half awake thinking “I could vote for this guy”. Then I woke up a bit more and realized I didn’t have to.
The Beast, naturally, doesn’t care.
What a fantastic way to start the day.
His speech was Martin Luther King meets Winston Churchill. I hope the Merkins on this forum are as happy as the rest of us, and that they’re prepared to work hard.
Fantastic way to end the day too – 11.46 pm, I’m going to bed.
Bob – I did it for you. And for me, and also for my children. Because I could.
In amidst all the starry-eyedness, I might point out that not only the Beast but those 15 people who got blown up Tuesday in Baghdad probably don’t care, either.
I add my ‘Yipeee!’ – I hope however, the fact that no one at all seems to have said on NN ‘I’m sad, I wanted McCain to win’ doesn’t mean that any Republicans out there are intimidated by the overwhelming support for the other side.
I understand why many scientists are happier with the Democrats, but I hope NN is a broad enough place not to be politically segregationalist.
Well Brian, seeing as even Henry cheered, I think that any Republicans are probably hiding in the hills with a crate of risky and several hundred rounds of live ammo…
It reminds me of that long night and early morning euphoria when Tony Blair won in 1997. What a great spirit there was everywhere on that day! An air of new hope and optimism after 18 continuous years of Tory government.
Agreed with your last sentence, by the way, Brian.
Yeah, and look at what a disaster that turned out to be.
@Brian and Maxine: sort of the point I was trying to make in this other thread.
Well Brian, seeing as even Henry cheered
Even. Yup, that’s my middle name. One of them, anyway. Along with ‘Boris’, ‘Hussein’ and ‘Extraordinary’.
The comparison with Tony Bliar is apposiote, though. I well remember the euphoria of ’97, and how it’s all gone sour. I hope Obama will make a better job of things.
I would not call Tony Blair’s premiership a disaster at all. Most ordinary people were a lot better off by the time he quit – he improved lots of the things that make ordinary life better for the average person. I lived through that 18 years of Tory administration, and after being initially positive, I saw a lot of things that I felt were very negative for those same ordinary people (and which set the scene for the UK’s bit of the current financial crisis).
Yes, Blair had his Iraq but I remember being incensed at Thatcher’s Falklands (which had widespread public support). I have probably set myself up for a big argument here, but I think to characterise Blair’s administration as a disaster is not looking at it in context. (Also, would a Tory administration over the same period have been better, the same, or worse?)
Well, I’ll just point to the increased tax revenues (in real terms) and very little to show for it, and a huge legislative burden. The economic situation is par for the course: the Conservatives tend to inherit a mess, fix it in time for Labour to get in and break it again just as they leave. Not to mention CCTV on every corner, ID cards, fiddling unemployment figures by sending everyone to University and—
OK. Maybe another time. 😉
Yes, Richard, another time and place 😉
(I’m not agreeing with your assessment, but for my part think it best to draw a line.)
PS to Brian:
I hope NN is a broad enough place not to be politically segregationalist.
I take it you meant not like this?
I’m with Richard. Down with Gordon McBroon’ evil Police State. At least the Americans got a chance to vote for Freedom.
Maxine – your comparison with the Falklands is, if I may say so, breathtakingly inapposite.
The Falklands was British territory inhabited by people whose wish was not to be invaded by Argentina. The war was short, sharp, successful – and necessary.
The Iraq invasion was a dreadful cock-up, in its rationale, planning and execution. It was (and is) long, messy, inconclusive – and nnecessary.
Nothing political about it. Just facts on the ground.
Right you two, if you want to argue, then I’m going to have to insist on mud-wrestling, OK?
Bring it on.
Heh heh, I was just reading the BBC website for an account of today’s UK Parliamentary shenanigans. “He’s my friend!” “No, he’s my friend!”
Pathetic behaviour from Cameron and Brown.
Maxine, the analogy to Blair’s win in ’97 struck me too. I haven’t been this excited about an election since then (although it was pretty special to vote in the first ever Scottish election). The main difference though was Obama’s speech. I remember in ’97, being in a house full of hammered students, waiting for Blair’s speech. The crowd on TV were cheering and dancing, people were literally running up and down our Newcastle street cheering. And then Blair arrived and gave a speech that seemed deliberately muted, downplaying the extent of the victory and talking about how much work had to be done.
Last night Obama gave the kind of speech I wanted Blair to make in ’97. Truly inspirational. I’m not usually much of a crier but I’ve been an emotional wreck for the last 12 hours or so. The latest scene to get me going was Obama’s paternal grandmother watching the speech from her village in Kenya.
Having said that, he’s not the messiah, he’s a very
naughty boycentrist politician.Excuse me, the Falkland Islands were owned by a company!
I can’t resist stating that but am really stopping here – I don’t have any pix of cuddly cats or dogs to hand, but if anyone feels in need of that type of thing they can go and look at the picture at the “not like this?” link in my previous comment.
(Thanks, Cath – you encapsulate what I meant very well.)
Falkland Islands were owned by a company!
The Falkland Islands were and remain a British dependency. And please don’t ignore the issues here – the people who lived there wanted to remain British. Would you have abandoned them to a military dictatorship? Perhaps you would. In any case, the comparison with Iraq was just silly.
Oh, stop arguing and go and buy your kids a puppy.
Been there, done that.
There’s a few rose tinted specs when it comes to Tony Bliar around here. I too celebrated in ’97 and all that, but he turned out to be all smarm and little substance. Blaming Broon is a little harsh. He’s not so good at manipulating the press or public, but he’s not dropped us in a ridiculous, unpopular, illegal foreign invasion on the basis of lies and corruption.
I’m too young to have celebrated when Maggie T came in. I kinda have the feeling Britain wasn’t the same shallow, triumphalist, self congratulatory place back then, so I imagine the dominant public opinion might have been, “Thank God someone with some balls will stand up to the Unions now, let’s just get back to work.”
I’ve just listened to Obama’s speech, and the 1st half was a real turn off. Straight from the “political speechwriter 101” class. At one point, I thought Barry Manilow might have been involved. I’m a little surprised about how disillusioned I feel about politics at the moment, but perhaps more surprised that people still think just because there’s a new guy up there, things are going to be instantly, magically better. It doesn’t matter who you vote for, the government always wins.
I look forward to being cheered up and proved wrong over the next 4 years. It’s an enormously positive thing that a minority politician (he’s only half white, but he still went to Columbia & Harvard Universities. He could be the first president for some time not to have been a Frat member though. Now that really would be something!) has shown that the highest office in the USA can be reached by those who aren’t spoiled, dynastic offspring (Democrat or Republican).
My mood today probably wasn’t helped by watching Motorcycle Diaries and a documentary about “Enrique Peñalosa”:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enrique_Peñalosa last night, two figures who’ve really stood up and challenged the system to install what they believed in. I felt great after watching those. Today, I need to watch some fitba to cheer me up.
_I’m too young to have celebrated when Maggie T came in… _
I wasn’t.
I kinda have the feeling Britain wasn’t the same shallow, triumphalist, self congratulatory place back then, so I imagine the dominant public opinion might have been, “Thank God someone with some balls will stand up to the Unions now, let’s just get back to work.”
It was. Margaret Thatcher was the best PM of the 20th century aside from (Wartime) Churchill. DOn’t let any left-wing lad-de-dah revisionism tell you otherwise.
Oh, sod it.
A new editorial style for FHM and Loaded?
How does this have 34 comments???
(Oops, 35 now.)
Because we thought it was important news?
(Shouldn’t you be writing a haiku about it?)
Because Henry and Maxine started arguing.
No matter what one might think about Lady T…
I heard a little about the harsh reality in Obama’s acceptance speech tonight and I was happy to hear that. It is going to be a rough start, and I really hope that the people will have some patience since it took a few years to enter this hole the Economy is in (in the States) so it will take a few [several harsh] years to get them/us out of it. (I never know if I should consider my self part of the US Economy now since I live and pay taxes here – although not resident or citizen?)
It will be interesting to see what happens on the Hill after Jan 20th [is it then or 21st?]
Richard, we struck on the same meme i.e. getting back to work. Didn’t see your posting until now. There is indeed so much to be done.
Oh, no I didn’t mean “this” as in “this topic”, but “this one line post”.
I’m so bad at getting across what I mean. I had to reply to several e-mails this morning about the haiku situation, explaining that I didn’t mean “boohoo, nobody saw” but “haha, nobody saw”.
There is far too much grumpiness on here today. Can’t we just agree that all politicians are bad for some people and good for others, that your opinion of a given politician will depend on your personal experiences, and that haiku is a perfectly valid form of expression?
Can’t we all just get along?
As Robert and Åsa point out, my one-line post was a clever literary trick. Just as the battle for the ‘fully armed and operational battle station’ and the
WitchMoon of Endor mirrored Luke’s struggle against the Dark Side, so my title mirrored the office at work yesterday and Obama’s monumental task.@Cath. No. We did that two entries ago.
Mars Attacks. Cool.
Well, back to work for me…