Change

I'm not sure how my life will be affected in any immediate way should Barack Obama win tomorrow (today, for you early risers in the Western Hemisphere). Will Triscuits taste differently? Probably not, and I hope they don't. Will I have peace of mind and a feeling of hope? Yes. Because -- and I know I'm viewing this US election as I've viewed every other one I've been alive for: as an outsider, a red-headed stepchild from a northern clime -- I still don't believe that America is willing to accept, to elect, a black president. With Obama projected to win by a large margin in every non-biased poll (if that's possible; I dunno) I've come across, I'm still rather dubious. And I'm far from the only one.

This may sound infantile, this will sound uninformed, but I believe that unless one knows the ins and outs of specific political issues and campaigns, one should vote for the candidate he or she likes, whom he or she intuitively gravitates toward. For me, politics -- American politics in particular -- is an iron ball of yarn* ten times the size of Jupiter with the answer at its core.

For me, thinking of politics as sport and choosing a side to root for keeps me from going insane like the kid in Stephen King's "The Jaunt."

For me, Barack Obama becoming president of the United States represents change in the sense that it's no fun to have your life monopolized by an empire or a dynasty, and Bush's presidency has been an eight-year downer of bad, for American citizens and the rest of this planet's populace. If McCain wins -- and like it or not that's a very possible, maybe even likely, outcome -- there's no way I can take four years (at least) of hearing, reading, or thinking the name "Sarah Palin." I'm likely to shoot myself in that scenario. I, you, we need a breath of fresh air.

For me, no matter how right or wrong it is to support someone solely based on his race (presidential hopeful = good, wife murdering ex-NFL star = bad), I would love to see a black president. If it happens, it'll be a pinch-me moment -- probably my life's defining pinch-me moment that didn't involve a free Radiohead album to download off the Internet.

Then again, I fear a comeback. Normally, I love comebacks. In comedy. In sports. in careers and Lee Hyori. But if McCain pulls a Giants to Obama's Patriots, I might just holler. That's a euphemism.

There's a very real excuse for me, you, we to feel paranoid. We've been living behind a curtain of fear. Obama as president-elect won't change that immediately; but I do believe, i do hope, that it will reverse this tide of...bad (not bad meaning good).

(Devil's advocate: if/when Obama wins there will be riots in major metropolises.)

Rock and roll.






* Excuse both the oxymoron and the second paragraph's hypercorrection