Excitement is in the Air of What Will Come

I voted last week via absentee voting as I will be flying to Orlando on Election Day - which is a drag because I want to be sitting at Busboys and Poets in DC watching Jon Stewart and the election returns. Voting took about 1 1/2 hours and election workers said that is how it was all week. Someone asked the best time to come back to vote and the election worker said at 8:30 am as there usually is only around 10 people in line when the office first opens.

I pass the building where one votes in DC on my way to work. On Friday, at 8:30 am, the line was so long it continued out on the sidewalk and then some. I saw on the news last night that people in Georgia waited 10 hours to vote early. The media has been reporting long lines across the nation. Has this ever happened in any other election? Have Americans ever been so excited by an election? Will we finally see an 80% turnout (in 2004 it was 61 percent — which was the highest level since 1968)? I could only imagine what the lines are going to be like on Election Day. Be prepared to wait!

Creating more excitement was Obama's "infomercial" on Wednesday evening. Although I wasn't too keen on the idea that something like this should be aired, I watched it anyway. I must admit, I did get excited. Obama is a very dynamic speaker as witnessed by the massive audiences he draws. I do not believe either candidate will be able to quickly end our economic crisis or alleviate all the problems they will inherit. But what Obama is able to do is to create hope and optimism so that perhaps we, as Americans, can get excited about our future and continue to get through these tough times. He is charismatic and can lift our spirits. He is supported in the international community and because of this, if Obama becomes President, the United States may once again be a country looked up to with admiration and respect, instead of despised.

Another thing to look at is how are we going to remember this President after he leaves office? When one remembers past Presidents, what do we remember most of all about them? There's our first President, Washington, as the "Father of our Country" and Lincoln as "Honest Abe". Moving ahead to today, George W. is the "War President" getting us into a war we should not be in and costing the country $595 billion (as of 1/11/08) and over 4,000 lives of our fathers, mothers, sons, daughters, brothers, sisters and neighbors. George H. Bush doesn't fair much better being referred to as "The Wimp President". Unfortunately, for Clinton, he may best remembered as "Clitton" because of his stint with an intern; and before that "Slick Willie". Ford, well, you remember the SNL skits and then there's good old "Tricky Dick". Skipping a few presidents, we get to Kennedy, the "King of Camelot" that inspired so many with his orations ("ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country). I was too young to form an opinion back then but I now think of him as a charismatic, exciting leader and wish we had that now - and I think we do. And that is how I think Obama will be remembered if he becomes our 44th President.

See what I mean and even more.