“And it also strengthens my faith because I know at the end of the day putting this in God’s hands, the right thing for America will be done, at the end of the day on Nov. 4.”
--Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, in an Oct. 22 interview with Dr. James Dobson of “Focus On the Family.”

Apparently, God preferred Obama

O Happy Day! That is, if you’re a Democrat. After what seems like a decade-long campaign, Barack Obama has won the presidential election, and Democrats have made substantial gains in the House and Senate. We Democrats rolled out of bed this morning with a long-forgotten spring in our step, a gleam our eyes, and a vision of Sarah Palin on a one-way trip back to Alaska. If you’re a Republican, you may be weeping. Go ahead, little elephant head. It’s gonna be all right. I promise the Democrats won’t suck the stem cells out of your fetuses, start inviting Muslim terrorists to state dinners, take all your money and give it to homeless crack whores, declare America a socialist country, or force you to marry a gay person or a sheep.

For the past eight years, Republicans have wrecked the American economy, waged a tragically needless war, and set back America’s reputation as a champion of democracy and human rights by about 50 years. It’s our turn now. So go ahead right-wingers, honk your noses into your hankies. We Democrats remember the sting of Al Gore and John Kerry’s dubious losses, and we empathize… a little. We won’t rub it in your faces that you lost by such a colossally embarrassing margin that it appears that your candidates’ campaigns were run by inbred hillbillies. We are better than that. But allow us a little glee.

I have no doubt that soon our elation will soon wear off. After all, President George W. “The Decider” Bush has two more months in office, which is plenty of time to put regulations in place that will make it difficult for Democrats to, say, improve the environment or save a near-extinct species and for W. and Cheney to start another little war or two.

Will Obama’s election make a real difference to our everyday lives? And, if we didn’t live in this age of instant mass media, would we even care who occupies the Oval Office? Yes and no. No matter who is president, our lives go on as usual, complete with their mundane happenings and private joys and losses. But presidents can start wars on a whim and send us or our loved ones into harm's way, derail the economy, introduce interesting new words to the English language, and provide endless fodder to comedians and satirists. Conversely, they can also push us to care about each other’s welfare and inspire us to strive selflessly for the greater public good. The idealist in me hopes that President Obama will do the latter, and will perhaps be this generation’s FDR or JFK.

I hope that under Obama's leadership, America's standing in the world will improve, and that Muslim extremists will run out of steam once we no longer have a cowboy warmonger in the White House; I hope that bigots will open their hateful minds and realize that having a black president isn’t the end of the world, and that people of color might not be inferior to whiteys after all; I hope that John McCain will rediscover his old self—the man who was once admirable in many ways, and to whom the word “maverick” could be applied without triggering one’s gag reflex; and finally, I hope that Sarah and Todd Palin and their oddly named children will return to the snow-covered obscurity they so richly deserve, never to be heard from again. Call me naive, if you will.

But right now, let’s enjoy the honeymoon with our new president-elect. Join me, and dream a little dream.

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