It’s officially been a week since the historic election of Barack Obama as President of the United States. I deliberately forbade myself from posting anything until this point since I knew I wouldn’t be able to articulate my feelings clearly or succinctly enough. With a week past, I feel better able to look back and truly analyze the historic nature of this event.

Along with hundreds of anxious viewers, I watched the results come in at the College Democrats’ election night party. When the first polls closed at 7pm in Indiana and Kentucky, CNN neglected to call the states. At 8pm, only Vermont moved toward Obama while Kentucky finally went for McCain. It felt like an eternity as the countdown ever so slowly inched toward the 9pm poll closing that would bring results from important swing states in the Midwest and South.

After that, it was all a blur. Each candidate began amassing electoral votes from his traditional support regions, with the critical states still too close to call. That is, until Pennsylvania went blue shortly after 9pm. The room was ecstatic, knowing full well that McCain’s last hope had bucked him. A message that McCain’s campaign saw “no clear path to victory” flashed across the screen. They must have foreseen what was to happen with Ohio a few minutes later.

When Obama picked up the Buckeye state, it felt as if this whole thing were wrapped up. The crowd cheered, with many of our Ohio trip buddies yelling especially loudly, their hours on the campaign trail vindicated. Everyone kept saying “it’s over” but as Democrats, no one wanted to rush this call.

I remember the room being uncharacteristically nervous as the next batch of polls closed at 10pm. Then came Virginia at about 10:55pm. With the Confederacy’s capital and the object of many of our weekend canvasses in Obama’s hands, the crowd knew that winning California would clearly put us over the line. Yet we all waited for Wolf Blitzer to make the call, eagerly counting down the minutes and then seconds until the West Coast polls shut down and history was officially made.

And then, in huge blue and red letters, “BARACK OBAMA ELECTED PRESIDENT” blanketed the screen. Blitzer’s comments were drowned out by the eruption of jubilation as the crowds took in this stunning realization. I remember jumping frantically and even tearing up; a reporter who tried to get my reaction found the Communications Director wholly incapable of articulating his feelings. I’ll never forget my friends’ reactions, which ranged from hysterical bawling to quiet realization and the many celebratory embraces. Most of my pictures from this point didn’t come out, but I’m confident I will never forget the scene in the Continental Ballroom that night.

After McCain’s concession and Obama’s acceptance speeches, many of us trekked to the White House and encountered a massive rally of fellow Obamaniacs, decked out in political gear and chanting “yes we did” and waving flags and signs despite the rainy weather. The sheer number of college students at the event struck me as uncharacteristic of my generation. Honestly, I’m not sure my age group has ever cared this much about an election’s outcome. Even some McCain supporters came out and took in the event with the revelers. After heading to a champagne and pizza party, I went to bed around 4am, and had a short but incredibly rejuvenating rest.

And now, as I sit in class daydreaming, the whole night still seems so distant, so surreal. I will never forget the events of that wonderfully historic evening, especially the emotions of those around me, many of whom never thought they would play a role in electing the first black president. But most critical are the millions of young kids who will have no memory of this event save for their parents’ exciting stories. Much like my generation cannot recall the fall of the Berlin Wall and the ideologically divided world it destroyed, today’s children will take for granted the saying-turned-fact that anyone can grow up to be president. They will grow up watching President Obama and see absolutely nothing remarkable about his position in American history.

And in so doing, it may be that those who are impacted the most from our decision last Tuesday will not even remember the event itself.

November came in nicely today, with 75 degree weather and cloudless skies blanketing the lovely District in true Indian Summer style. But it was the political climate that got me distracted today.

Taking advantage of the weather, I threw on my Obama/Biden tee and hoofed it down to the Reflecting Pool to get some reading done ahead of the academic roadblock that is Election Day. Of course I’m always one to get sidetracked by political discussions, but this time it was a realization that got me firmly off my intended goal.

Here I was, a first-time voter wearing an Obama shirt, sitting on the very same ground that had played host to the March on Washington 45 years earlier. On that spot, thousands dared to hope for a better and fairer future, knowing the odds against them. And this Tuesday, millions more will put the finishing touch on the dream they all shared on that August day. But they won’t be marching on the Mall, they’ll be lined up at the polls as far as the eye can see.

We live in an amazing country, with an uncanny ability to self-correct. If you don’t believe me, you will in a few days.

I’m going to preface this by saying I’m not one of those people who think endorsements are irrelevant. Most people tend to think they don’t matter, and to be fair a lot of them don’t, but this year has proven that the right person in your corner can work wonders for your campaign (I’m looking at you, Oprah). With this in mind, today’s endorsement by Colin Powell of Barack Obama over John McCain is huge.

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The people have spoken resoundingly, and Barack Obama won the third presidential debate — meaning he has won all of them now. By a 2-to-1 margin or greater in multiple polls, viewers thought Obama bested John McCain. He scored much higher than McCain on both personal attributes (70-22% on likeability, according to CNN) and on the issues (59-35% on the economy, also from CNN). And yet the total and utter disconnect of the punditocracy from voters is astounding. John King of CNN questioned his station’s own poll results on air because he and so many other pundits were convinced that this was McCain’s “strongest performance” to date. Maybe so, but the media norm of faux two-sidedness and trying to keep elections close is getting a little old. I don’t see any other explanation for the fact that Mark Halperin of TIME gave John McCain an A- overall and a B+ on style points.

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Boy, what a difference opinion polls make on morale. John McCain is sliding, and his followers are angry. Now that McCain needs to play catch-up, he’s pulling out the smears and avoiding economic issues. After his running mate said that Obama was “palling around with” former Weathermen militant Bill Ayers, it set a dangerous course for his campaign. With McCain, Palin, all their surrogates, and Fox News now telling conservatives that Obama is a “pal” of Ayers, the recipients are terrified and outraged that their candidate is losing to a terrorist sympathizer. Perhaps that explains this unpleasant moment.

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I really hate sounding hyperbolic in these posts, but I don’t think I’m exaggerating when I say that McCain’s chances at the White House rested on the outcome of this debate. After conceding the foreign policy debate to Obama (widely considered his strength), everybody looked to the town hall format as one more chance for McCain to uplift his sagging poll numbers. After all, he’s good at town hall forums, right?

Not so much. Yet again, millions of Americans witnessed a compassionate, collected Obama juxtaposed with the same vindictive, backbiting McCain pacing nervously in the background. When answering questions McCain frequently missed his opportunities to shine and all too often descended into bitterness, frequently flubbing jokes and inexplicably launching personal attacks on Obama, even going so far as to call him “that one” and accompany it with a prying fingerpoint across the stage. By contrast, Obama’s answers were well thought out and served him well, as yet again the differences in mannerisms between the candidates worked to his advantage. Not to mention Obama didn’t strangly pace about the stage and fiddle with his notes, unlike McCain, who apparently can’t sit still for more than 5 minutes while his opponent speaks. This must be the town hall equivalent of not looking at your rival when he is speaking to you.

Honestly, at the end I wasn’t convinced anyone really “won” the debate. But with the town hall format in McCain’s supposed favor, the night was once again his to lose. And lose it he did. Sure, he had more to say about the economy, but a draw at best was not what McCain needed. Once again, he blew it. And with the economy front-and-center in the next debate and the media narrative on McCain/Palin changing from “A Team of Mavericks” to “A Team of Nutjobs”, he’s running out of time to pull this one out.

Ultimately it doesn’t matter what I think of the debate; CNN, CBS, and even FOX News focus groups of undecided voters all declared Obama the winner by considerable margins and thought that he provided more compelling cases on everything from Iraq to healthcare to the all important economy. Wow, I guess even FOX can be right sometimes.

I’m going to open this up to reader discussion, but I personally think Obama handily defeated McCain in last Friday’s debate. Going into the event, the media narrative was that Obama would probably lose the night, helpless against McCain’s foreign affairs “expertise”. In my view the exact opposite transpired. Ironically, and through his own doing, McCain came into the debate beaten and broken with no bailout deal and consequently little to no debate prep time. Obama, on the other hand, calmly and masterfully articulated his foreign policy positions, making sure McCain’s attempts to mischaracterize them were unsuccessful. Obama needed to look presidential and credible on this issue, and he did. Don’t take my word for it- look at numerous post-debate polls and the real-time surveys networks like CNN took during the debate and you’ll see that Obama outscored McCain handily, especially with respect to independent viewers who widely considered Obama the clear victor. Ladies and gentlemen, we won on McCain’s strong suit, partially because of McCain’s own doing but mostly because we have a great nominee.

I invite readers to share their thoughts about Friday’s debate, as well as their expectations of the upcoming Biden/Palin “debate”.

I was tempted to avoid writing a post on this whole McCain won’t debate nonsense and just hoping everything would blow over today, but as evidenced by the “BREAKDOWN” lede on Drudge Report, clearly this bailout business will not be resolved in time for tomorrow night’s debate. This puts McCain in a considerable bind; worse yet one of his own construction. Basically, the only 2 variables are whether or not a deal is reached and how McCain responds with respect to the debate. Let’s examine some of the possible scenarios that may unfold in the next 24 hours (that is, between now and the scheduled beginning of the debate:

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I met some terrific folks while canvassing for Obama, Warner and Gerry Connolly in Fairfax today. A quaint condominium development about 10 minutes away from the Vienna/Fairfax Metro station, it made for a delightful day of door-knocking and good old-fashioned face to face persuasion. Virginia being Virginia, our targets included lifelong union members, single mothers, new citizens, veterans, and even a man who canvassed for Franklin Roosevelt in 1936. There’s something intangibly gratifying about having political heart-to-hearts with complete strangers, knowing they’ve got concerns and have for the moment entrusted a college student like you (!) to address them. It’s a hell of a responsibility, and one that often requires some serious improvising, but I wouldn’t trade it for anything. I’ve said it before and I’ll do so again: canvassing is the most meaningful way to help a candidate or a cause. I applaud the Obama campaign’s outreach innovations (and happen to believe they’ll give us the upper hand on November 4), but newfangled technology isn’t what wins elections. Long hours spent crossing highways, traipsing through unfamiliar terrain, and searching for votes behind every door are what puts a candidate over the top. It’s tedious, time-consuming, and tiresome, but it’s irreplaceable and ubiquitous for a reason: it works. I would encourage anyone, no matter your political persuasion, to get out there and meet the real people who decide the course of history. It’s exciting, informative, and about as American as it gets. But for myself and many others, it’s a personal thing. I want to know that I’m doing the most useful work possible for something I truly believe in.

And if Barack Obama becomes the next President of the United States thanks to a hundred extra votes in Virginia, I’ll be able to tell my kids “Yes, I did.”

As promised, I finally wrote an article in the Hatchet, and today it finally got published. It is a response to my conservative friend Andrew who claims that Sarah Palin’s presence on the ticket is infact a good thing. Naturally, it was my job to refute that- let me know how I did!

The article is reproduced below:

Last Thursday, my friend Andrew Clark wrote a column detailing the effects Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin could have on the presidential race (”Picking apart Palin, McCain’s wild-card VP,” p. 4). While he did note some vulnerabilities, for the most part his piece extolled Palin’s virtues as a true conservative, a fresh face and a compelling choice for middle America. I know people will agree when I say these claims couldn’t be farther from the truth.

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