Wahoo!

What an amazing night. Despite the fact that I am sick, huddled up with four layers on the couch, watching TV, having driven to two different polling stations today, having spent 3.5 hours in line waiting to vote, and still unemployed in Santa Monica- I watched tonight's events unfold like a Hollywood plot.

I have NEVER been moved to tears before, watching CNN - maybe bored to tears - but never touched (let's say 'misty-eyed', for the sake of preserving some semblance of manhood). Sure, it could have been the cold, the crazy South African jumping and cheering next to me, or maybe the vodka tonics, but I was moved by three things tonight.

1) McCain's speech. It was honest, respectable, and a complete 180 from the way he has been running his campaign. It was the most maverick thing he has done in a long time, and I commend him for his class.

2) Obama's acceptance speech. Man, that guy can give a speech. I would paraphrase it, but I would be doing it an injustice.

and mostly, above all things,

3) The rise from the political sleaze-smog that had seemingly engulfed our country. Suddenly, because of what has happened in the past decade, and perhaps even long before then, politics seems to be real again. The issues aren't tainted through the Rove-like politicking and demographic hunting that was the growing trend, but suddenly things are much clearer.
Tonight everyone from the news anchors, from Brit Hume, to Roland Martin, and both McCain and Obama actually said REAL things. They spoke like real human beings, not marketing androids. It was quite refreshing.

And for me, and I assume most other Americans, it's what I've been waiting for - for a long time.