Congratulations on your victory tonight. It is indeed an historic evening. My family all voted together today. Even my son in Massachusetts happened to cast his vote around 9 AM when the rest of us voted. My middle son lives a little south of us and waited from 7 AM when the polls opened until 8:45 to vote for Obama. Of the other six of us, Three voted McCain and three Obama. Our "swing vote" was my eldest, a Mitt Romney Republican who decided that it was time for change. So if the Pooch family had an electoral vote it went Democrat.
McCain's gracious concession was followed by Obama's amazing speech. It was a great night for America. Obviously, I would have preferred another outcome, but your man won the night, and he deserved it based on his brilliant campaign.
As President-Elect Obama observed, this is not the end but only the beginning for his ideas. Much of what he said was hopeful and encouraging. That's a good thing given the economy and the political atmospherer that has prevailed over the last several years. I hope his actions are as good as his stellar rhetoric. If he leads the country like he has run this campaign we have much to be hopeful about.
As an added bonus, the voters of my current home state have put in the Senate former Governor Mark Warner. He was a fine, bipartisan Governor who led Virginia so well (with a Republican legislature, I might add) that it was ranked as the best managed state in the union. He briefly considered a Presidential run but dropped out of the race early. I may well have been tempted to vote for him had he run. As it is, the state of Virginia has gone blue and that is, perhaps, not such a bad thing. A little warning, Virginia Democrats are a bit like Massachusetts Republicans. They know, out of necessity, how to respect and work with the opposition.
And that, I hope, is where tonight will lead. I have the audacity, and audicity it is, to hope that the new Democractic majority in Washington will not make the same mistake the Republican majority did in thinking that a call for change is a call to denigrate or just ignore the values, ideals and dreams of half off the country. Obama said he will be our president. I intend to support him as best I can. I hope he will do te same for those of us on the right side of the aisle.
At any rate, congratulations. I wish President-Elect Obama the best, and I hope he does NOT have the kinds of challenges that faced his predecessor. I'll pray for him just as sincerely as I did for Bush. And I'll keep praying for the country too.
