TUESDAY POLITICS
It’s 2:53 pm on the West Coast and way too early to see any final results by state. We did know by midnight last night that Dixville Notch, New Hampshire voted: Obama: 15, McCain: 6. Dixville Notch is traditionally Republican. All of them vote at midnight and have been the first vote counted in America since 1948. As for the rest of us, you can feel the excitement in the air if you step out in your local neighborhood. Here in Oregon we have mail-in votes, so I voted days ago, but there were folks out in the front of my library branch today with ballot boxes and people were still dropping them in and honking when they drove by. In my family, we have a special reason for voting for Barack Obama. Three of our members are biracial – my son and two grandchildren. Being biracial is a whole special minority of its own, familiar with the “one-drop rule” that brands them black regardless of their being 50% black/50% white. Obama is referred to as African-American frequently by the media. This may be a nitpicking point to many white voters, but not to my son. Oregon has long been a Blue State, so we don’t get as many visits at the last minute as some. We have a very tight race with our Republican Senator, Gordon Smith vs. Democrat, Jeff Merkley. In their 12 years in the Senate together, Smith has actually been fairly cooperative with Senator Ron Wyden, Democrat. Unfortunately, he has been even more cooperative with the Bush administration and it looks like he may pay for that today. I’m going to be fascinated to see what the next President will do in the weeks between today and January 1. This will be when all the staff around him are chosen – and who knows what world and national events will require his urgent attention. I learned after the vote when the Democrats gained a majority in Congress and Nancy Pelosi began her reign to “believe it when I see it.” And I’m waiting now. I’ve been very impressed with Obama’s demeanor throughout the campaign and his obvious intelligence. It is afterward, if he wins (and it looks pretty damned likely), that we’ll learn how well he can withstand the incredible forces of special interests that will come to bear on him. It’s now 3:23 pm in Portland, Oregon and we won’t have to hold our breaths much longer.