No Anger, No Hate.. but Optimism.

I am usually a pretty conservative guy and I was pulling for McCain to win it all. As the night progressed and the results came in and it became apparent that Obama was going to win the Presidential Election, I began to think.

When this whole election season got started and Obama and Hillary were running in the democratic primary, I told a number of my friends that they should get ready for another Republican President. I went on record saying that I don't think that this country is mature enough to elect a black man or a woman to the highest office in the land.

I was proven very wrong tonight.

Whether you realize it now or not, tonight was a historic moment in the history of this country. From record turnouts around the country, people waited for hours in lines to make sure that that their voice was heard, and clearly that voice came together tonight to elect an African-American the 44th President the the United States.

Not only was I wrong about who this country would elect, but I was wrong about this country. There are many stories yearly of hate crimes and racially motivated crimes that it just didn't seem to me that America was mature enough to look past the color of a candidates skin.

Tonight I have a renewed faith in this country. A renewed optimism that even though there are terrible things going on in this country, and in this world, on a daily basis, that we have the ability to put that all aside and look to a future that should be better. That we actually have something to be optimistic about.

After the Democratic National Convention when Obama spoke to 80,000+ people in a stadium in Denver, someone pointed out to me that she thought it seemed somewhat cult-like that all these people couldn't wait to see him. He inspired hope and optimism in every person there, and in the millions elsewhere around the world. I thought that it spoke volumes about what he had to say, and maybe I should listen.

Whatever you think of the politics behind the victory, Obama deserves the victory. Like he said in his speech tonight, this victory was for us, the everyday citizen. For the person who just lost their home, the person that just lost their job, and for the millions that go to work scared every day that their job may be next.

Let's not waste it.