It's a new day dawning in America, and around the world . . . (taken from my window this morning)
I was first eligible to vote in 1979. In 28 years of voting, only two of the candidates I supported have prevailed - Bill Clinton and Barack Obama. I believe Clinton was a good president, and I hope that Obama will be a great one. I delight in seeing our position in the international community improve. I'm relieved to find a man with a healthy respect for the Constitution in a position to appoint Supreme Court justices. I'm hopeful we'll move towards green energy, and a respect for the planet.

There is no doubt that Obama ran an amazing campaign, and that he energized millions of people to join in the process. I personally participated more in this election than I ever have before. Obama's campaign was a thing of beauty to perceive - organized from the ground up, while fully utilizing the internet and other modern technical advances. I even have an Obama iPhone application that allowed me to access his position on the issues, and alerted me to campaign events in my area.

I also sincerely hope that the Republican party takes a long, hard look at themselves, and decides to get back to its roots, and to move away from the far right. If McCain had run as a moderate, I think he might have prevailed. Instead, he opted to sell his soul to the far right, ran his campaign on hate and fear, and in doing so, he alienated a large part of the country. He also put all his eggs in the "Victory in Iraq" basket, and fumbled with his response to the economic meltdown.

While no one applauds abortion, most Americans do not want to see Roe v. Wade overturned - strict anti-abortion propositions were defeated in South Dakota and Colorado, and it appears that a parental notification proposition in California was defeated for the 3rd time in 4 years. I'm disappointed that it appears that Proposition 8 likely passed in California, but I take heart that it passed narrowly.

I've repeatedly blogged about my involvement with Knitters for Obama - now more than 4,000 members strong. We raised over $32,000 for the general election, and delivered more than 2,000 knitted items to homeless veterans around the country. I'm delighted to have been a part of this amazing group.

While I've generally avoided reading the conversation threads at Knitters for McCain (with approximately 600 members), I took a peek this morning and found it disturbing. The primary conversation involved their hope that the Supreme Court will nullify the election because, as everyone knows, Obama is not really an American citizen. (I also read in the Orange County Register that 1/3 of Orange County Republicans believe that Obama is not a citizen). The response to the death of Obama's grandmother was to chastize him for not being the man McCain is, and not suspending his campaign in response to her passing.

I sincerely hope the GOP reclaims its mantle of being in favor of limited government and fiscally conservative - I think those are valid positions that need to be considered for our country to thrive. I hope the GOP disclaims the part of the party running on hate and fear.