Yes I Can

And now for some selfish bragging:

My electoral prediction - as per my comments on Derek's blog - was 365-173. Here's Nate Silver, statistician extraordinaire, from FiveThirtyEight.com weighing in on the final tally:

The Omaha World-Herald and several other news organizations have called Nebraska's Second Congressional District, which incorporates Omaha and some of its suburbs and exurbs, for President-Elect Barack Obama...

...This brings Obama's haul from Tuesday evening to 365 electoral votes...

In the interest of full disclosure, I guessed Missouri and Indiana wrong. Thought MO would be blue and IN red. Providentially, each state garners eleven electoral votes, meaning my overall call was still spot-on.

Remember, Remember

Yes we can?

That's old news:



An updated rhyme for November 5th, 2008:

Remember, remember the Fourth of November,
the unlikely candidate's bid.
Perhaps we should ban the phrase "Yes We Can,"
since yesterday We - in fact - Did.

On a personal note, I'm more numb than euphoric. Nothing has sunken in yet. As someone inclined toward studying history, I have trained myself to detect nuance and extract meaning from minor and obscure moments. My feelings about it, therefore, are akin to Epicureanism. But when history happens in a wave - as opposed to a steady, subtle drop, drop, drop - it overwhelms the system a bit. And in that way I'm just as helpless as anyone else in figuring out exactly how I feel today.

This, however, I know: The United States grew up last night. If you're an optimist you might read in this election the affirmation of our founding ideals. If you're a pessimist, you might believe this is an isolated triumph in the long, slow decline of the Republic. But regardless of where you sit on that spectrum, this individual event is unmistakably positive.

However our current struggles and problems play out, we can be justifiably proud of this moment. And no matter what happens to the President-Elect (I'd be lying if I said I wasn't worried about his safety), nobody can take it away.