Post Election

I'm so relieved to see Barack Obama will be our next President. This is historic for so many reasons - and I believe for more than we can conceive of now. I believe Obama will make a number of long term changes to our political system that will make us a stronger, more responsible country.

Having made a prediction, I will now admit I was wrong about Al Franken. He ran a better campaign than I expected. Though he is barely down in the count, I wonder if the recount will change things. One might expect that a hand recount will find mis-marked ballots that heavily favor Franken as first time voters probably went for him overwhelmingly and were probably the most likely to incorrectly mark the ballot.

I'm deeply disappointed to see Norm Coleman get so many votes as he is a career politician in the worst sense of that term - a weasel - who has no family values and is about as Minnesotan as hockey is Texan.

So we'll see in a month, when that hand recount of 2.9 million ballots should be completed.

Deeply disappointed in Bachmann and Paulson - we are now sending two Republicans to the House from MN who are narrow-minded and represent the worst of those right wingers who call themselves Christians but represent nothing in common with the way Jesus led his life and encouraged others to lead theirs.

Deeply saddened to see California take a step backward on civil rights by banning gay marriage. But relieved to see Michigan and Massachusetts adopt more rational policies on marijuana - a drug that does far less damage to our society than the laws that outlaw it.

I voted. After nearly a decade of arguing internally about whether voting "makes a difference," I believe it does. Big change comes from organizing - not necessarily around the ballot box - but organizing. But in the meantime, individuals make a different. Bush and Cheney appointed people who, regardless of ideology, were far less competent than Gore would have. Even if there is little difference between candidates - there is often a huge difference around who they would appoint to make the rules that shape everything. This is something to which we must pay attention.

P.S. - Can someone please kick Joe Lieberman the #$%* out of the D Caucus now?