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One year ago...
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This time last year was Election Day to decide the new President of the United States. Oh sure, election days come and go. We even had one yesterday. If you really think about it, there is an election day of some sort once every few months. Sometimes we're deciding on local referendums, new mayors, sometimes it's a replacement congressman or senator, and sometimes it's even for one of those awesome-sounding propositions. But forget all of that for right now. It's all very important, but I want us to do something very rare: focus. You see, this was the Election Day to end all election days. Because everything was prologue up to this Election Day.
November 4, 2008
I decided to sleep in that day. Nuts to everyone on the cable news networks and their silly morning shows. I had a plan, and it was quite excellent. I had gone to sleep about 3am in preparation to take in all that the mother of all election days had in store. Because folks, it was going to be a blockbuster. Much akin to when The Dark Knight came out earlier that summer. Everything had been leading up to it. There was controversy, angst, people had camped out for days prior to the day of (dirty, smelly, disgusting people, mind you), and it had taken what it seemed like to be years to finally premiere. Let's not forget that Election Day 2008 actually started the moment that George W. Bush was declared the winner of Election Day 2004. So people were well-prepared, and it was time. And I woke up at 1pm with a giant smile on my face and a growl in my belly.
2:30pm hit, and it was time to wolf down some Red House. I don't know how it's physically possible, but it seemed like Barack Obama, Joe Biden, John McCain, and Sarah Palin all visited at least 17 states each on Election Day. Maybe there was some "taped-speech" action happening along with a few satellite feeds...I'll assume that much. It was all flurrying for sure most of the afternoon. These four people looked like they hadn't slept in about a year. Apparently, running for this office requires some sleepless nights. Who'd a thunk it?
An hour later, indigestion was setting in from the Chinese food. Where were my TUMS? Stupid delicious spicy beef and gummy white rice! Anyways, every idiot in a politically-elected office had to get on television that day to expunge on the two pretty pennies in their tight little pocket. It's just entirely entertaining when you dig it from my cynical point of view. All these elected officials are is well-educated salesmen. Very smart salesmen who know how to get what they want when they want it, that is. So bless their hearts. And then you had the fine folks of the American journalistic community on every corner, or so it seemed like. I'm confident that if NASA and the FCC commissioned a study on the amount of wireless microphone and high-definition television camera usage, November 4th would be the day that rocketed to the top of their list. Politics were everywhere, and short of living your life in a cave or under the tectonic plates in the Pacific Ocean somewhere inside the Ring of Fire, you were a part of it in some way.
At 4:37pm, I got the inevitable robo-call from Sarah Palin reminding me to make my voice heard and go vote. Well, actually, it's to make her voice heard. It would just be my vote that enabled her to keep talking. Because you know it would have been her pretty face in front of the podium way more than McCain's grinning yet crotchety old mug...don't even think for a minute that it would have been otherwise. The beauty of the American voting system is that you don't actually have to go vote if you don't want to. You can plan ahead and have a delightful absentee ballot mailed to your house. A few weeks prior, I filled mine out and returned it. After all, it was all part of the plan so I could stay home when Election Day arrived.
5pm rolled around, and some of the polling places on the East Coast had closed. By 5:02pm, there was more breaking news had in this country than on November 22nd, 1963, the entire year of 1968, the Reagan Administration, and 9/11 combined! Or so it seemed. Because if you really analyze network and cable news, they're all really just a bunch of attention whores. I say this with the full realization that I have both a Twitter handle and a Facebook page. Isn't the irony delicious? I love this country.
8:58pm: now it's just a matter of a few minutes before it's all over. Technically, it was all over about a month ago. This whole day was just a formality, really. It sure was fun though. Wait for it...it's almost 9 o'clock.
9:00pm MST: The entire country collectively states four letters in unison: "OMFG!" California's results were clear enough to tip towards our new President-Elect, Barack Obama. And by "tip towards", I mean "giant f---ing landslide"...because it wasn't even close. The Change had come to America, and he was wearing black and red with his family as they stood victoriously in Grant Park, waving and smiling ear-to-ear. This was the moment, and this was their night...and this was Obama's time.
My apartment had become crowded and stale, so a few of us escaped into the night to enjoy a tall vodka tonic or three at our local watering hole on Camelback Road.
November 5, 2008
It really didn't sink in until the next day as I walked back to my car. With the sun shining down on the Valley that Wednesday morning, I got in my driver's side, clacked on my seat belt, and cranked the radio on to KTAR. It was for sure now, and there were no two doubts about it. Barack Obama was going to be the next President of the United States, and all I could think about was how our country had entered into a new era. And also how I wanted a damn taquito for breakfast.
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©2009 Andrew Flynn & OHPF Productions, Inc.
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