274

Ohio...Ohio...Ohio...

They put him over the top.  President Obama has another four years, and I can start breathing again.

I didn't realize how tense I have been all week until I tried to eat today and everything made me a bit queasy.  Even pancakes, which normally set quite well.  I didn't finish my pancakes (the dogs were thrilled).

I gave myself half an hour to vote and then was in and out of the polling place in less than 15 minutes (I wore my Obama t-shirt from 2008, which, I realized when I saw the "100 feet" polling signs, was probably illegal campaigning, but nobody said anything and let me vote without sending me home to change my clothes.

After voting, I went downtown to meet my friend Ruth for our 2x/month lunch.  We eat at a Chinese place and after having a couple of things I didn't like very much, I usually order the honey walnut shrimp because that is almost always good.   This time it was the best I'd ever had there.  But my stomach was in such knots, I had to ask for a box after just a few bites.  The only thing that went down easily was the soup and I suddenly realized I had a craving for soup and I should start having more soups for lunch.

I drove home and put the food in the fridge and tried to concentrate on anything, but couldn't not watch all the talking heads.  Election coverage, of course, couldn't start until the polls closed but before that there were endless poll results and guesses and all sorts of stuff I couldn't turn off.  I may have taken a nap.  I don't remember.

Anticipating the worst, I even designed a new logo for my facebook page, which, for the past two months has been this:

...and if Romney won it would be this:

I googled "deadlands".  I didn't dare design on for a happy outcome.  Too superstitious.

When the first poll numbers started coming in, I was more and more depressed as state after state was racked up in Romney's column.  I didn't dare hope, though people on Facebook kept pointing out that the early votes came from the South, where Romney had always been expected to win.

Then the Obama states started to come in.  The big jump came when California's 55 votes went to Obama and then that glorious announcement that Ohio had put him over the top.  He needed 270. he had 274 and was leading in all of the remaining "too close to call" states.

The crowds went wild.  Walt was watching TV upstairs, so I called my mother, my friend Joycie called me and I rejoiced with Facebook people.

 

Then came the news that Romney disputed the Ohio results, claims that Romney could somehow get the rest of the states and still win, and Trump was calling for revolution (I've always thought The Donald was revolting anyway).  Was this going to be another Bush v. Gore/Florida situation?  But then Romney did the grown-up thing and conceded the election in a classy speech...and, as it turned out, Obama didn't even need Ohio anyway.

So our long national nightmare is over.  There will be no Ami Bera ads tomorrow (I read that he won in his district, so I guess that's a good thing).

The problem, of course, is that I don't ever remember an election that was so close.  All the votes have yet to be counted, but at the moment, Obama is only leading Romney in the popular vote by 300,000+.  No matter who won this election, 50% of the country was going to go to sleep depressed.  The task ahead of the president in the next four years is to win over some of those people.  Maybe without an election ahead of him, he can do more unpopular things that will promote the things he wants to accomplish and leave behind a lasting legend.

I have every confidence that he can do it.