>It seemed no one was blogging. My online friends were all on Twitter or Plurk. Husband was at work (when you’re in the media, election night is a worknight), Amigo was doing homework, and La Petite was also working. We text messaged through the main events. As one state after another turned to blue on the map and the electoral vote total grew on Obama’s side, we sent each other texts that grew shorter and more and more exciting. When it was all over and she had finished putting the school newspaper into print and online, she emailed me and called the whole experience “… amazing. It’s going to be one of those ‘I remember where I was, who I was with, and what I was doing when I found out that Obama was elected as our 44th president’ type moments.” But will she remember that she was part of the process? Attending a rally in June, talking to her friends, providing pictures of Senator Obama to the paper (and to her mother’s blog!) and talking to her friends about campaign issues made a difference, as did her vote.

Voters of all ages and all political stripes cared enough to volunteer, to operate the phones, to write checks, to put signs in their yards. Poll lines were long. I was #21 in my ward, in line when it opened. Husband was #121 less than forty minutes later. The passion of this election grew and grew and grew until it became more than a million people in Grant Park, others in the streets outside the White House and in storefronts turned Party Headquarters across the country.

I don’t remember ever seeing this much excitement around an election. It isn’t a Super Bowl, a Stanley Cup, a World Series or a Madison Halloween party. It’s a Presidential Election! And from now on, that sentence will never be the same.

It’s a Presidential Election that made history. Best voter turnout in forty years of a century, depending on your source. Record money raised and spent, although that can be taken as a positive or a negative. Record number of early voters by absentee ballot.

And the most important record of all: the American electorate finally crossed the racial line and elected a young, intelligent, articulate, and forward thinking man. And in the process, America elected Barack Obama the first African-American President of the United States.

>According to this poll, I am a social liberal, an economic liberal, and best described as (drum roll) a socialist. According to them, I “…exhibit a very well-developed sense of Right and Wrong and believe in economic fairness.” When I clicked on Famous People, my icon was very close to Barack Obama, but exactly on Hillary Clinton. According to their interpretation of political ideologies, mine was right on the edge of the socialist area, bordering on Democrat.

This was an interesting quiz in that it focused on, as they put it, “fundamental values” and “avoided the edgy party issues.”

If you’re offended by the Socialist label, please think again. Just like chocolate and coffee, all in moderation. Here’s their explanation:

For example, on the economic axis, a highly permissive system, like the American system of the early 1900s, might mean things like low taxes and increased scientific innovation. It might also result, as it did back then, in unrestricted child labor and millions of poor people with black lung. At the other end of the economic spectrum, a highly regulated system might conserve the environment, establish national health care, and eliminate poverty. But as we’ve learned from the Soviet system, extreme regulation can also lead to stagnation, sameness, and unhappiness.

In other words, balance is key. We in the U.S. of A. have high standards for government services and regulations, but we pay for those through our tax system. We are constantly looking for the perfect balance, and never quite finding it. That’s a large part of why I find all things political evolving and fascinating.

Try it yourself!