Hopeful and Scared as Shit

I don't bite my nails, but today I think I might start. I belive that Obama will win. All the indications seem to point that way. But I won't be able to breathe easy 'til it's all over. They say "once bitten, twice shy." Well, I've been bitten hard in a very tender place the last two major elections, and there's no telling how many uncorrupted elections it will take to make me feel safe in early November during even years.

With apologies to my Republican brothers and sisters, it's not just that McCain is scary. I actually used to respect John McCain, but as Feral Mom eloquently illustrates, he's sold out or gone mad or both. And it's not just that his running mate is so underqualified that she makes Dan Quayle look like Winston Churchill. (And so annoying she drives me up a wall. And I'm from Wisconsin! Some of my favorite people have folksy accents not unlike hers. It's not the accent. It's so much more.) No, the horror of an imagined McCain-Palin administration is just part of what's at stake.

What's really at stake is that we have an astoundingly good candidate in Barack Obama, someone who is intelligent, ethical, even tempered, thoughtful, and has a great deal of relevant experience. Someone who knows the Constitution. Someone who takes complex and realistic positions on difficult issues. Someone who has maintained his positions and his poise over the course of a hard faught primary season and campaign season. I could go on and on about why I love Obama, but I have a class to teach in fifteen minutes. But suffice to say, that if we don't elect him, I think I may lose all hope for the good sense and native intelligence of my fellow Americans as a group.

I voted. And now I'm waiting, rationing my fingernails so they last 'til the verdict is in.