¡Felicidades Presidente Obama!

I haven't cried yet, but I suspect I would have if I had been watching the live election coverage in the US. It also helped that I received the news when Marga woke me from deep slumber to inform me that "Barack won," and to point out the clear evidence of blanket hogging. Everyone alive today needs to remember where they were when this historic event occurred. This is absolutely not something to be shrugged off as "boring politics". What Barack Obama and his supporters have done is unprecedented in the annals of human history. Even if he had lost, his campaign and the passion behind it would not have gone unnoticed around the world. On behalf of American expatriates around the globe, I would like to thank Barack Obama and everyone who voted for him for restoring pride in my country of origin. Finally I can say "¡Soy americano!" in a loud voice. [great, now I'm crying]

The fifteen electoral votes from North Carolina went to Barack Obama by a mere 12,160 votes. That means 49.84% of the 4.2 million NC voters voted for Obama and 49.55% voted for McCain. I've never felt so much like my vote counted in this stupid Electoral College system. I've already commented on how the United States employs the absolute worst voting system ever invented.

I leave you with some humor, courtesy of The Onion:

Black Man Given Nation's Worst Job WASHINGTON - African-American man Barack Obama, 47, was given the least-desirable job in the entire country Tuesday when he was elected president of the United States of America. In his new high-stress, low-reward position, Obama will be charged with such tasks as completely overhauling the nation's broken-down economy, repairing the crumbling infrastructure, and generally having to please more than 300 million Americans and cater to their every whim on a daily basis. As part of his duties, the black man will have to spend four to eight years cleaning up the messes other people left behind. The job comes with such intense scrutiny and so certain a guarantee of failure that only one other person even bothered applying for it. Said scholar and activist Mark L. Denton, "It just goes to show you that, in this country, a black man still can't catch a break."