Obama Victory

OBAMA!  President Elect Obama.  It really happened.  The 44th President of the United States is one for the history books, for sure.  Exciting times, and an election which will be part of my thoughts and part of my kid's future history studies.  We're trying to impress upon our girls just how important this all is, without overwhelming them.  They seem pretty excited all around, but they were also pretty excited about Halloween this year too.  Eventually, they'll understand the significance.  No hurry.

It's been 12 years since I voted for a presidential candidate who actually won.  That was the first time I voted, and I was stationed in Tazar, Hungary in the US Air Force.  I was on a tour-of-duty, representing the 4400th Ops Squadron in Operation Joint Endeavor .  We were over there flying some of the first real Predator UAV missions, and supporting NATO and the IFOR peacekeeping task force in the Bosnian-Herzegovina conflict.  It was a time when America was viewed as being a strong and vital part of world peacekeeping efforts.  The people in the countries I visited during that time (Bosnia, Hungary & Austria) showed great affection for US troops, and always greeted us with smiles.  Besides my photos and memories from that time, I also have a nifty Challenge Coin which I keep as an added reminder.

The last 8 years under Bush have seemed to be this great unraveling of all the foreign relations we have built, as well as a general jackassery among all things political.  Pundits running around, loudly spouting the most inane thoughts gracing their heads.  The hate and greed and distrust we are feeling as forward-thinking Americans has become unbearable.  Things really do seem as bad as we all imagined they could possibly get.  So now, I have hope, and the entire country seems to have hope again for a much brighter future in America and the world.

Thank you America for looking past your silly racial conflicts.  Thank you for looking past the fact that Barack Hussein Obama is a really weird name.  Thank you for coming to your senses, and for finally electing the best person for this extremely important job.

And finally, a link to my blarg post from the day after election 2004 .  It's nice to get things right once in a while.