I had a great election night experience in Italy - an all-nighter well worth the effort. I was to return to Seattle on November but had warned evryone that I would not be coming back if McCain won the election. How relieved am I about the result? Very. Although it seems like we have front row seats for the end of American prosperity and decades of living on credit and beyond our means. As part of the set-up crew for the Democrats Abroad in Rome, we set out from Otricoli at about 9 p.m. Set-up started about 10 p.m. and volunteers arrived in a steady stream until midnight. Doors opened at the Roadhouse Grill at Stazione Termini at 1 a.m. and soon the place was nicely packed. About 450 people had RSVPd. The upstairs space was all tables and TV screens tuned to CNN. Downstairs, there was a pancake breakfast buffet and coffee. Last minute frantic phone calls had guaranteed a sufficient supply of maple-flavored syrup. I was glued to the TVs all night. As the crowd grew and the temperature rose, the results came in on CNN. A bank of Italian photographers and camera-people faced the TV spectators who cheered and screamed as the tide of electoral votes went the way of Obama. I had no voice for three days afterward. At 5 a.m. came the breaking news announcement and the room went first absolutely silent as everyone held their breath and then wild with cheers, tears, hugs and sheer amazement. Everyone was rapt at Obama's acceptance speech and watched McCain's concession with equal attention. I cried too. To be honest, I wanted Hillary and would still desperately like to see a woman as President - with the exception of Sarah Palin. Her I'd like to see set on an Alaskan ice flow and sent drifting of into open freezing water in her beauty pageant high heels, one-piece bathing suit and sash.....
I set off from Termini at 6 that morning and Rome was quiet, and her relief was almost palpable, or maybe that was just mine. Maybe it was the effect of lack of sleep. Given that I haven't pulled an al-nighter since about 1980, that is entirely possible. The light seemed a different color, the colors brighter, the dawn achingly beautiful. We stopped for coffee at an Autogrill not far from our exit. Pat had her "Roma Ama Obama" t-shirt on and her Dems Abroad Obama button. The woman at the counter greeted us with a happy "Yes we can!" (probably the only phrase she knew in English) and asked us where we were from. California, Chicago, and New York as it turns out - the entire breadth of the US was covered. In Civita, after a shower and a change of clothes that same morning, feeling too elated and energized to sleep, I set out to walk around with a goofy smile on my face and a lot of bounce in my step. I encountered our small town Mayor who congratulated me on Obama's victory although I had had no part in it except my absentee ballot. He hugged me - he'd never done that before - and wished me well.
We're in a terrible place, largely thanks to bad governance in the past eight years. In my mind most everything that ails my country is Bush's fault. PERIOD. I just hope that an Obama presidency can put us back on the right path to begin to fix some of the things that are broken. Hurray for Rahm - I adore his partisanship and admire his brains and attitude. I can't put my disappointment and disgust about the Republicans aside and if that makes me a bad person, so be it. I've been saying loudly and at every opportunity since 2000 that a ham sandwich would be a better President than W. Admit it! You're just as relieved as I am to finally have someone with a decent mind and an IQ above 80 back in the most important job in the country. If you aren't, well, you should just be ashamed of yourself.
There is Repubblica TV video that includes our event here. Enjoy!
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