hope is important;

Well, what a night. Though a badly-timed migraine denied me election coverage in the end, it seemed appropriate that my American BFF would be the one to break the news. I hissed a quiet “yessss!” before padding through to the living room to catch the highlights of some speeches.

Says Whitney:

And to think, I was there in the beginning. I saw this man, shook his hand on a freezing Iowa night in January. I heard him speak the night before Iowa’s first vote and said to myself, This man is going to change this country. And here I am, almost a year later, having voted for him in Washington, D.C.’s primary and Tennessee’s general election. Here I am, still with this awed look on my face, saying, Yes, this man is going to change my country.

And then to work, by which time making history had begun to give way to cynicism’s default setting. Can’t help this sinking feeling this is America’s 1997 I tapped out to Kriss in our daily email exchange, but my heart isn’t really in it, not yet. No – right now I believe the smile, and the rhetoric. I believe this is a man who means what he says. To quote again, this time Stevie from yesterday’s comments, now the real work begins.

What’s next is tomorrow’s election, news of a tiny Scottish constituency hard to find today with the focus understandably on the American – global – story. I can’t help but note that while America’s rebellion against the Bush/Blair years was a step to the left, while the UK’s own two-party set-up (you know, the one we’re not supposed to have) leaves its alternative to the right. Apart from up here in Scotland, where the SNP’s track record has pleasantly surprised me thus far – but any support for them on my part seems disingenuous while I’m so fervently against their central policy.

But that’s tomorrow, and probably the reason this blog rarely concerns itself with politics as often as my little head does. Today at least, the world seems a much brighter place – not least because Celtic are currently leading Manchester Utd at Parkhead, and although Glasgow has postponed its official display in light of that fixture I can still see fireworks from our big front windows.

(As for today’s photo? You can thank author Nick Hornby’s post earlier, in which he summarised today’s papers this side of the Atlantic:

Mr President (The Independent)
Yanks Very Much (The Star)
Gobama (The Mirror)
One Giant Leap For Mankind (The Sun)
America’s Historic Verdict (The Guardian)
A New World Dawns (The Express)
Home Loans: A Slap in the Face (The Mail)

Quality.)

PS I guest-posted at Save The Assistants again yesterday! I get to review silly movies so Lilit doesn’t have to.

[PHOTO: Day 71.]