HE WON! A truly special night!

At long last, the people have spoken!!! My candidates won and the hope is that the bad times Americans have suffered (especially economically) will all be a bad dream 4 years from now. There are no guarantees on that, however.

I am happy that Obama triumphed over a couple of below average candidates in McCain & Palin. There are more than 3 reasons that make me truly happy to be on the winning side.

First, I'm sick to death of the Republicans 2-word panacea (in other words, solution to every problem): TAX CUTS. Republicans love to criticized Democrats for their "tax and spend" policies. What about the Republicans "borrow and bury" policies? Republicans hate raising taxes, so when they inevitably spend more than they tax, they borrow money. As a result, (and this is the important part) American taxpayers pay money on the interest. So instead of the Democrats spending $4 million on a tank, Republicans spend almost $5 million on the same exact tank because Americans also have to pay interest on the money they borrow. There is no "pay as you go" with Republicans, and suc a disastrous policy could not come at a worse time. More and more "Baby Boomers" are going to retire and the amount the United States spends on Social Security will jump astronomically in the next 2 decades.

We need to somehow get the tax money to meet such expense. We will get that with a Democratic president and Congress. Secondly, the Bush administration and his ilk have had a dreadful, godawful, loathsome environmental record. It will be nice to see an administration reverse course on being better stewards of our earth.

Third, we will get a better balanced judicial branch. A president appoints federal judges. We have had more Republican presidents in the last 20 yrs. than we have had Democrat. We have too many who are too conservative. It led to a mistaken decision in the Supreme Court in 2000 when the Supreme Court stopped cold the voting/counting process in Florida in Bush v. Gore.

At 8:25 pm, I knew and later learned the McCain camp learned the race was for all intents & purposes over. When Pennsylvania went to Obama earlier and then at 8:25 Ohio also went to Obama, that was the one-two punch that put the Republicans prostrate on the canvas.

I'm a little nervous. All eyes are on Democrats as they lead Congress and we have a Democratic President Elect. If things go South, it will be blamed on the Democrats. I hope that Obama's ideas take root and grow among the people. I hope we can get a handle on the budget deficit, end the war in Iraq, and reverse course on the environment.

Where will all this change lead Americans? An anxious nation and an anxious world awaits!

I really want to congratulate all of the voting 18 and 19 year olds, all of the voting 20somethings college or non-college who got out and voted. Those awesome young people helped win this election for a very worthy candidate. People from 18 to 29 have never gotten much respect from politicians and political experts b/c it's so rare for people of that age group to finally, at long last flex their political muscle! It was so inspiring to see that young men and women intelligently recognized how crucial this election was and used their power to support Obama and other Democrats. I can hardly wait to see what brilliant minds will come from their age group to lead this nation in the future.

You could see, feel and be inspired by the happiness of the accomplishment tonight. The faces of many minorities in the crowd at Grant Park, Chicago. They fully realized that together no problem was too big and nearly anything positive was possible. In fact, as much as I liked seeing and hearing Barack Obama tonight, I was more energized by the pictures/footage of the crowd. The look of sheer joy, the feeling of euphoria and the confidence of triumph. Seeing Oprah cry tears of joy, seing Rev. Jesse Jackson, a presidential candidate crying not once but twice. More than a few of us cried tears of joy as well.

It's within our hands to solve some serious problems. Working together, we can do no less!