U.S. Presidential Election 2008

This certainly is the election of my lifetime. If you’ve already voted today you probably had to wait a while to do so. This morning I’ve been spending time with the Encyclopedia of U.S. campaigns, elections, and electoral behavior. While it was just published in 2008 and is excellent for historical review, so much has changed this election season that I am wondering if an addendum will be published in the near future. I’m looking forward to new studies that will take the innovations used in the 2008 election into account as well as the recent grassroots movements in politics. But for right now, I’m just eager to see who wins.

Writing from the edge of my seat…

It’s Election Day, and history will be made by this evening, once the West Coast has cast its last ballots. American Presidential elections are significant events, with repercussions into almost every aspect of our lives. There were few fashion points to be made with this one, two men slugging it out in suits. But the awesome factor is that one of the candidates is a black man. At one point, it looked like there might have been a woman presidential candidate, but when that collapsed, suddenly the other party came up with a female vice-presidential choice! Regardless of how you feel about these candidates, at least the ticket isn’t all white men as in the past.

No matter what, history will be made today: we either break the color barrier, or the age barrier, along with a glass ceiling. Whatever the outcome of this day, a message has been sent. More people can have dreams, who once figured there were no possibilities for them because of who they were. The old American adage, “you, too, can grow up to become president,” just might fit everyone in this country. Back in the 1960s, there were concerns over a Catholic president, and then one was elected. Later, questions arose if a divorced man could be fit for the office—and then one was elected.

What’s next? Will I live to see a black woman become President?