Just threw up my own little Election 2008 video, summing up my thoughts via movie and history references.

I was never George W. Bush’s fan, but I was at best a lukewarm Democrat. I am an Infantryman in the Oklahoma Army National Guard. My other job is as a civilian IT technician at Tinker Air Force Base in Oklahoma City.
In his address to the nation after 9/11, the President didn’t ask Americans to sacrifice. He didn’t ask Americans to serve. He asked the nation to go shopping. I cried. I knew as clearly as I have ever known anything that we were going to war and my Commander in Chief had just kneecapped us.
The same people who love McCain and Palin are the same people who think George W. Bush is a good leader.
I’ve been to Iraq and Afghanistan. I have spent almost 40 months away from my family and my civilian job in the last seven years. I love my country with all my heart, and I love my soldiers as my own children. I would die for either if need be.
Tomorrow morning, I will get up, take my anxiety medication, shower, shave, get dressed, drink a cup of coffee, and eat my oatmeal and bacon. I will kiss my children and wife goodbye, and I will get in my ten-year-old car and light a cigarette. Up until that point, my morning will be like every other weekday morning since I returned from Afghanistan. Tomorrow, I will do something different. I will turn at the intersection instead of driving straight, and I will stop at the red brick church with the white steeple. I’ll go inside and cast my ballot for Barack Obama for President. I will vote a straight party ticket. My vote won’t mean a lot in Oklahoma. But when I get back in my car, I’ll have something for the drive to work that I haven’t had in so long I can’t even remember anymore. I’ll have hope.

God Bless you all, and God Bless the United States of America.

Bogg,
We can all relax.
This one is in the bag.
I grew up in PA and now live in Ohio. I can tell you that Obama will win both, even with some unbelievable racism in Ohio. (Yes, much more than Philly)
This is Bush’s fitting legacy. They finally got a candidate who was a blank slate and would do or say anything the Republicans wanted.
The result is the destruction of the Republican party now that it is revealed for what it really is.
Rich, white bigots using our military and justice department as private companies.
They even outed a C.I.A. officer without blinking an eye.
That says it all.

Thank you, Soonergrunt…..you made me cry.

I will admit though, that I was already a little weepy as I’ve been cruising these intertubes this early morning, but your comment sent me over the edge.

Who knows, maybe your vote in Oklahoma will mean more than you think.

Thank you for your service.

From a fellow Oklahoman, thanks for your words, Soonergrunt, and thanks for being another lonely holder of the Banner of Barack here in McCain country (my home area of Logan County is registered 2 to 1 Republican). This morning, I will walk past my rather lonely Obama yard signs to the church down the block and cast my vote for a new beginning of decency and justice in our nation.

I can look out my window in this hour before dawn and see the ghosts of a few other crazy Okies out there: Will and Woodie and those farmers who led the Green Corn Rebellion, the dead of the Tulsa Race Riots and Ada Lois Sipuel who desegregated the University of Oklahoma, Raymond Gary who proclaimed an end to school segregation with his governor’s pen and Roscoe Dunjee who edited the Oklahoma City Black Defender. I am also thinking of a few who are still alive, like our last progressive senator Fred Harris and Clara Luper who sat at the lunch counters in the 50s. All of them will walk to the polling station with me this morning.

Oklahoma will be one of the red states that will lose with McCain today. But we still have a lot of folks–the living and the dead–who will rejoice tonight.

McCain unveils his secret weapon:

MIAMI, Nov. 3 You’ve already met Joe the Plumber. But John McCain waited until the day before the election to bring out his ultimate weapon: Pepe the Feather Duster.
Just after midnight on Monday, the Republican nominee took the stage at the University of Miami basketball arena to greet thousands of Cuban American supporters. When he got to the part in his speech about the Ohio man who challenged Barack Obama on his tax plan, he tried a bit of Spanish. “Joe the Plumber — or, as they say in Little Havana, Pepe el Plumero,” he said haltingly. “That’s the last time I try that,” he added.
Probably a good thing. Even if “Joe” somehow translates into “Pepe,” McCain’s pronunciation of “plomero,” Spanish for plumber, came out more like plumero, Spanish for feather duster.

I just voted. My polling place is an elementary school built on the site of Frederick Douglass’ farm. When I passed the historical marker on the way in, well, I got a little choked up.

Geez tbogg, you’re such an ole softy. First you post “changing of the guard” and choke up those of us of a certain age about how things really have changed, then you feature the L&TCasey’s lovely comment, to assure us that those damn kids aren’t all bad, and of course there are the bassets, and now this.

I come here for the superlative snark, tbogg, but this side of you is a bonus. Thanks.

Thank you and bless you in return.

Wow, the future finally fuckin’ got here.