It happened. An African-American man has won a presidential election. In a feat that hasn’t been seen for many elections, the electoral vote winner is also the popular vote winner. At the time of this posting Obama had 52% of the vote and 332 electoral votes with three states, Indiana, Missouri, and North Carolina, still processing votes and too close to call for those states. With 330 electoral votes, Obama clearly surpassed the require 270 electoral votes needed to win. What surprised me is that Obama took both Pennsylvania and Florida, two states that were until last night leaning in McCain’s favor. Seven states, Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Nevada, New Mexico, Ohio, and Virginia, changed party selection from the last two elections.

I was also surprised that the race was closer in Georgia. My state has a history of overwhelmingly supporting the Republican candidate (except for Abraham Lincoln and the support for Democrat Jimmy Carter in his two presidential elections).

The new President is going to have a difficult job ahead of him with the failing economy, stock market volatility, strained foreign relations, job loses, lowering take-home income, and troop withdrawals. I certainly don’t envy him the job which may take two terms just to fix.

Now if we can just get a woman elected president.

Email this post