Warm Fuzzies and Quotes of the Week

Since so much of my attention has been focused recently on the negative reaction to Obama's election, I need to redirect my thoughts to what has happened.

Obama won. Americans went to the polls and picked our next president by a large margin. No recounts, no intervention from the Supreme Court. He won this thing fair and square.

So, since I've been on the defensive pretty much since the results came in, here is a collection of things that have inspired me, made me laugh, or caused me to think.



Barack Obama, in his victory speech:

If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible; who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time; who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer.

It’s the answer told by lines that stretched around schools and churches in numbers this nation has never seen; by people who waited three hours and four hours, many for the very first time in their lives, because they believed that this time must be different; that their voice could be that difference.

It’s the answer spoken by young and old, rich and poor, Democrat and Republican, black, white, Latino, Asian, Native American, gay, straight, disabled and not disabled – Americans who sent a message to the world that we have never been a collection of Red States and Blue States: we are, and always will be, the United States of America.

It’s the answer that led those who have been told for so long by so many to be cynical, and fearful, and doubtful of what we can achieve to put their hands on the arc of history and bend it once more toward the hope of a better day.

It’s been a long time coming, but tonight, because of what we did on this day, in this election, at this defining moment, change has come to America.

Michael Gerson, former Bush speechwriter:

I suspect I will have many substantive criticisms of the new administration, beginning soon enough. Today I have only one message for Barack Obama, who will be our president, my president: Hail to the chief.

Rudy Giuliani, on whether he would support Obama:

You know what happens tomorrow morning when this is all over, or tomorrow afternoon, or whenever, or tonight? We all become Americans, and we support Barack Obama or John McCain 100 percent. Because if they fail, we fail.

Brian Williams, calling the election:

11 PM on the East Coast. We're back on the air and we have news. There will be young children in the White House for the first time since the Kennedy generation. An African-American has broken the barrier as old as the republic; an astonishing candidate, an astonishing campaign. A seismic shift in American politics.

Iman Bibars, Egyptian women's activist and, often, "sharp" critic of the U.S.:

When Obama won, I felt it was the return of the American Dream. I just cried
through the whole thing, because it gave me hope that the good guy will win, in
a world where good people don't normally win.

What some folks call impossible is just stuff they haven't seen before.
--What Dreams May Come.