Time to take down the yard signs

It was a long, hard race to Election Day. Even as the results came in Tuesday night, even as Pennsylvania was called for Obama barely five minutes after the polls had closed (with only 1% of precincts reporting), even as every probable path to victory for McCain and Palin slammed shut as state after state went for Obama and Biden, I still refused to consider the race over. Not until I heard that McCain had called Obama to congratulate him on his victory. Not until McCain gave his concession speech. Not until Obama gave his victory speech.

When I was seven we got our first dog. It was a puppy from a pet store, back before we ever put any thought into the ethics of such a thing. He was a cute tiny Chihuahua, a teeny tiny thing. We kept him in a box in our kitchen that first night, with a blanket and some food and some water.

In the middle of the night I went out to look at him. I couldn't believe it. We had a puppy. We have a puppy. I was so happy, I had to just keep looking at him and reminding myself that this was for real, this wasn't some dream that was going to fade away within minutes of waking.

President-Elect Barack Obama isn't a Chihuahua puppy from a pet store who is being kept in a box in my kitchen. But the feeling of overjoyed disbelief is very similar.

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For the last eight weeks I have dedicated large patches of virtual real estate on this blog to my Obama virtual yard signs. I don't know if they changed anyone's vote, or encouraged anyone to vote who might not have otherwise. Maybe they gave an incremental nudge to people who came here searching for "cathy baker hee haw" or "js3250.dll" or "headless rabbit." I don't know. Barack Obama won the election, and I did my part to help him.

In less than 74 days President-Elect Obama will be sworn in as President Obama. And then the work will begin of fixing this great nation of ours, of undoing the damage that has been done in the last eight years and taking us forward into a better world.

But that better world won't be created through the actions of fawning sycophants or overeager cheerleaders. There will be hard work. There will be dissent. There will be conflicts.

So it's time to take down the signs. I won't throw them away, or hide them. I'll put them here as a reminder of the long fight that was just fought.







But with these signs coming down, I made a new one to remind us of the battle we fought, and the victory we achieved. If you played any role whatsoever in this victory, feel free to copy it for your own use:

Yes we DID!



YouTube weekend video: Barenaked Ladies, "Pinch Me:"