THERE IS NO BLACK AND WHITE, ONLY GREEN

Who cares whether the candidates are black, white, female, male, old or young? The real question is: Do they drive a hybrid?


Elections are finally over. After what feels like decades of tough and, at times, dirty campaigning, America has chosen a new leader.

I find myself sitting on the couch, this Super Tuesday —the day many people around the world have been eagerly anticipating for months. The sun has been buried behind the distant horizon for hours. In fact, it was dark at five in the evening, making me and many others, I am sure, feel like the kid who gets sent to bed while his friends still play in the street outside his window.

On the TV I am being loaded with campaign information, a trickling of incoming national and state specific election results and the image of a frozen map with a growing number of red and blue states. However, it is my internal feelings that surprise me the most. I don’t want to make this a political rant, by any means, nor do I care to even share my particular political partisanship, but there are a few, unique things that I am sure many others are experiencing.

First and foremost, we have a new President. The election of Barack Obama came as an internal surprise; and by internal, I mean my own feelings. Typically I have voted Republican; that is no secret. However, this time around I didn’t feel partial to either candidate. So, here on election night, I find myself watching more than rooting. When the news broke that Obama had exceeded the necessary electoral vote number, I thought I would be disappointed because of my Republican-ness history —but I wasn’t. In fact, I confused myself with a feeling of excitement; excitement, I feel, being produced by the possibility of the unknown. Here is my reason. I will use a version of the cup half-full, half-empty metaphor to explain.

A McCain presidency, as I see it, would be like having a cup on the table. However, the cup is completely empty of any water, except for the remaining condensation that is slowly dripping down the outside and pooling onto the table where it rests.

McCain may be a new candidate (and by new, I mean not GWB. After all, the man is no stranger to running for president. He and H. Ross Perot should form a club.), and he may have new people surrounding him; but, over all, I never believed his team would be too different from what we have experienced in the abysmal Bush years. Had he won, I wouldn’t feel like there would be an overwhelming possibility for a new dawn, a dawn of change for the better.

With Obama, the sentiment is different. I don’t want anyone to assume too much from that statement, nor do I want to be awkwardly lumped with the “nuts for Obama fans”. I just find myself curious with the unknown possibilities —for better or worse— that might be with him as a president. And most of these feelings stem from the fact that I know little about how he plans to turn the sinking ship —that is our country— around.

So, to continue with the optimist, pessimist metaphor as it relates to an Obama presidency: the cup is on the table, and it also is completely empty. However, there is a pitcher with an unknown amount of water in it right next to the cup. Will there be enough to fill the cup, or will it leave it empty? I don’t know, and that’s why there is curious excitement.