And now, the hard part

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Last night was pretty euphoric. After getting horribly depressed by the early polls (please, if only 2% of precincts are reporting don't tell us the tallies yet!), things took a wonderful turn.

Cambridge was pretty quiet, which, given the response elsewhere, was a little disappointing. I was ready for honking horns and chanting crowds. However, as I sat in the local dive bar, with Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'" as the loud soundtrack to a muted CNN, I felt a tiny portion of how important the moment was. I also realized how precarious President Obama's path will be.

I'v read a few conservative responses today. They range from completely biased, to relatively circumspect. Of course, poking around at the National Review will raise the blood pressure of anyone who leans slightly left -- but these are the people who will be waiting to jump upon every tiny misstep our president elect makes. These are the people who, no matter how hard he works, he'll never "earn" their fair consideration.

Nevertheless, there are far more important obstacles that Obama will need to attack, and my hope is that he'll bring us along for the ride as he did throughout his campaign. I am optomistic that he'll give it a shot -- after all, his announcement to the Obama supporter email list ended like this:

"We have a lot of work to do to get our country back on track, and I'll be in touch soon about what comes next. "

So, President Obama, as long as you keep me in the loop, I'll listen to Journey's advice.