Barack Obama Elected President!

[Dr. Jay S.W.]

Voted for Senator Obama this morning!! The large lines outside of the church I voted at made me very happy. No matter who we are voting for, large turnout shows how much we care and value our vote.

[Greg's GL]

I'm glad election day is finally here as well. IA that this election cycle has been going on forever and at least we will have a decision later on - for better or worse.

I haven't actually voted yet. Our plans for early voting never happened, so we're meeting at the polls around 3 to do the deed. From what I've seen on the news, the lines are very long right now but they will hopefully get better by early afternoon.

For the record, I gave GWB the benefit of the doubt after 2000 and stood behind him after the terrorist attacks on 9/11. For a while there, I thought he was actually doing a good job. However, the man behind the curtain was revealed not long after that and the true nature of GWB and the Republicans was very clear. The "uniter, not a divider" promise was chunked out the window in favor of wedge issues and division. Marginalizing an entire group of people simply because of whom they love was the last straw for me. That was not, and is not, "compassionate conservatism" as promised. That was hatred. That was discrimination. Supported by the highest office in the land. What kind of leader of the Free World would take such a position? For him and the Republican party to point fingers at any other country for Human Rights abuses only had to look at our own backyard to see the hypocrisy in their platform. Now their days are numbered. And I for one, will be very happy to see him leave.

For someone to post that they will never support Obama before he has even won the election or stepped foot in the Oval Office upsets me. There is no excuse for such a close-minded ideal that is supported by innuendo and falsehoods.

At 3pm EST, my vote will be cast for Barack Obama. Then I will crack open a couple beers and watch the (hopefully) happy returns on CNN.

[Scotty]

I cast my ballot this morning around 7:30 am et (6:30 for me), and made it a family affair by going with my mom, dad, and grandma to vote.

The only problem I had was a poll worker accidentally hitting the wrong button on the voting machine. She hit the county button instead of the city button at my polling place. I ended up being availabe to cast the correct ballot on paper.

The only race it affected was my own. I am running for re-election as a city commissioner here in my hometown, and I almost wasn't able to vote for myself.

Thankfully the issue was corrected. And I can't wait for tonight to watch all the election results filter in from across the country.

I'll breathe a little easier after they announce the results for my local race (there are five of us running for four seats), and when Barack Obama and other Democrats have a commanding lead.

[jcar03]

Good Luck Scotty!

[GoldenDogs]

It's a futile vote in California, but I'll certainly be casting my vote for John McCain. My wife has already voted by mail... my side of the family will be voting for McCain while most of her side of the family will be voting for Barack. Interesting, isn't it?

He was never my first choice, but he is really the only choice I can make. Barack Obama will likely win this election and he will then have to follow through and somehow instill the type of "change" in America he has guaranteed if elected. Can he deliver?

[Scotty]

Thanks.

[Greg's GL]

Brian! Good to see you back in the forum. Check your email, BTW.

Will Obama be able to deliver on all of the promises he's made? Hmm. Good question. I would say if this were another election year and the country wasn't in the complete and absolute mess that it's in, Yes. However, this is not an average election year. And the economy is in ruins. I have had several discussions with his amongst my friends and family and the reality is, he will not be able to deliver on all his promises. IMHO, if he can get half of them accomplished then I think he will be a success. The biggies should be tackled first - Iraq, Healthcare, Tax cuts. Then on the sidelines, if he can work on equal pay for women, sentencing inequities, racial profiling, that would be great.

But these are tough times. Has a president ever been elected in this climate before? Two wars, a faltering economy and huge division within the country? I think not. With such daunting problems, it's hard to believe anyone would want the job. But if anyone can get things done, IMO, it's Obama.

[Laurie]

Casted my vote earlier and I'm proud to say I voted for Obama

So scared I will be disappointed with the results. My fingers and toes are crossed though!

[Greg's GL]

^^ Out of curiosity, what state are you in Laurie?

[Laurie]

^In Jersey. Polls opened at 6 here

[Darcy]

I live in NJ too and will be voting for Obama later today, as will my parents. I stopped by around 8:45 am but it was hard to find a space in the parking lot so I'll go back later. I've been voting for 25 years and there has never been more than 3 or 4 people in line in front of me and we don't have early voting here so I've learned a lot about the voting process this election.

NJ is a very blue state but on Sunday we got 3 live phone calls - 2 from Obama's campaign and 1 for McCain's campaign to make sure we would be voting. Obama's campaign wanted to make sure we had a ride too. The Obama phone calls didn't mention Biden but the McCain call did mention Sarah Palin (bad move on their part IMO). The McCain call also mentioned the Senate race as did one of the Obama calls.

We've also had at least one Obama person come to our door. I was amazed to read that this weekend, the Obama ground campaign knocked on 1 million doors in Ohio and 1.8 million doors in Pennsylvania. Very impressive! I think Pennsylvania will be the key state - if Obama doesn't win it, he may be in big trouble.

[Jess]

I voted early and for Obama. I live in Texas so my vote for Obama is the same as Brian's for McCain.

Good luck on the election Scotty.

[jcar03]

Just got back from voting. I live in Illinois so I didn't expect a long line at the time I went. I just had to wait about 2 minutes for a booth to open up but they did say I could use some of the chairs set up behind the booths if I was in a hurry but I wasn't. We just vote by pen and paper and put it into a thing called an Accu Voter. I was the 558th person four hours in. I'm sure later in the afternoon it will get busier.

[Wales2004]

I still haven't heard anyone question whether or not McCain will be able to deliver on his promises if he should win. Arhold was making fun of Obama being skinny as if it's a sign of weakness.....I'm surprised he didn't come right out and call him a girly man. Evidently, despite that Obama seems to be quite a strong individual because even though McCain is saying the Mac is back and he's the underdog, the media has for the greater part of his campaign, reported as if Obama were twenty steps behind. They're just sort of hanging around now to see how many times they can say "Bradley Effect."

Our county registrar's office has been busy but it rained overnight and that seems to have kept the early birds away. We have one very hot state proposition and another medium hot state proposition that should prompt a high enough turnout. One of them will probably be challenged no matter what the result and the other might depending on the result. In addition to the 12 state propositions on the ballot, people who live in Los Angeles County have an additional three propositions and some cities may have even more propositions. Voting manner should be made the same across the state. In Los Angeles County we have bubble ballots but one of the next counties over, they have to draw lines throught their choices.

[Wales2004]

I'm going to pretend to take this seriously and ask how you know that Biden wouldn't vote for Obama if he weren't on the ticket?

Biden said a lot of things when he was a candidate as did the other candidates and are you saying that none of those former candidates is going to vote for the person they were opposing since they aren't on the ticket?

The only candidate I can say might not have voted for her running mate if she weren't on the ticket is Sarah Palin.....and only because when she was first selected, it was reported that she had been excited about Obama's candidacy up until her selection and her mother in law was still rooting for Obama at the time of her selection.