So it is not quite 9PM and I’m watching MSNBC and waiting to see who will come out victorious from this seemingly very long electoral season. I’ve followed the primaries, the nominations, the debates, and the polls. I’ve considered the issues on both sides and have drawn my conclusions and made my way out to vote this morning. The time for consideration and debate is now over and the time to await the tally’s to bare out our nation’s choice is upon us.
We went as a family this morning to the polls – my wife and I and both of the kids walked the 3 blocks to the fire station to register our votes. My 4-year-old daughter (almost 5) was excited about being involved in the process (she had made her own decision a few months ago based on the issue of equal pay) and my son was excited to see fire trucks (he is only 2). We had only about a 20 minute wait and were on our way back home.
Now my daughter is in bed bemoaning the fact that we won’t let her stay up to see the results. We considered letting her, but she is exhausted and it could yet be hours. I’m not even sure I’ve got it in me to sit and watch things pan out. As much as so many of the polls leading up to this have told me that my choice should win by a strong margin, I can’t see enough strong data yet to convince me and two prior disappointments have me hesitant to celebrate early. It also doesn’t help that every 3 minutes someone on MSNBC mentions how no state has yet gone a different color than they have 4 or 8 years ago. But I’m holding onto some optimism that things will shift sooner rather than later. We shall see.
Hopefully in a few hours (or less) I will be following up this post with one of celebration of a long overdue victory. Hopefully. And hopefully tonight might be the end of a too-long series of politically-oriented posts.