You Rock, Barack.

The votes have been tallied and we have our 44th President - Barack Obama.

I admit, I am one of those people that registered for the first time to vote for Obama. I even aligned myself as a Democrat so I could chip in for the primary. That's sort of a big deal for me, because I staunchly abhor any sort of affiliate for affiliation's sake. But in this instance, I made a very large exception.

Voting was a breeze today, though I hear it was not as nice for some other people. I live in a city that is politically active and full of old-guard free spirits/hippy types. So the whole process was surprisingly efficient. From the time I parked my car to the time I trotted away from the polling place only an hour had elapsed. Some of my co-workers we not so lucky - they were nearly 3 hours late to work.

I knew my County would carry Barack based on its demographic, but I was compelled to vote anyway. Not to be disappointed, when I got out of my car after driving home from watching most of the News, I was greeted with hooping and hollering and - yes - fireworks. PG County never fails to show its pride.

This election has given me a lot of faith: foremost in the somewhat alien "American People" with whom I don't feel very closely aligned. I have to say, I was pretty pessimistic about whether folks would be able to use their brain instead of falling back on primal fears. I've also got restored faith in The Process - my guy WON which means this whole election thing must not be as broken as I was lead to believe 4 or 8 years ago.

But mostly I'm looking forward to tomorrow and the days after. Things won't be easy and they won't be pretty but it will be brave and new and I think that kind of lean and hungry attitude is what we really need.