Gratitude

Amidst the happiness pouring off my friends page, I want to give my own gratitude for two things about last night's election that touch on issues mattering even more to me then who won:

There wasn't any suggestion of widespread voter tampering in the returns. We have four more years to try and clean up our election system so that we can handle another 2000 without leaving half the country feeling like the election was stolen.

The race wasn't close enough to have several more months of recounts and legal wrangles. We won't have another round of deepening the already very deep and painful divides between the two sides of the country.

I'm very grateful for an Obama win. But that's at least partially because I think (I hope) he's well suited to address the cultural divide, "to find the necessary compromises to bridge our differences". He's human. He will disappoint. But I'm still daring to hope that he'll leave this country a better place, and specifically a less divided place.