For me 2006 was a great election night. The Democrats took back the House and the Senate and it looked like the Democratic Party was emerging from the dead. I was very happy that night and was hoping Election Night of 2008 would be even better. I just could not see a Democrat losing the Presidency that night. As it turns out I was right and Election night 2006 pales in comparison to Election Night 2008. In fact I’m still elated from the results of that night almost a week later.
For me the anticipation of the 2008 election started after the 2006 election was over. I was looking forward to seeing which Democrats would run for the nomination and I knew we would have a better pool than we did in 2008. Early on I was hoping that former Senator John Edwards would run again. I knew he would be a great voice for the working class families of America and a strong proponent of Universal Health Care. I was happy when he announced his candidacy in December of 2006. Also during December of 2006 I thought that Senator Barack Obama might run. I had a feeling if he ran it could hurt Edwards in terms of they would be going after the same voters (people who wanted change) but I greatly admired Senator Obama and when he announced his candidacy he became a close second on my list of nominee preferences. I was hoping that Senator Clinton would not run, that she would be happy in the Senate. But that was not the case and she decided to run in early 2007. She claimed she had experience and while I was a huge fan of President Clinton I felt the party needed a new direction and so Senator Clinton was 3rd on my list. The rest of the list goes as follows: Senator Joe Biden, Governor Bill Richardson, Senator Chris Dodd and that is where it stopped for me. The other two candidates I wasn’t too pleased with or excited about.
When Senator Edwards dropped out in early 2008 after not doing well in the early primaries I moved to my second choice. I was a little disappointed at first (but later realized the Democratic Party dodged a major bullet) and moved to support Senator Barack Obama. Senator Obama got me hooked and excited about politics the same was President Clinton did and before long I was a true believer. As I watched the primaries go on and Senator Clinton not giving up despite Senator Obama’s lead in the number of delegates it was frustrating but I knew Senator Obama would pull through, when he finally did I was elated, not only that he won but we had made history a black man had won the Democratic nomination for President.
I was also glad to see Senator McCain had received the GOP nomination as he was the most sane all the Republicans seeking the nomination and so if the GOP did win they it wouldn’t be as bad as it could have been. As a true political junkie I watched election coverage daily and was thrilled to see Senator Obama will all three debates. Seeing him built up a big lead in the polls the weeks before Election Day I knew it was over for Senator McCain.
On Election Night I was at a friend’s house drinking a few beers while we watched the results come in. We saw Senator Obama win PA and Ohio and saw CNN announce that Obama needed CA, OR, WA, and Hawaii to win the election so we were quite happy. Just after 8 PM when the election was called for Senator Obama we were all thrilled. Our man had won and the Democrats were back in charge. I now knew how Republicans felt in 2000 and speaking of 2000 I knew I had to send President Bush and Karl Rove a thank you card as they were largely responsible for Obama’s victory.
In addition Governor Gregoire had won reelection and by a big margin over Dino Rossi. It was looking to be a great night, but alas they would be setbacks.
In the WA-08 Dave Reichert narrowly beat Darcy Burner and I can’t see how we are going to defeat Congressman Reichert. If he didn’t lost in 2006 and 2008 when will he lose? In addition Michelle Bachmann narrowly beat Elwyn Tinklenberg. I had been following this race since the summer of 2008 when a friend of mine became a field organizer for Tinklenberg. After her statements on Hardball I was sad to see her win reelection. Also in CA Prop 8 passed and I was sad to see this blow to civil rights pass in a blue state. If this had been an abortion ban, like they had in SD, it would have failed big time but a lot of Democrats seem to be ok with discrimination against gay people. Also in Arkansas they passed a ballot measure that would ban unmarried people from adopting kids. What is this the 19th century? It is a sad day when ballot measures that promote discrimination pass in America. Hopefully we find some way of overturning these ballot measures soon.
So in a nutshell Election Night 2008 was a great night with a few setbacks. Hopefully this Democratic majority lasts for a while.