Let's not start blowin each other just yet.......

Last night the nation elected it's first African American President, and that's a good thing. It's a bitter pill to swallow for some, in their mind it marks the beginning of the end. Here in Midtown, especially to the east, the night air was filled with cheering, horn honking, and gunfire. The gunfire part, probably not the best move, those little lead pieces have to fall back to earth, per Issac Newton, still you can't blame folks for being excited over such a monumental moment in time. As much as it pleases me to see Obama take the White House, I would be remiss if I didn't take a moment to piss on everyone's parade. Hey, it's what I do.

First of all, John McCain, while I disagree with his politics, there is no denying that the guy loves this country and is a class act. His speech conceding the election to Obama was poignant and dignified. In my opinion there are two reasons McCain lost; first he refused to play gutter politics, proving that he really is different from the majority of politicians, secondly, his running mate was an anchor around his neck. While many conservatives fell all over each other with admiration and adulation over the lipsticked pit bull, she scared the shit out of the moderate undecided voters. That's just my opinion, which also happens to be dead on.

Now to Obama. He has a long row to hoe. For every gushing supporter who thinks Obama will solve the problems in this country, for all of the people who believe he will single handily right all wrongs and turn this country in to Shangri La, I offer up this quote , albeit slightly cleaned up, " Let's not start blowing each other just yet". In other words, winning was just the first step, he has the easy part done, the talking, now he has to follow through. While African Americans , all Americans, have every right to be excited about this monumental election, the fat lady has still yet to sing. For Obama to be truly successful, he must break free of the label "the first black president". Now he has to become just "The President".

Obama now has to prove to ALL Americans that he was the right guy for the job, and not just another in a long line of politicians blowing smoke up the collective ass of America. He has his work cut out for him. The entire nation will be watching his every move, and he needs to watch where he steps. The sore losers, the mouth breathers, the douche nozzles, and the morons, all are waiting to pounce at his first mistake. Some people will ignore the 99 positive moves he may make, and focus on the one bad move, whatever it may be, and there will be some bad moves, poor decisions, ill fated plans.

At the end of the day, I hope we will move in the right direction. Obama on the surface is a calm, level headed, intelligent guy, and that's what this country needs right now. If he remains true to that demeanor, if he avoids divisiveness, if he doesn't abuse the power he has been entrusted with, I think he will go on to be a great leader, but the jury is still out, he has to follow through. He can't steam roll over the now minority Republicans in the Senate, he has to cross party lines, he must remain even handed. Time will tell.

For now, I'll leave you with this. I was listening to NPR the day before the election. a son was interviewing his father for a college class he was taking. The interview was about , what it meant to the father to see an African American running for the White House, with a real chance of winning. The father and son were African American. The son asked his father, what it all meant to him, and while I can't quote him verbatim, I can come close. He said" I grew up in a time when we were still fighting for our right to vote, to be equal. I fought in Vietnam, I served my country, but I never felt equal. this makes me feel equal. More importantly, it means I can say to my son, if you work hard, if you apply yourself, if you want it bad enough, you can be anything you want, even president."