Ah, The Night Before

We said our goodbyes, ah the night before

("The Night Before" by The Beatles)


So what happened the night before? I think you saw it expressed in where the two Presidential candidates held their respective rallies:

John McCain held it on the grounds of a fancy hotel, the Biltmore, in Arizona

Barack Obama held it on the grounds of a public park in Chicago

I think that pretty much sums it all up. Where Obama spoke during the campaign to a broad public, McCain was speaking to the people who would stay at a place like the Biltmore.

What did McCain say to younger people, struggling people, people who felt they had been left behind? What did he say to the average college student that would inspire them to vote for him? McCain spoke to a predictable Republican base, but that's simply not the majority of America. My hope for the Republican party is that they take a good, hard look at what who they are and where they stand and find a message...or messages...that inspire people to vote for them (not simply against someone else).

I don't know what the next four years will bring, but I do know this: Last night America proved to the world that we have the ability to move beyond our sometimes self-imposed prejudices. We've decided to move from our self-imposed isolation in the world, a world where we claimed the moral high ground while not acting like we had the moral high ground, to a position where we can say "look at what we do, not just at what we say".