Doing my duty

I went out to vote yesterday and was happy to see a constant flow of people in and out of our local voting place. I'm not a very political person, but I do vote. I figure, people in other countries walk for miles and risk their lives to vote, and all I have to do is go 2 blocks and only risk a possible 2 minute wait to vote, seems like I could at least make the effort. I also don't usually watch the 5 hours of election coverage, mainly because I get bored, but decided to watch this year. I was amazed at all of the graphics, statistics and interviews, it was very interesting. I'm really not sure how they can award a state to a particular candidate when only 23% of the precincts are in and the vote still appears to be close, but it usually turns out right, so they must know something. I know there were problems last election with them calling states, only to find out they had to un-call them. I'm guessing they refined there system after that. The funniest thing I saw was on NBC last night. The came back from a break and were going to update us on states that they have called. They went through their list until they got to Arkansas. The put the state graphic up, which said 0% precincts reporting, 0 votes for Obama and 0 votes for McCain, then, had to tell me that it was too early to call that state. You think? Maybe you want to get 1 precinct closed, then call it for whoever won that. To hear the TV guy stumble for what to say when 0% popped up on the screen made the whole night better. Mason and Makiah voted in their class rooms and it was interesting to get a 2nd graders and a 1st graders view on the election. Mason was going for Obama and Makiah was for McCain, even though neither one could tell me why they had chosen their particular candidate. Obama won in both rooms, which made Mason very happy and devastated Makiah. It took a little pep talk to bring him back up with the "Maybe in 4 years your guy will get in" speech. I'm hoping that in 4 years, the country will be in such good shape that the Republicans don't even throw out any opposition, because they know it would be a slaughter. I'd have said the same thing if McCain had won. I just want this country back on its feet financially, in the worlds eyes and in Americans eyes. I could care less who gets the credit.