She ran the footage of today’s standing ovation for Senator Ted Stevens while listing his convictions as they were superimposed over the image.

It’s not the only reason I love her, but it’s evidence of her general awesomeness.

Brava.

I was too nervous to go to the Driskill to the watch party with all of my friends.  Instead, I am home, alone, watching MSNBC.  I have been speaking to everyone by phone and text throughout the night.

I was on the phone with BP when Ohio and New Mexico fell turned blue.  We knew at that point that it was over.  It is over.

Barack Obama will be our president.  I spoke with my brother who said “the real America” voted . . . our America that lives in cities, is integrated, is educated.

They tried the identity games again and lost.

I am so proud of my country, so thrilled for us all.  It’s a generational change.  It’s important and it’s moving.

Even my mother, who voted the other way, said, “Well, this is about you kids, and not about me.  I love my country.”

BP and I have plans to celebrate with champagne when he flies back, since it feels like New Year’s Eve.

I cannot stand to listen to her voice.  Her style of speaking bothers me.  Her pride in her special brand of ignorance offends me.  Her dog whistle to her supporters’ basest beliefs angers me.

This morning, I listened to her “Special Policy Address,” and I became infuriated.  Her hypocrisy is not unexpected, but everything that she wants for special needs children are the very things she would want to deny to children who are not hers:  opportunity to a good education, opportunity for jobs, support for families.

Imagine her making the same comments about children who are economically disadvantaged.

Update:  Apparently, I am not alone.  I just read this on Matthew Yglesias:

But when you see candidates out there on the hustings talking about how we need to take care of special needs children, well, it makes me mad. Of course we need to take care of their needs. But kids, special and otherwise, need all kinds of stuff. They need decent childcare and nutritious food and they need to see doctors and dentists and they need clothing and they need decently maintained houses that are heated in the winter. They need parents with job opportunities and schedules that are flexible enough to take care of them. Nobody seriously denies that kids need this stuff. But lots of people are just indifferent to the fact that a huge proportion of our children don’t get their needs met.

I am a Republican supporting Obama.  That’s not really accurate . . . I am now an Independent who crossed over to vote in the Democratic primary for the first time in my life to vote and caucus for Obama.

Before it became the party of fundamentalists, I was an active GOP member.  I organized, I was elected to local office, I was a delegate.  Then, the party shifted and left me and my cohort of socially liberal, economic conservatives behind.  

Most nights, BP and I watch the talking heads on tv and call each other to rant and rave.  He was a part of my cohort and he too is supporting Obama.  One way I know he is feeling better is he called me all day and all evening to have me switch channels to hear one thing or another.  (Bill Maher!  Roland Martin!  Rachel Maddow!)

All of the news about Palin makes me nervous.  The bounce makes me nervous.  Obama’s preternatural calm makes me nervous.

I am so afraid about this election.  I live in a red state that is not switching.  Worse, I live in a liberal bastion within a red state, so none of my votes ever count.  

I just hope that enough people where it matters look past the bluster and lies.  I hope they do the right thing for our country.

But I am very, very nervous.

As an Austinite and a woman, I have always revered Governor Ann Richards.

She was extraordinary and her loss has been enormous.

I just read an endorsement of Barack Obama by her daughter Cecile Richards on behalf of the Planned Parenthood Action Fund entitled What Would Ann Do?

In her famous speech at the Democratic convention twenty years ago, Mom said, “I think of all the things that never would have happened and all the people who would have been left behind if we had not reasoned, and fought, and won those battles together.” Like Hillary, she would be imploring all voters to not let this moment slip away. She would agree that we have come too far and accomplished too much. Let’s link arms and get on with the future, she’d say. It’s time to elect Barack Obama president.

I was glued to the television all night long, watching the political coverage and the speeches. I actually missed McCain’s speech because I’d been on delay and sped up when we were getting close to having Obama clinch.

Obama’s speech was amazing, actually better than expected. I loved his entrance with Michelle . . . her fabulous sleeveless dress, their fist bump, their obvious affection for each other.

I cried at the end . . . because I am a sap:

The journey will be difficult. The road will be long. I face this challenge with profound humility, and knowledge of my own limitations. But I also face it with limitless faith in the capacity of the American people. Because if we are willing to work for it, and fight for it, and believe in it, then I am absolutely certain that generations from now, we will be able to look back and tell our children that this was the moment when we began to provide care for the sick and good jobs to the jobless; this was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal; this was the moment when we ended a war and secured our nation and restored our image as the last, best hope on Earth. This was the moment – this was the time – when we came together to remake this great nation so that it may always reflect our very best selves, and our highest ideals. Thank you, God Bless you, and may God Bless the United States of America.

I spent the evening with my best friend, who did not understand why what she said was so outrageous.

Here is Keith Olbermann’s Special Comment:

If you wish not to watch the whole thing, skip to 9:44.

I am so shocked by what I just heard and read I am having a difficult time processing it.

Hillary Clinton today cited the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy during the 1968 presidential campaign to explain why she was remaining in the race despite long odds.

”We all remember Bobby Kennedy was assassinated in June in California,” Clinton told the editorial board of a South Dakota newspaper. “ I don’t understand it,” Clinton added, alluding to the calls for her to quit.

Clinton made the statement after pointing out that her husband didn’t lock up the nomination until June of 1992, trying to point out that, by past history, it’s not late in the campaign. 

One secret fear shared by many Obama supporters is that he will not live to take office, even if he wins.  Her statement is outrageous and offensive, and, at worst, could be seen as an encouragement.

It’s just another example of why this woman cannot be a heartbeat away.

Update:  She just gave the non-apology “was in any way offensive.”  It WAS offensive.  It is offensive.  Go away.  Now.

From Andrew Sullivan, responding to Clinton’s statement that: “I say that not counting Florida and Michigan is changing a central governing rule of this country – that whenever we can understand the clear intent of the voters, their votes should be counted. I remember very well back in 2000, there were those who argued that people’s votes should be discounted over technicalities. For the people of Florida who voted in this primary, the notion of discounting their votes sounds way too much of the same.”

How do you respond to a sociopath like this? She agreed that Michigan and Florida should be punished for moving up their primaries. Obama took his name off the ballot in deference to their agreement and the rules of the party. That he should now be punished for playing by the rules and she should be rewarded for skirting them is unconscionable.

I think she has now made it very important that Obama not ask her to be the veep. The way she is losing is so ugly, so feckless, so riddled with narcissism and pathology that this kind of person should never be a heartbeat away from the presidency.

I am crying.  I just finished watching Obama’s Iowa speech and I am crying.

His words about people standing up, leaving home to fight in Selma and Montgomery, had tears rolling down my cheeks:

Change is coming to America.

It’s the spirit that sent the first patriots to Lexington and Concord and led the defenders of freedom to light the way north on an Underground Railroad. It’s what sent my grandfather’s generation to beachheads in Normandy, and women to Seneca Falls, and workers to picket lines and factory fences. It’s what led all those young men and women who saw beatings and billy clubs on their television screens to leave their homes, and get on buses, and march through the streets of Selma and Montgomery – black and white, rich and poor.

Change is coming to America.

Perhaps someday, I will articulate here exactly why his words and, frankly, what he represents are so meaningful to me.

Here is an inexact articulation:

First, he’s nearly of my generation. Even my grandfather parachuted into Normandy on D-Day and fought his way across France. We were affected by the issues that confronted our nation in ways we do not share with our boomer(ish) parents — from the fears of nuclear annihilation to the fall of the Berlin Wall, from failed missions to the success in Gulf War 1. We had great fear and then great hope. For much of my 20s, absolutely everything seemed possible. We were taught that hard work and smart work could change the world and we saw it happen in politics, in technology, in broad economic expansion. What he chooses to say resonates strongly with me on a generational basis.

Second, I believe that we are on the cusp of a post-racial society in a way my aunts and uncles could not have imagined.

What I hear in his words relates to issues I confront in my life. I see the hope implicit in the promise he represents. I believe he represents a new path to help get our country back on track.

Hearing him speak about where we have been and where we are going, I could not help but cry.

Change is coming to America.