A8 • THE METROPOLITAN • nOvember 6, 2008
INSIGHT
BIGGER VIEW
Into the wild
By Garrison Keillor distributed
by Tribune Media Services.
Oct. 28, 2008
I was messing around in Tulsa
last week and got talking with a big
burly man with a McCain/Palin
pin on his blue blazer who told me
he was descended from yellow-
dog Democrats who thought the
sun rose and set over FDR and Re-
publicans were people who wore
spats and top hats and sailed off
Newport. So I told him that my
Republican ancestors believed that
only lazy people were unemployed
in the Thirties. He said, “So each
of us is heading back to where
the other one is coming from.” He
found that rather amusing. I said,
“If that’s so, I hope you’re ready to
be good and poor and endure some
hard Minnesota winters.”
“Poor, yes. Good, I’m not so
sure about. Winter, no. No way.”
…The country longs for a pres-
ident who can talk and think at
the same time. We’ve been locked
up with the Current Occupant for
way too long and the thought of
replacing him with the Angry Old
Man of the Desert and Whoopee
the Ice Queen is miserable in the
extreme.
Most of my Republican friends
are people who are not ashamed of
having worked hard and done well
in school, and their party’s frantic
appeal to anti-intellectualism is
nothing they care to sign up for.
Time to nip that sucker in the bud.
The party needs to reform itself
around some coherent philosophy
of governance and vision of the
future and for that, it must take
a trip to the wilderness. They are
quietly supporting the skinny guy
this time around. They might tell a
pollster otherwise but that’s what
they will do. Call it the Palin Effect.
Even Mr. Burly of Tulsa ex-
pressed sorrow over McCain’s
campaign, the jerkiness and des-
peration of it, and admiration for
Obama’s steadiness, his cool, his
straightforward articulation and
the old-fashioned story of his rise
in the world.
…In America, a man is not
held responsible for choosing his
parents, only for his own life and
conduct. (Obama) promises to take
us into a new era where we aren’t
defined by our differences, Short
vs. Tall, Pale vs. Freckled, and can
take a deep breath and do what’s
best for the country.
End of Days
Illustrated by ANDREW HOWERTON, ahowert2@mscd.edu
Written by ANDREW FLOHR-SPENCE, spencand@mscd.edu
THE POINT: The conservative era has come to an end
Strange pride in people’s symbolic power
This is going to be a difficult col-
umn to write. Right now, the votes
are still being counted and many of
the country’s polls are still open. I
am writing without any impression
for how this thing will turn out, aside
from breaking news, my gut and the
predictions I have already made. But I
have always relied heavily on my gut,
and my predictions are no worse than
.500, so I have no doubt that I will be
well served here.
It does seem appropriate, in a
sense, that I write about this elec-
tion as it is happening and before the
pundits distort the moment from ret-
rospect, and before I forget what this
election really means. I am still in the
moment, as they say, where the out-
come is unclear and everything is still
up for grabs. My perspective is not yet
tainted with results, and even though
the only hard numbers I have seen
are from early exit polls, there is a
sense that the Obamaic wave is final-
ly about to roll onto shore. Whether
it will flood the beach or recede back
into the ocean of political history,
however, is still to be determined.
It was early in the 17th century
when black slaves were first brought
to Jamestown, and now in the first
decade of the 21st century, a black
man is on the verge of winning the
presidency of the United States. This
is historic, and it has powerful mean-
“It was a hard loss, no question about it ... we showed
some great character coming back... it wasn’t enough,
Uh ... Dick? Does that mean what I
think it means?
-mhaak! I’ll have to
make some calls.
The numbers are in ...
Barack Obama has been
declared the next ...
JIMMIE BRALEY
jbraley@mscd.edu
ing worldwide. I feel distinctly privi-
leged to be watching this election as it
happens, and, although I am hesitant
to express my belief in it after what I
have seen for the past eight years, de-
mocracy is exciting and I am enjoy-
ing it tonight.
This is the only time, Election
Day and specifically election night,
where it is clear to me exactly who is
in control of this country. Politicians
and their parties aside, what matters
on this night are numbers. And those
numbers are symbolic of people.
They are, in fact, people. There are
no words, manipulations or bullshit
of any kind Washington is capable of
producing that can stem the down-
pour of people coming out in mass
to voice their will. A lot of politician’s
jobs are on the line, and they are ner-
vous about it. Tonight, the people are
in command.
but next time it hopefully will be.”
— MEN’S SOCCER FORWARD OLA SANDQUIST ON A12
The live pictures of the distinc-
tion between the Biltmore Hotel in
Arizona and Grant Park in Chicago
where John McCain and Barack
Obama, respectively, are planning to
speak is profoundly representative of
this election as a whole. At the Bilt-
more, there are people in suits – not
a whole lot of them–gathered in front
of a typical-looking stage awaiting
their politician and his predictable
words. At Grant Park, a sea of people
have gathered, 70,000 with tickets
to get close and hundreds of thou-
sands more around the area and in
the streets, to hear Barack Obama
speak on the most important election
we may ever see. Helicopter images
of Grant Park depict a scene reminis-
cent of the civil rights gatherings of
the 1960s. It all looks something like
a rock concert, perhaps a Beatles re-
union. The general will of the people
is visible tonight.
Pat Buchanan said on national
television that the “conservative
era has passed.” That is perhaps the
smartest thing I have ever heard him
say. Or maybe just the smartest thing
I have heard him say tonight. Despite
the fact that I agree with almost noth-
ing that Pat Buchanan ever says, I
respect him and listen when he talks.
He has personality and seems to
have a respectable grasp on what he
is saying. The conservative political
empire that started with Dick Nixon,
or perhaps more solidly with Ronald
Reagan, has finally ended. The Demo-
crats — though, I would refrain from
openly considering them a lock, stock
and barrel alternative — have taken
over.
And now breaking news: . . .
There it is. NBC has just projected
Barack Hussein Obama to be the
next president of the United States.
California, Oregon and Washington
have all come in. The numbers keep
rising, and they are bluer and bluer
by the moment. The man has done it.
He has won, and it was not by means
of anything more than the will of the
American people.
I have written a number of unsa-
vory things about Barack Obama, and
I have meant every word. But I voted
for him, and I am more than proud of
that. He has lifted the hopes of people
in this country in a way that nobody
has ever seen before. The brilliance of
his accomplishment and also that of
the American people is unmistakable.
America will not sleep tonight. She is
rumbling, and she is proud.
I have a deadline to meet, and so
my words must necessarily be short.
But let it be said that nothing I have
written here is worthy of describing
what has happened in the United
States on this night, Nov. 4, 2008. Let
this moment live on forever.