go ahead and ask

The excitement and decisiveness of Barack Obama's win on Tuesday was tempered locally by the continuing strangeness of Alaskan politics. I know, this blog is supposed to be about biking, so, yes, I did bike to the polls on Tuesday, then into work. Where I spent the early part of the afternoon alternating between working and hitting the "refresh" at NPR's election map before we hooked up a t.v. and started watching the coverage as it unfolded, flipping from NBC to PBS to Comedy Central. Later, we joined friends to watch more numbers come in.

So much has been said in the last couple days, what can I add but my voice with others around the nation to celebrate this victory. I'm happy about what it says about our country, that we can transcend a history of painful racial divisions to elect a man for the ideas he brings and (to use the words of Dr. King) for "the content of his character." I add my tears of joy to those of people from all backgrounds because now I feel we are united more than ever before. It is truly beautiful.

But, while watching the national returns lifted our hopes, the local results brought on a sense of frustration and disappointment. For those of you in the Lower-48 and the rest of the world, this whole Senate race isn't over yet. There are tens of thousands of early votes to count. There's still a chance that Mark Begich will unseat Stevens. And if he doesn't, I imagine you can chalk up a win for the Republicans after Stevens resigns and the special election puts our now world-famous governor into a Beltway position in the US Senate. (That's my unhappy prediction, shared by many others here.) Count every vote, I say, until we know who wins this race!