Election Day Results

Living abroad during an American election year has been an interesting experience. David and I felt a bit out of touch throughout much of the campaigning, even though we could read articles on line and see reports on CNN International. What we were missing was "water-cooler chats," those conversations and debates you have with co-workers and friends about the issues, and the "little" but interesting stories that crop up during campaigns.

We have been asked by friends and neighbors what we thought of Barack Obama and Hilary Clinton. People here are very excited about Obama and don't seem to know anything about McCain. Just knowing he's a Republican and therefore associated with Bush was enough to make people dismiss him.

When people asked me who I was supporting, I answered truthfully: There are things about Obama I like and things about McCain I like and I'm not sure whose name I will check off on my ballot. People seemed very surprised to learn that I am not affiliated with any party and even more surprised to learn that there are over one hundred political parties in the U.S.

We voted a couples of weeks prior to the election via absentee ballot and this morning woke up to the unsurprising news that Obama had won. We sat the kids in front of the TV at 7:00 this morning so that they could see on CNN the historic news that America had elected its first African-American president. The kids were interested and understood that this was the first time an African-American had been elected, but it didn't seem to affect them that strongly.

As I thought about this during the day, I realized that for them, why couldn't a non-white person, or a woman for that matter, be elected president? To our kids, it wasn't something that extraordinary. They have always attended school with kids of color and different religions, have had teachers at school who were non-white, a few of our pediatricians back home and several of their nurses and dental hygenists have been non-white women. I guess it's a good sign that having a person of color elected president didn't strike them as amazing.

At German class, my teacher put me on the spot first thing and asked how I felt about the election results. Again I answered truthfully: What happened in the U.S. yesterday would not have been possible 50 or even 25 years ago. I was proud of my country, proud of the huge step we had taken.

My teacher said that she thought the election of Obama was the right thing for the U.S.'s relationships with the rest of the world. This seems to be the opinion of people all over the world.

When my classmates asked during break whom I voted for, I answered truthfully: In the U.S., you vote in secret and my vote will remain a secret.