The Politics of Region

After the last eight years I will probably never be proud of America again, but tonight I am extremely proud of the Northern Midwest. Obama's nonsensical rhetoric about the lack of "blue states" and "red states" will never fly with me. When I looked at the electoral map tonight I had a feeling of hope.. that the Southern states' influence, which has devastated this nation for the last eight years, is finally waning.

Illinois has produced many great leaders. More books have been written about Lincoln than any other person in history. Reagan was a Californian politician, but he was a son of it. Although Obama was from a diverse, exotic background, he was created by Illinois politics. Tonight a place as modest as the Northern Midwest has transformed the whole of Western politics: Obama's win finally puts to rest the bragging from the Brits that its parliament (the Brits themselves would probably never have elected her) elected a hoary, wrinkled white woman during the '80s "and what have the Americans done?" Obama exceeds her as a charismatic, transformative figure by leaps and bounds.

And as I watched the election tonight, I could imagine James Carville-- that crazy carnival barker-- seated in the privacy of a back room as he discussed the Democratic primary. It's January of this year. Hillary Clinton is on the ropes. Carville is screaming that he knows best, and he knows that if a non-white guy must be nominated, only a non-white guy from the South could possibly win the election this year. The Clintons have the best ground game in the south, he says. How dare Obama believe that he can end the Clintons' reign and.. render him and his politics irrelevant. Well, it happened James. Buh bye.

Tonight, as I looked at solid blue Michigan-- a state that Kerry also won during '04-- I was a proud son of the Northern Midwest.

A brief concluding note: as Oliver Stone said recently when he was disucssing "W" and someone asked him if we will ever have a president quite as bad as the monkey, "I'm not worried about this year's election. I'm worried about eight years down the road." I have absolutely no doubt that America will elect someone who is infinitely more incompetent and stupid than the monkey-man during my lifetime because, frankly, regardless of this election it is on its death bed.