Historic Massachusetts Election 1/19/10

Just voted here in my hometown, got my ballot from old Precinct 7, and it feels great to be a part of the process.  The interest is off the charts for this senate race - on the corner at our polling place there were about 20-30 Brown sign-holders, and honestly only 1 Coakley signer that I saw.  (There may have been more around the corner, though. If there were more then they were nowhere near where you turn in to park.)

It is beyond ironic that all of this is happening here in Massachusetts, the most liberal of states.  We may block Obama's healthcare, and we may fill the late senator Kennedy's seat with a Republican!  Maybe it's not irony at all but the truest barometer of how this country feels about all the change Obama is trying to bring about. 

The parallels between Obama and our own Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick are amazing.  They are both wonderful orators, able to take you to idealized heights with both their words and their affect - their gaze, mainly, focused on a spot none of us can see - when speaking.  They both had too little experience for their current position.  They are both African-Americans that many were dying to get behind partially as an affirmation of how far we've come as a nation when it comes to equality.  I would have loved to get behind each of them, if they made any sense at all to me.  And both have plummeting poll numbers as they try to turn that golden rhetoric into action. 

I respect each one of them for their elected position as they are the expression of the will of the people.  I wonder how it is for each of them as they try to govern in this polarized, complex society where people look for you to fail.  And I respectfully disagree with them on most things.

Massachusetts, the spotlight is on you today, the 19th of January in the year 2010. 
Turn it into a light of hope and change (ever heard that before?)

More tomorrow.