Well, that was a hell of a night

I promised myself I wouldn't watch the returns.

And, unsurprisingly, I lied to myself. When I turned everything off last night, Obama was the projected winner and that remained true this morning.

I am very, very happy with that. Eight years of Republican mismanagement is eight years too many, thank you very much. I would've thought people would figure that out back in 2004, but I digress.

I'm surprised, and a bit dismayed, that 52% of voting Californians are bigots and approved Prop 8 (forbidding same-sex marriage). I don't get that. Why would anyone care if a couple of guys or a couple of women decide to tie the knot? What impact does that have on people who aren't the ones getting married?

I'm not gay nor personally inclined towards same-sex pairings, so this doesn't affect me directly, but none the less I find myself offended that so many people feel the need to tromp on the basic right of "pursuit of happiness" for such a large group of people.

Seriously, what the hell?

While that result disappoints me, it's mostly overshadowed by the joy I feel that the Dems took the White House and got greater majorities in both the Senate and the House of Representatives.

I know some people are unhappy with one party controlling the Executive and Legislative branches. The Rebubs did a lot of damage while they were in control, after all.

I'm not too concerned. The Dems have proven pretty spineless in keeping Bush in check when they took control of Congress in the last batch of elections. I do hope they're sufficiently galvanized (and, for a change, united) in enacting real reforms in government. In the end, they're all politicians. It's silly to expect too much.

Still, I love being able to say: "President Barak Obama". Who would've thought that day would come? It's pretty cool.