U.S.A., New S.A.

Well, I can hardly let this momentous occasion pass without thought and comment.

Back in the early part of the year, I must say I was supporting Hillary Clinton over Barack Obama for the Democratic choice. I felt Obama lacked drive in all the speeches I saw. But since he defeated her and became the blue candidate, he seems to have come alive.

And of course, for me the idea of another four years of US Republicanism was unthinkable.

It's odd to think that, had the world been voting, rather than US citizens, there would never have been even a seed of doubt about who would win. For us, George Bush has ruined America, making it a land of ridicule. We wonder who would not only vote for someone like Bush in the first place, but furthermore why they would then vote him in again. He is, we mostly believe, a complete idiot with no redeeming qualities.

But his second term was surely his undoing. Not content with having taken the nation -- and the world -- into unjustified war, he has now seen his country fall into financial ruin. His reward: bye-bye Republican leadership.

And for whom does the USA vote? As George Costanza would put it: the opposite. Not an old, unintelligible, white fool, but a young, articulate and intelligent black man. I couldn't be happier about the prospects for America's future right now.

For the past six and a half years, the wife and I have been waiting to return to the United States but have been loath to give money to a Bush regime. (I apologize to my American friends for not helping their economy, of course.) Now, finally, we can return. Not right now, and not until after the inauguration in January -- but it's there, on the horizon, as a place we can now visit again.

FTW: "fuck the world" or "for the win"? Well, Bush fucked the world, and now Obama's for the win.