November 6

I have a few thoughts on the election I'd like to share here.

I do not feel sad over Senator McCain's loss. I don't feel anguish. On Tuesday evening, I felt the kind of muted grief you feel after hearing that a distant relative has died after a long fight with cancer. It's a grief that is easily routed, perhaps by a glass of Argentine malbec or an interesting conversation. I had that feeling for about an hour. And then it was overcome as pride in America welled up. Pride in the levels of civic participation we saw on election day, pride that our country had shown again we will continue forming a more perfect union, even conquering shameful undercurrents of racism along the way.

In sum, I am proud to be an American. Proud I was involved in the civic process, proud to have served a good President and his wife, proud to have served true patriots in Senator McCain and Governor Palin. And enormously proud of America for electing a good and decent man in President-elect Obama. I look forward to seeing how he will govern.

(As an aside, this is the most I have written publicly about politics in over four years.)

(As another aside, I remember when I was working at the White House in the fall of 2004, on the day after election day, my colleague Nina and I were called upon to gather the telephone number for Senator-elect Obama, which we did in a hurry. The President wished to call him to congratulate him.)