For Talk To Me Tuesday this week, Tip Junkie wants to know what my favorite post was in 2008. I had a lot of fun traipsing down memory lane and had a lot of solid contenders, mostly of the funny, gossip hound variety (just search for John Mayer on my blog and you will get a plethora of my favorite posts from last year) but THIS – I think this one might have actually been my best:

Our 44th President – Barack Obama

I am a wee bit speechless this morning, my thoughts are muddled, but I’ll try to voice those thoughts as best I can. My guy won, or as I told MM this morning, “The donkey won the election.” Then we talked about what donkeys say because it’s REALLY cute to hear him go, “eeee awwww!” I am very proud of our country this morning – proud to have our first African American president – proud that we have come so far as a country to achieve such an important historic moment and hopeful that we have made a wise choice in who to elect to this role. And a small voice in my mind wants to add, “But cautious.” I have been extremely cautious throughout this election. I cannot forget four years ago when I voted for John Kerry, bursting with pride, sure the rest of the country would agree with my wise, educated decision. And of course, we all know how that turned out. I vowed that I would not let myself be hurt again this time. What happens, happens, I told myself.

My husband voted for McCain, which I thought was neat. I loved the balance of beliefs in our household over the past few months. Is it weird that I love that my husband and I voted for different people? You have to understand that my grandmother on my father’s side is a pretty typical motivating democrat – she and I have always agreed on politics and I admire her opinions. Her husband is a staunch republican and I’ve always gotten a small thrill out of watching them debate the issues. What better way to get a balanced  view of the issues than in your own grandparents home – where it’s safe to disagree and toss around ideas and ideals.

I remember asking my grandma four years ago if she’d voted for John Kerry. She proudly announced she had and my grandfather said, “You did what?” as if they hadn’t been having these disagreements for at least my whole life. So it all came full circle this year when my husband and I agreed to disagree and I fell in love with him even more after discovering that we could completely disagree, just like my grandparents, and it not be a bitter or ugly thing. It just was. Again I had a safe place to toss around my ideas and allow my thoughts and opinions to grow. He was proud of me this year for sticking to my own opinions, for learning anything I could to make an educated decision and not budging when he told me his opinions if I still didn’t agree. I have always looked up to his opinions also, he is one of the smartest men I know, and while I understand why he voted the way he did, I simply disagreed. It was beautiful, to me.

And yet last night neither of us thought “our guy” would win. He was surprised that I didn’t think Obama would win. I was surprised he thought McCain would lose – how could we think something like that when we’d voted for them? I think both of us maybe didn’t want to be disappointed last night. If we prepared ourselves for that loss it wouldn’t hurt. So when my guy won – it was kind of weird, to be wrong but proud and elated at the same time. And my husband? He’d already gone to bed and was fast asleep when I tip toed into the room, shook his arm gently and informed him that we had our first black president and he said, “I figured,” and went back to sleep. I don’t think he is even that upset – he was smarter than me four years ago. He was prepared. He’ll be fine. He’s happy for me. Isn’t that cute?

I don’t really have anything profound to say this morning, unless you consider the above ramblings profound. If you are looking for something to be inspired by this morning or something give you a chuckle perhaps, then check out the following political posts that I read this morning – I consider these posts much more poignant than my muddled thoughts today.

• Patrice @ Not a Girl, Not Yet a Woman talks about the Facebook phenomenon of being able to see a very mixed bag of reactions to the results all in one place.
• Jen @ Daily Mish Mash also talks about her grandparents, their beliefs and how that affects how she saw this election play out with a few reflections on her hopes for her own children and how they will see events like this.
• Susie @ Raising My Boys wrote a truly invigorating and thoughtful post about her feelings of elation over the results of the election, the historical implications of it and her hopes for the world’s response and her children’s future.
• ADAM NAGOURNEY @ The New York Times writes about the tearing down of racial barriers after Obama’s victory.

What was your reaction to last night’s election? If you comment please try to be polite and respectful of other people’s opinions.