Election history

Last night, the American Embassy hosted the "Nuit des élections" at the TGI Friday's restaurant opposite the Lycée Descartes. I arrived to the restaurant early with a fellow Fulbrighter to have dinner before the event, but discovered that the Embassy had rented the entire restaurant for the entire evening. Police were everywhere, and security for entry was tight.


Guests who arrived closer to the appointed time received buttons. Apparently, the Embassy wanted to be impartial, and handed out buttons at random. See photo for Fulbrighters who had voted for the same candidate, but who received different buttons.

The election has been big news recently here. The Palin prank call was picked up by French network news and televised here. Below is the YouTube version that someone digg'd a few days back (how I found out about it), and that aired on Moroccan TV less than 24 hours later.

This morning felt like the Christmases of my childhood, almost, as I woke up in a chilly apartment and was immediately anxious to run and see ... the results. I'd actually left my computer by my bed so that I wouldn't have to go too far.

Indeed, this is the first time in the past eight years that I've been "proud" in the truest sense of the word to be American. It's difficult to be abroad when one disagrees vehemently with the politics at home. In summer 2001, friends in France told me that GW was unable to explain to French reporters the meaning of Memorial Day during a late-May European tour. That was just a very mild beginning, of course, to my discomfort with the regime that has been in power for the past 8 years.

But today, I got to wake up and hope for change along with the rest of America, and indeed, the world. I'm proud that my country was able to see past race and to elect the better candidate.

And I'm prouder than ever to be an American.