7:30 am, Palo Alto, CA Inauguration Watch Party

The First Morning

It is earliest morning in Zambia, the sun just starting its ascent
into the November sky, and I am on a crowded bus, already too hot, en
route to the airport.

The polls close in my beloved California in mere minutes, and with her
mighty 55 electoral college votes CNN will say that Obama has clinched
it. Or perhaps they already have.

Being so far from this campaign's center of gravity on the day it
evolves from potential to actual is quite hard. But the Africans I
encounter have made a great difference in that regard. They hunger for
some small connection to this otherwise mythical man, which I can
provide them. My cache of Obama buttons dwindles but the
conversations with their proud new owners fill the empty spaces in me.

It will more than do for now.

But soon I will need to celebrate this with the grassroots -- the
people who pushed relentlessly and with great hope to achieve this
seismic shift in America's quest to evolve into the nation it has
always claimed to be.

Today, I wish I was home.

Sent from my iPhone, please pardon the type-os!

Election day in South Africa

I've cried once already --when I told a fellow traveler how hard it is
to be away from home on this historic election day. If I was home I
would've spent the last week making endless calls to swing states, and
working in getting out the vote in my local area. You just want to
know you did all you could. You know?

All I can do at this point is spread Obama love and cheer. I brought
100 Obama buttons and five t-shirts with me to give away, and I have a
lot of fun doing that.

Win it America. Win it for us and win it for the world.

Africans Interested in Obama

I am traveling for work in nine African countries through mid November. At a restaurant in Accra, Ghana, I saw the following signs and just had to share. Imagine people wanting to buy an Obama t-shirt in Accra, Ghana. There's also an advertisement for an elections results viewing
party. THIS is how big this is.

Africa Trip: Taking a Small Piece of History With Me

In many venues at home and abroad Barack Obama is heralded as exactly who America needs as its next president. In 8 days we'll know whetherthat dream came true. Nowhere is that dream more vivid than in Kenya, the country from which Obama's father hailed, the country which expects America to elect a minority president before it is able to. (Obama's Kenyan ancestors are from the Luo tribe, which has minority status in that country.)

So when I'm in Kenya on November 11, I am going to dole out these t-shirts and 100 buttons -- the remnants of my 20 months of volunteering for the Obama campaign -- to anyone who wants a little piece of history for themselves. It's probably the closest I'll have come in a long time to feeling like Santa Claus.

Early Voting: T-Shirt Violates Law

I leave town tomorrow for an international trip that will keep me out of the country until November 14. So alongside "buy toothpaste," on my list of things to do today was "vote."

You can vote early in person in Santa Clara County, so right after my son's soccer game, off I went. The County Registrar of Voters is about 15 miles away from where I live, and I felt tears come as I made my way off the highway toward the large government office building. It was 10am on this Saturday morning. And already there was a line.

I asked the security guard to take this picture of me and he gladly obliged. Minutes later a kind but firm official informed me that under California law, campaign materials are prohibited within 100 feet of the voting booth and my t-shirt is considered campaign materials. I
said I'd heard about that but thought it was an Internet hoax. He smiled and said, "Nope, it's California law." So I said, "well it's important to follow California law" and then I scooted off to the bathroom to turn my shirt inside out. I'm not here to argue the finer points of what makes something campaign materials, I'm here to vote.

And vote I did.

It's kindof anti-climactic, at least for me anyway. The person next to me probably got a kick out of the fact that I spent just as much time photographing my marked ballot as I did voting. Corny, I know but I just wanted a record. Something to show my grandkids, "Yes, I voted for the candidate who turned out to be the first black president of the United States."

Obama. I voted for him today. For our future as a nation. For my Dad.

And for me.

The RNC: Kickin' Ass With Sarah Palin

There’s a lot I admire about Sarah Palin: Her meteoric rise in a highly-scrutinized, male-dominated profession. Her ability to be smart and tough but also beautiful and feminine. The challenges life has thrown her way and how she has handled them. My friend Andy, a republican insider on Capitol Hill, says the party has had its eye on her for years. A true rising star. She is "feisty, with grace,” as a republican delegate recently put it.

Sure, I find it pretty easy to be excited about all of that.

And, then there’s a lot I don't like about her. Her belief that creationism should be taught in public schools. Her desire to drill for more oil and build nuclear power plants instead of insisting on clean and safe sources of energy. Her belief that government should be able to tell women what they can and cannot do with their bodies. There’s a lot of policy to disagree about, but these disagreements are par for the course in a republican versus democratic race.

This race isn’t going to come down to any of that.

No, this race is going to be about personality and character. And it's now abundantly clear that Sarah Palin has a lot of both. The question is whether she’s got the kind of personality and character befitting a person holding the second-highest office in the land.

Or whether hers is conduct unbecoming.

During her acceptance speech I expected to hear the kind of content conservatives salivate over, just as the DNC speeches dripped with the content democrats crave. So I wasn’t surprised by the topics. Still, I heard some things that made my stomach churn.

I heard her ridicule Obama’s community organizing experience. Of course we democrats know that community organizing is what you do when government is failing to meet the needs of the people. Martin Luther King was a community organizer. So was Jesus Christ. Maybe she does not understand what that work is all about. But did she have to ridicule it?

What was with the tone she took? The attitude? I was instantly reminded of the swaggering cowboy we currently have in the Oval Office who makes clear that he thinks anyone who disagrees with him is like an animal in his personal rodeo. After hearing Sarah Palin speak, it is easy to imagine her as the new cowboy in town, with the leather chaps, metal spurs and lasso, kicking ass and taking names. This is who we want representing us in the world?

The world is so tired of an America that behaves that way.

And so am I.

We need a president who respects people – all people – who doesn’t think we are better than everybody else, and better yet who understands that while we are but a tiny fraction of the planet’s population we have a great obligation to help lift up those around the world who are enduring tragedy and hardship. We need a president who will make America America again, both around the world and right here at home. It is hard to imagine that a woman who is called a "barracuda" because of how she treats people would be one of our nation's highest leaders. It is hard to imagine a woman who had no need for a passport in the first 43 years of her life being able to be an ambassador for America around the world. It is hard to imagine such a woman being a heartbeat away from the presidency.

I am a democrat. I believe government should actively safeguard a basic quality of life for all citizens. I believe our leaders must believe in science, in global warming being greatly compounded by human behavior, in a woman’s right to choose. But even more than these things, I want the highest leaders in the land to respect people. The kick ass attitude Sarah Palin showed in her acceptance speech may be what it takes to get things done in Alaska, but in my view it is conduct unbecoming the next Vice President of the United States.

Yee haw.