and I missed it. This may turn out to have been the best election night of my life, and I missed it. I missed the chance to get the dog riled up with joyous shouting and gleeful prancing around the family room, maybe some pillow tossing and certainly some invented-on-the-fly drinking game. I was in Salisbury, England, and let me tell you, the election coverage was pathetic. Even allowing for the time change, it was truly sad.
Oh it was big news, don't get me wrong. But there were no details, no running vote totals, and only the most mindless, aggravating commentary imaginable. I'm heartbroken at having missed the commentary, both democratic and republican, and having missed being online all night as bloggers live-blogged the election returns.
I went to bed at about 11pm on Tuesday-- 6pm in Virginia. None of the polls were closed and I'd gotten no hint from the news of how things might be going based on turnout or exit polls. I woke up at 5 and turned the news back on. I heard that dems had taken 21 house seats and 3 senate seats, and another 3 senate seats hung in the balance. So hurray--we'd won control of the house, although I'd hoped for a larger victory. It was an hour before I realized that not all the house seats had been decided and the victory might yet be larger.
I got more information in bits and pieces over the past couple of days. There were other Americans at the meeting I was attending, but I didn't know the political leanings of any of them, and if I had to guess I'd say they were probably not pleased by the results. It was like being in a foreign land, surrounded by strangers. Oh wait. I was in a foreign land, surrounded by strangers.
Leave a comment