The best part about being POTUS: Air Force One

I am conflicted about the end of this election cycle. Don't get me wrong - I was very happy about the results, and in fact I only voted for one loser (I'll let you guess). But now that the election is over, it will throw off my entire daily routine. I would get up in the morning, turn watch "Morning Joe" on MSNBC while I got ready for work. I would check almost ALL the polls and almost ALL the blogs - and did so about every 10 minutes. And of course, this election provided fodder for this blog, which in my mind has almost become my full-time occupation.

But, even though I will have to work harder to stay busy and find stuff to blog about, I cannot put into words the satisfaction and closure I felt as I voted.My trip to Scranton, PA on election day was quite fulfilling. I drove down there after voting downtown. I got to Scranton, and they asked me to go to Carbondale, PA - which is about 20 minutes northwest of the Scranton-Wilkes/Barre region.

This region was Hillary Country during the Democratic primary. She won big in this area (by about a 3-1 margin), and so there was a legitimate concern that President-elect Obama was going to struggle bringing these voters home. In the end, Lackawanna County came out in huge numbers for the Democrats - by almost a 2-1 margin. And the region also re-elected two vulnerable Democratic Congressmen (Kajorski and Carney).

I canvassed with Ned, who it turns out, did doctoral work with my stepfather at CSU in the 1970's. Small world, right? We were targeting people who had indicated they were going to vote for Obama, so it was nice in the sense that most of our encounters were love fests. Only one person had changed their mind and decided not to vote. I had been very concerned about this experience. I have been diagnosed as a homosapienaphobic - that is, I am afraid of talking to people. Especially strange people, and even more especially about politics. But, all in all, my experience was quite fulfilling, and I will do it again in 2012. (!!!)

It will be truly a beautiful image to see President Obama in the White House. But it will be equally beautiful to see him boarding Air Force One, which I expect he will have to do a lot as he travels the world to rehabilitate all the valuable relationships that have been damaged by the last 8 years. Hopefully, the sight of this aircraft landing in airports around the world will no longer incite anger - but rather HOPE. Except maybe anger about that horrible Harrison Ford movie, that would be justified.