A few random thoughts regarding the election:

• I listened to McCain’s concession speech and Obama’s victory speech on NPR on the radio. I didn’t see the crowds, but the reporter described the McCain crowd as “monochromatic,” and the Obama crowd as very diverse. That the party of Lincoln is so predominantly white should tell us that we conservatives have done an absolutely terrible job (I know there are exceptions) when it comes to diversity. Where are the blacks? Where are the Hispanics?
• Between speeches, NPR interviewed a black congressman from South Carolina who had roots in the civil rights movement. I’m sorry I can’t remember his name. He was obviously deeply moved by the election of Obama. He cared deeply about issues of justice, and spoke about how the black congressional caucus had gotten together to pray for the election. We white Evangelicals focus on abortion (and hopefully will continue to do so). I would love to see the day when we white Christians also care deeply about the poor and oppressed, and our black Christian brothers and sisters consider the rights of the unborn to be a critical civil rights issue as well.
• The Obama campaign was run almost flawlessly, and with lots of cash. The McCain campaign, or at least my personal experience of it here in Colorado, was not so smooth. I ordered a McCain (not a McCain-Palin) bumper sticker over the internet almost two weeks before the election. I would think the campaign would see to it that this was taken care of promptly, given the urgency of the deadline. I presumed that I would receive this bumper sticker within three or four days, but instead I received it the night before the election. Not much use there. Plus, I didn’t get the bumper sticker I ordered. I got the McCain-Palin sticker rather than just the plain McCain sticker; I wasn’t a Palin supporter. The day before the election, the GOP placed a flyer on our door, reminding us to vote, and telling us where to vote. However, the flyer told us to go to the wrong polling place! Fortunately, we already knew our correct precinct. One more thing, on election day, we received at least half a dozen calls from the GOP asking us if we had voted yet. Wasn’t one “yes, we have already voted” enough?

Whew, It’s over. Perhaps you won’t read any more politics on this blog until 2012, unless it relates to my focus of “science, the environment, and Christianity.” Perhaps.