Closure

Went to the Mall today, one of two million people who showed up to help usher in a "new era of responsibility". It was very cold, but it could have been colder and we made sure to layer like crazy. I had on seven layers, like a taco. Or the beaver from that Primus song. It was extraordinarily crowded, but weirdly enough it wasn't overwhelming. It felt right to share the moment with so many people. It added so much to the experience. There was a little bit of ugliness (the first sight of Cheney in a wheelchair brought an immediate reaction of laughter from the crowd and Bush was booed soundly), but overall the city and the federal government did a fantastic job of controlling the crowd, getting people in and out of the area, and making sure people felt welcomed and energized.

So, fifty-three months after the 2004 convention keynote address, fifty-two months after we got an autographed picture of State Senator Obama as a wedding gift from a friend, just less than two years since we watched the announcement on the steps of the old statehouse in Springfield, just over one year since Iowa, after going door-to-door in Rockville and Philadelphia and Manassas and Woodbridge, after attending a 13,000-person rally in Baltimore and an 80,000-person rally in Virginia, after following politics religiously -- DVRing every episode of Countdown and Meet The Press and Bill Maher and more -- for a year, after talking to my friends and family about my belief in the candidate, after living and dying with every twist and turn and interview... After all of that, it's come to this: