Last night, while we were watching the election returns come back, and getting more and more excited, I told Richard that even though I could be happy if the Democrats took only the House (and oh my, how they took the House!), I wanted so badly for them to take the Senate too. Because as humiliating as it would be to the current adminstration to lose the House in such a deliciously resounding way, I had little faith that they would ever *get* it, as long as they still held some form of power.

Last night when we went to bed there were two seats in the Senate still undecided. This morning I got up and headed off to a meeting in San Francisco while it was still dark outside, a meeting where I woudl have no internet access at all, and I asked Richard to please text me updates throughout the day.

Oh, what beautiful, sweet words he kept sending. Montana went blue. Rumsfeld ousted. Prop 83 already challenged (and likely to be declared unconstituional). And then the most marvelously wonderful words of all. The Democrats have not only taken the House, they've taken the Senate as well.

I feel like, for the first time in six years, there is hope. I am not naive enough to think that the Democrats aren't just as capable of royally screwing things up just like the Republicans, but right now, it is just too damn hard to feel anything right now but giddy optimism.

51% in 2004 was not a mandate, no matter what Dubya claimed. 2006, however, sure screams "mandate" to me.

This is a NaBloPoMo entry