Oh, bama.

With few hours left in my sleep account and two rather important things to do tomorrow, I will go to bed soon; however, not before I get this down.

Everyone in Japan, pretty much, is very happy that Obama won. At least that seems nearly true. I'm not very happy he won. I would not have been happy McCain won either, but I at least would have laughed at how we would've been just doing the same thing again for another four years; another four years of neo-conservatism (read: a false, dishonest version of conservatism) and an economy going down the bucket, and no change. And yes, I see change in Obama, but it scares me.

It scares me that people (men) I know here cried listening to his acceptance speech. But I even came close to it when I was watching Japanese TV coverage at dinner and I saw how happy people were, especially when they showed the footage in Kenya. But the fact is, how fleeting is this happiness going to be? And why exactly are we moved to tears by this?

Is it the death of neo-conservatism that we want to see ensue? Is it finally our reconciliation with the rest of the world? Or is it, more than either of these things, Obama's amazing rhetorical skills? Look out for his propaganda later.

Let's get back to what scares me, though. It scares me that people are willing to trust a candidate to change things without being all that specific on what he's going to specifically change. He's going to have the troops out with 16 months, okay. Good. Could have it a little faster. But what will he change in regards to our foreign policy, apart from Iraq? We can't afford to spend the amount of money abroad that we have before, with the debt the way it is. Is he going to let the debt just loom there and spend just the way Bush did, except perhaps more?

As for corporate bailouts, um, giving money to people who lobby you a lot is no change. Remember how a majority of Democrats voted for the first bailout? It was the Republicans that brought bailout #1 down. With an even larger of Democrats in Congress and one in the Oval Office, well, where do you think this leaves us? We'll have more of the same, and then some.

I think the main thing that's bothering me is the blind trust I see from people (especially from people in my generation) in the Democrats. Let's recall the last four years: we had a Democratic majority in Congress, and no end to the Iraq War. Can anyone name anything the Democrats did in the last four years, except complain and maintain the status quo? Nancy "Impeachment is off the table" Pelosi and her cohorts perhaps have something to hide about with regards to Bush's torture-filled interrogations too. (Did they know about it? No wonder they wouldn't want to make an investigation on this kind of stuff, regardless of whether it would get Bush impeached...) God bless Cindy Sheehan for getting 17% of the vote in Pelosi's district.

Perhaps I was scared the most by Massachusetts voting against the income tax 70%, which is much higher than the 55% they had when they voted it down a few years ago. Why do we continue to think the government needs all the money it's getting, and that it will actually do any good with it? The jump from 55 to 70 there seems to imply we're believing this MORE.

I'm done. Neither Lindsay Graham's opponent nor BJ Lawson won, so that's why I'm mainly unhappy about this election. Hey, but although third party percentages weren't great, more people voted for third parties than in 2004. That's a great thing.

Looking forward to 2010, when we go to vote again. Let's see how Congress changes then...