Wednesday, November 5, 2008

About last night…

Amidst drinking too much champagne and "irrational exuberance," I passed my normal bedtime hour, started to sleep and had a dream; I was on Grant Park in Chicago, ready to move out on the catwalk, toward the lectern to deliver my acceptance speech. Can you imagine, the first French-American to be elected at the nation's helm? Problem was, I was dressed like a bum; wearing a dirty sweat-shirt, a ragged pair of Levi’s with one hole over the right knee, an old pair of Adidas and my beret. I felt terribly self-conscious like you only can in dreams; I wish I had a nice Armani suit with a white shirt and a tie to go… Soon enough, I was addressing a crowd that didn’t sound overly excited and didn’t even look towards me; I started by thanking the usual suspects, my family, my campaign manager and the voters. I continued into painting what I thought was a bright picture of the future I'd offer, made sure I promoted my talents, inserted a few bad jokes along with some tired slogans that no one seemed to pick because of my accent and concluded with a loud “God bless America.” I woke up when the crowd that barely applauded was already walking off the field. Sweating and uneasy, I was relieved to remember that Obama - not me - had indeed been elected, and soon realized that for the first time this season, I had to get up and shovel ten inches of new snow…

1 comment:

William Bocq said...

Initially I wanted to vote the party line, and I like McCain, but his running mate scared the sh... out of me. Obama elected does not scare me, his platform is not that different from McCains'and he will be able to govern with both houses, which is also reassuring. What really pleased me however, is that this country can ignore all appearances and superficial factors and elect the person the majority of the people feels is more apt to do the job. For that, I am very proud to have chosen to be American. It is interesting to note that Europeans and most of the rest of the world have made race more an issue than it was in the States. There is a lesson here.
Bill