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A New Day Brings America More Hope

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By STEVE OTTO | The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 5, 2008

Updated: 11/05/2008 02:11 am

It's over.

I don't know for sure, of course. But my guess is the sun is going to come out this morning.

I'm thinking that when I open the back door, Tennessee the dog is going to follow her usual routine and charge outside in the direction where the squirrel is usually sitting and then stand there jumping up and down as the squirrel chatters down from the tree.

It seems unlikely the power company will have shut down and I won't be able to make coffee.

Hopefully, Mother Trib will be lying out there on the lawn and there will be stories about the Gators, 'Noles and Bulls to look at before trying to read the numbers, explanations and excuses over the election.

Yup, It Happened

Oh yeah, the election. It happened. It happened by the tens of millions. My wife called me on the way to school Tuesday to say she went by a polling place and was astonished, not just at the length of the line, but that there appeared to be so many young voters. Campaign rhetoric or not, there was a wind of change across the land. Mercifully, unless there are any hanging chads down in Palm Beach, it is over.

Soon they will be taking down those campaign signs. Now the commercials on TV won't be one sinister warning after another about the other guy. Remember those TV spots between Vern Buchanan and Christine Jennings who were running for the 13th Congressional seat that takes in Sarasota, DeSoto, Hardee and most of Manatee? Geez, I hope they both lost.

Anyhow, now the networks can get back to their regular awful commercials, like the ones encouraging you to take wonder drugs that might just have a few side effects, like death.

Somehow the morning after an election reminds me of Jan. 1. You wake up and stagger around a little bit, trying to remember exactly what it was you did the day before and what were you thinking.

There were all those resolutions and promises you made that ought to last you until about halftime of the football bowl games that afternoon.

Maybe, Just Maybe

Maybe this time it will be different. We asked for change and maybe change is what we're going to get.

Maybe we will all soon have affordable health care and get to choose our providers.

Maybe the government will pay off its trillions in debt, save Social Security and not reduce Medicare benefits.

Maybe we will create millions of decent-paying jobs; not those barely minimum-wage service job s that keep us rolling up unpayable credit card bills.

Maybe America will become free from dependence on foreign oil and instead fuel our cars with clean alternative energy from something as plentiful as kudzu.

Maybe our public schools will again become incubators for new generations of Americans who can compete with a global economy.

Maybe we can declare victory in Iraq, win a victory in Afghanistan and fund a military that no longer has to act as a global police force.

Maybe, following this year's election, the next presidential race will be limited to six weeks of campaigning.

Right. Maybe we will also have a white Christmas, the Gators will win the national championship, the Bucs the Super Bowl, the Lightning the Stanley Cup and next year the Rays will win the World Series and get a new stadium.

Anyhow, congratulations to all of this morning's winners. We know who you are so get busy. It's a long list of promises and we took notes.

Keyword, Otto Graphs, to read and comment on Steve Otto's blog.

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