YES!

I will admit that on Sunday I was very confident, but by Tuesday morning I could see a way that the election could be lost.

I sat with friends and family, trying to be friendly without telling everyone just to shut-up and pay attention. When PA was declared fairly quickly I began to relax. An hour later when Ohio was given to Obama I knew, like everyone else, that it was really going to happen. All the TV people seemed to know it all along.

For the first time in eight years I felt hopeful. I drove to work this morning and I did not cringe every time I heard the news. I felt I did not have to be embarrassed about how the people in my government were screwing up the economy, science, world trade, war, energy, the environment, health-care, health,and human relations.

Basically, I have some confidence that the people who will be running this country, while they certainly won't be perfect, and they certainly will be politicians, will at least be smart. They will understand that the world is complex. That it does not just consist of good-guys and bad-guys, and that the problems we have to deal with are difficult. I think they will have a better understanding that even if someone disagrees with them that doesn't make them terrible or stupid (although sometimes they are).

That's all I want, to feel that we have good people who are trying. For eight years I have felt we have had an administration and even a Congress who were stuck in their own mud and couldn't see passed their mind-set, and couldn't understand what they were seeing, and didn't try to understand it.

Now, we will have to wait and see. but I certainly do buy what Mr. Obama is selling, which is hope.

That is really a great deal of what I do in my own work. Get my clients to believe that their lives can be better. I know how necessary that is if any change is to occur.