I really believe that American politics routinely comes down to one set of principles versus another. The differences between McCain and Obama were pretty much the same differences between Kerry and Bush, Gore and Bush, Clinton and Dole, Clinton and Bush Sr., and on and on. For the past three elections, people in America have been split almost right down the middle in terms of the popular vote. One American goes one way, another goes the other way.

Why does this happen? How can two parties, representing two separate sets of principles, have a tug of war with one another and win back and forth so routinely? Why would a Republican suddenly vote for a Democrat, or vice versa, or declare themselves undecided?

It comes down to who has the better words to act as a salve for America's suffering. The country is perpetually broken, can perpetually be improved, but this reality is rarely stated in plain facts, instead covered up by fancy buzzword rhetoric. Obama mentioned it in his victory speech last night in a way no politician has in a long time. America has not yet reached a state of political, social and certainly not economical perfection. It never has. Yet more often than not, I think, campaigns are run on the idea that America is perfect by virtue of its democratic process and freedom of cultural and religious expression - its faults are always the other party's. Obama's and McCain's campaigns generally followed suit, Obama armed with eight years of Bush policy failures and McCain chomping at the Democrats' willingness to spend themselves into slavery to the Chinese.

But Obama said something very significant last night - in effect, "I won't be able to fix this country alone."

I think you have in Obama a politician who doesn't idealize America in the same way McCain does, and that's important. Obama spoke to a truth about the country's imperfections that voters connected with. Beyond this, he represented it symbolically, a black man with the presidential office in his sights, a success in spite of socio-political imperfections. That's what he will base his first term as president on. Successes in spite of imperfections.

Will it make America better? Maybe. Obama has a background as a community organizer. He's trained to pull people together to accomplish goals in order to better their society. That's an important training for a president to have in a country so clearly divided down party lines.

A part of me wants to say that I'm glad Democrats gained the White House and strengthened their Senate presence because I despise certain Republican principles, base or otherwise - bans on abortion and gay marriage, a belief in the right to bear arms, opposition to stem cell research - and I believe these principles have no place in government because they promote discrimination while robbing what I believe should be the fundamental rights of people in a free nation.

But that's not why I'm happy that Obama won last night. I'm happy because America needed a leader who wouldn't disappear from the public eye in a silent declaration that he had failed the country in most of the decisions he made while in office. I'm happy that Americans elected Obama not out of fear, but out of a willingness to believe in his message of change. Hollow platitudes? Again, maybe. He hasn't taken office yet. No one is sure what he'll be capable of. But I'd never seen anything like the look in the eyes of those watching his speech last night - a crowd of thousands of voters across lines of ethnicity, religion, and sexual orientation. A unified belief, not in Obama, but that the country must get better, and that his election indicated that it's possible.

It's not really up to Obama how the next four years go. It's up to the people over whom he presides. Last night was a good start.

I've almost got the Reason work on a new song done, but I'm having a hell of a time with the arpeggiator on a couple of the keyboard effects. Should be able to get something workable done by next week. I abandoned a short story I was working on for something else. Hopefully it will go somewhere.

Winterson is a hell of a writer.

Still no word about the job.

I imagine I'll be watching the election coverage for most of the night. I'm pulling for an Obama win, but if I've learned anything from American politics over the last two terms, you can't call the race until it's over.

I tested for a position as a transeditor with the House of Commons today, a two-hour, three-part process. Part one was a typing test, definitely the most grueling part as it was timed and I wasn't used to the keyboard. Part two was a written grammar and government knowledge test, mostly multiple choice and fill-in-the-blanks that I feel I did well on. For part three I had to transcribe a debate from audio tape. The recorder was hooked up to a foot pedal, so it felt like driving. Every confidence that I whooped that part's ass. They're going to let me know in about three weeks if I'm worthy of an interview.

I watched JFK last night, and it's a phenomenal film. Stone's editing makes it, as he assaults the viewer with multiple types of motion and still photography to produce different storytelling effects, mirroring the frenzy of the conspiracy theories he address. For not having known much about the assassination, it was incredibly revelatory for me as a film about the importance of questioning government. Cutaway scenes during the trial of JFK's autopsy were real and gritty and took my breath away.

Speaking of dead politicians, how about that Stephane Dion? The worst Liberal showing in Canadian election history. Slow clap. The election played itself out pretty much how I thought it would, though it's certainly a shame the Liberals didn't perform better. The Conservatives are even stronger than they were before. The NDP are inching back up to where they were in the 80's. See you again in two years.

My phone woke me up a little before ten thirty. I had opened it and was able to consciously grasp that someone had called me and was waiting for me to say "hello." It turned out to be a woman calling me about a transediting position at the House of Commons I had applied for a couple of weeks ago. I'm going in tomorrow to get "tested" for two hours.

I went to the grocery store and ran into Amanda Earl. Afterward I decided to head over to Future Shop where I picked up special editions of JFK, Psycho and Touch of Evil along with a gift certificate for my brother. I've been wanting to see JFK ever since I watched the Seinfeld episode that references it constantly awhile ago. Plus, W. is coming out on Friday and I haven't seen any of Stone's presidential biopics.

I voted at the Knox Presbyterian Church at Elgin and Lisgar just before I got home. I received an email about a Senate job I applied for asking me to take a French reading/writing comprehension test. I looked at some of the sample questions and I don't think I'll be able to get a good enough mark, but depending on how things go tomorrow I might try it out anyway. Couldn't hurt.

I'm worried that I might become addicted to Mythbusters.

I'm halfway through the MacKenzie review, which I've been nervous about writing since a lot of the military language and conflict detail went over my head. So many acronyms. But the review is progressing nicely. I'm happy to be through with the book since I can now go back to reading books I've chosen for myself.

Last night Andrea and I ate tacos and watched You, Me and Dupree, which was inoffensive enough. At least it wasn't just a series of Owen Wilson pulling stupid move after stupid move to annoy Kate Hudson and Matt Dillon. After he almost burns down their house during an act of fornication halfway through, the antics shift gear, which I appreciated.

I've started a new song. I'm going to send away the short story I finished for publication in a week regardless of whether or not I've heard back from Joe. Andrea gave me some helpful comments and I feel positive about it. The next couple of weeks are going to be a little crazy with the Writers Festival coming up and the dust settling on the election (and possibly my immediate future with the Senate).

Tomorrow is election day. Don't forget to vote.

It's gorgeous outside today. My absolute favorite kind of weather, and time of year in general. The very end of summer, the very beginning of autumn. Nothing beats it. I moseyed on over to the elections "office," the Metropolitan Bible Church on Bank Street, and updated my registration. All of the pews had been taken off the floor, mounted by cords at the front, and replaced with desks and computers. Separation of church and state... er, province.

I was going to buy a box of Halloween candy but opted for cookies as the really good stuff hasn't come out yet. Which means that I can afford diner. This is what not working does. It forces me into thinking that I'm making significant compromises, when all I'm doing is chipping off a little bit more from the money in my account. There will come a day when I'm working full time, paying off my loan, not paying the slightest amount of attention to problems such as poutine vs. 75 miniature chocolate bars.

RANDOM TRIVIA: The deepest hole ever dug into the earth is only 40,226 feet deep, just over seven and a half miles, and took 22 years to complete. That's only about 0.096% of the way across Earth's diameter. It's called the Kola Superdeep Borehole, and it's located on the Kola Peninsula in Russia. That's deeper than the deepest natural point on the planet, the Mariana Trench in the Pacific Ocean, which is located between Japan and New Guinea and has been measured at different depths averaging around 36,000 feet.

Another fun fact: Earth is not a perfect sphere. It's wider at the equator than it is between the poles. Holy crow!