Along the front of the parade route, to be precise. Riding the front rail as the President and Vice-President came by and freezing my ass off on Pennsylvania Avenue. So worth it. So fantastic.

So much of my own identity over these past eight years seems to have been culled from being outraged and sharing those feelings engendered by the most appalling American government I hope we ever see in my lifetime.

Now, a time to lay down arms, fears and to stretch the legs out from the defensive crouch they've been hooked in since 2000. Things are frightening out there and there's so much to brave... but hope is contagious and in strong, strong supply this morning.

In a display of Ticketmaster.com prowess, I have scored highly-coveted and incredibly sparse tickets to the seating erected along the Inaugural Parade route and am heading to Washington tomorrow morning.

Will report back. Should be a hell of an experience.

I can't go on at length right now. Still drained. But still jubilant. Something's got to give, eventually. For now, just a reflection...

I live at the southern edge of Harlem, here in New York City. I've been a resident of this neighborhood since 1993, saw the awful rise of Giuliani-ism over this city, the rise and set of Bill Clinton, and let's not even get into Bush.

I've been voting at a local senior center for at least the past five years. Tuesday morning, having not been able to sleep much the night before, I rolled out of bed and headed over to the center to vote at 5:45 am. Like most everyone else with a story to tell, the length of the line already formed inspired me. But what really got me was the poll workers -- predominantly elderly, African-Americans who've done this important job so dutifully over the years at this polling site. The look on their faces... just... absolute, tear-glossed joy over what they knew was coming... what had already come and what was out of reach from the opposition at this point and unable to be snatched away... was so moving, I almost lost it. When I closed the curtain and pulled the old red handle to the left to ready the voting mechanism, I think I did for a second.

The enormity of what this country has done... the promise that has been restored... the newness of all this... I don't think it's fully settled in yet. We, no doubt, face very difficult days and President Obama is going to be tested and he's going to make missteps. But my God, if you can't feel a swell of patriotism and pride after what happened this past Tuesday... if you can't get inspired by what this country just did... I don't even know what to say. You might be a lost cause.

**For some great pictures, check out Callie Shell's photoblog. She's gotten some great, candid shots of Obama over the past few years, including this favorite you might have seen along the way:

This came out a couple of years ago, before the presidential campaign season had started and long before most of this country had ever heard of Barack Obama.

"Living With War" was the best Neil Young music in many, many years I thought. "Let's Impeach the President" and "The Restless Consumer" got most of the attention (great, scathing songs as well)... but these lyrics are spot on and eerie to consider Neil wrote them a year after Bush's re-election, this great pushback sort of floating around, growing but still leaderless.

I love this album. Huge, unfiltered and righteous rage. We're going to have accountability for what's been done to and by this nation's leadership over the past eight years. Truth will out.

'Lookin' for a Leader'
by Neil Young

Lookin' for a leader
To bring our country home
Re-unite the red white and blue
Before it turns to stone

Lookin' for somebody
Young enough to take it on
Clean up the corruption
And make the country strong

Walkin' among our people
There's someone who's straight and strong
To lead us from desolation
And a broken world gone wrong

Someone walks among us
And I hope he hears the call
And maybe it's a woman
Or a black man after all

Yeah maybe it's Obama
But he thinks that he's too young
Maybe it's Colin Powell
To right what he's done wrong

America has a leader
But he's not in the house
He's walking here among us
And we've got to seek him out

Yeah we've got our election
But corruption has a chance
We got to have a clean win
To regain confidence

America is beautiful
But she has an ugly side
We're lookin' for a leader
In this country far and wide
We're lookin' for a leader
With the great spirit on his side

Someone walks among us
And I hope he hears the call
And maybe it's a woman
Or a black man after all

Reading stuff like this makes me happier to be alive than most anything else. I was in the 2nd grade when Reagan won in 1980. The politics of it all weren't clear to me, but we followed the election in class and it did feel like something huge had happened when Ronnie swept in. Government, and the peoples' perceptions of it, changed drastically and lastingly.

Obama's election is going to do this, and to a much greater degree. The GOP, George Bush and their own arrogance of power enabled this. We are very, very fortunate to have had such a talented and compassionate leader ready to step into this void. It could have been Hillary, and she would have made a fine president. It could have been Kerry or any number of our stalwarts in such a weak election cycle for George Bush's party... but it was Obama who seized this and makes us feel like we're at the start of something following the last eight years, not the terrible end.

For all you skeptics, understandably worried about the state of this country and the world we live in, please... please consider for a moment that we're about to elect a transformational figure to the Presidency... with historic Democratic majorities in both houses of congress. I used to label Barack Obama our "Last best chance" in this country.... but I think this portents so much more now.

We're going to bury the vile, hateful and gross republican party who've masqueraded as "regular people" for over a generation with this election. Be happy. Be fucking thrilled. This is incredible and you're right in the middle of it.

Intrade's Electoral Map is a paradise of poll porn to get lost in... if only I had the time...

We shameless, godless liberals in the comics industry have a community for supporting Barack Obama.

I haven't unlocked the full, true use yet. But I like using the avatar on my Facebook page. And the mug I just ordered from their Zazzle store looks nice.

Check it out.

As Obama said, they're terrible at running things but they're great campaigners.

Not going to be enough this time though.

To my mind, these talented guys hadn't surpassed that first John Kerry/George Bush "This Land Is Your Land" send-up from 4 years ago... until now. Holy fucking shit this has me in pain, I laughed so hard...

Send a JibJab Sendables® eCard Today!

Too damn funny. Now I understand the pathology.

Damn good ad that'll be airing soon on television from John Cusack (always a fan, John) and MoveOn.Org

Check out my friend Tamra's spot she made for MoveOn.org's "Obama in 30 Seconds" ad competition. She's been making great docs for a while now, won the documentary grand prize at last year's Berlin Film Festival and has been my friend for a long time:

I think, considering the demographic split between Obama's and Senator Clinton's support among Democrats and the general, well, generality most of the spots on the MoveOn site seem to convey, this is top-notch.

Moved by the fortieth anniversary of Dr. King's death, I've been reading more about the end of his life, after "I have a dream" and the moments that would come to transcend class and race with a sense of shared history and the belief that the right thing happened for this country as a whole.

This speech on his opposition to the war in Vietnam is staggering, sobering and incredibly off the rails with the cuddly narrative mainstream history has fed us. As I understand it, following this incendiary and blinding speech, King's popularity nosedived. The romance with white America and the media withered with accusations of un-Americanism. He'd be shot dead in Memphis not long afterward.

Chillingly topical and as brave a statement as I've ever heard.

Bush threw out the first pitch on ESPN's nationally televised Nationals/Braves game last night and was suitably serenaded the way a man of his 'popularity' can only be.

They're not booing, sir.

They saying, "Booo-urns! Booo-urns!"

The best thing on cable news has been Keith Olbermann for some time now...

If you're the sort of Democrat who longs for Hillary to be at the top of a Clinton/Obama ticket... you deserve pity, scorn and thanks for the healthy laugh at your own expense, in that order.

It's sad watching my Senator, who doesn't really have a prayer of getting out of second place in the race for the Democratic nomination, try and bait undecided primary voters with her overtures toward Obama's charm, momentum and energy.

Say it with me now (or, at least, listen closely)... voting for the Iraq War resolution... and her vote on Iran... means she is a political opportunist who does not share our values. Hillary Clinton has demonstrated deplorable judgement on the largest national security matters she's had the opportunity to cast a vote on.

She fails, at a staggering level, to meet any sort of "Commander-In-Chief Threshold" by any measure a sane person who's been paying attention can possibly see.

If hers is the sort of so-called experience you'd prefer in the White House, perhaps you should switch to the Republican party?

When my guy locks this thing up, I'd hope he doesn't take her as his VP. The Clintons have done more to alienate me during this campaign than an entire 90s worth of exhausting trials and tribulations could have ever possibly done.

She's closer to Bush and McCain than she is to Obama, in my opinion. We need less of her and more of him and I look forward to her return to the United States Senate.

And good riddance to this horrorshow of a so-called Democratic presidential campaign.

How much time, money and good will is going to spent before he and the media accept this fact?

Obama just breezed past again and she's been left swirling in the dust he left behind. It's time for my Senator to concede this race with grace, dignity and resolve toward electing Barack Obama and taking back the White House -- and this country -- from the maniacs.

This is over. Someone tell Bill.

Barack Obama is unexpectedly bridging the gap between Giants Super Bowl glory and the holy start of Yankees spring training. Winning by huge margins (it'll be 10 state victories in a row after he trounces Hillary Clinton in Wisconsin next week), he's having this incredible stature spurt in the brightest lights.

We're getting back to where things seemed after Iowa, only with a tested sort of credibility now. When Clinton surrogates come on cable news shows these days they seem spooked. When you're a Democrat, you get into politics to make a difference for the greater good. You can see the mix of frustrated awe and their own sense of mortality written all over their faces. Hillary's supporters will happily fall in with the Obama camp after he vanquishes her.

Her concession is going to be a relief, and a moment of coalescence. She's going to surprise some people who want to believe she's some cold, manipulative and satanically-ambitious dragon lady with her grace and resolve to helping get Barack elected President. I'm very curious to see what a Hillary Clinton, suddenly free from the expectations of millions and the measured way of living with one eye on the Presidency for a good part of her life, will do next. She can accomplish incredible things in the Senate if she wants that. We're entering as close to a 'Golden Age' for the Democratic Party as we could ever hope for these days. I think Senator Clinton can be the next Ted Kennedy -- Senate Icon and champion of progressive causes.

I'm sure it corrupts everyone who runs for President to some degree (Hillary Clnton is no more guilty of doing the politically expedient thing with that Iraq War vote than John Kerry was), but I'd like to see the Clntons once again working for the Progressive ideals that got them into politics and government in the first place. Before triangulation and equivocation in exchange for a more solid grip on power dictated what positions they took.

But this is Obama's time. Surely they see that by now.

I am wiped out, having sat nestled and sustainedly 'altered' to best achieve that out-of-focus sort of attention necessary to ingesting cable news political coverage these days.

Obama and Hilary are, essentially, tied in the pledged delegate count. Momentum almost totally belongs to Barack Obama and Clinton is, basically, playing the trap defense to try and hold off the crashing wave.

If this thing goes to the convention in Denver and these so-called "super delegates" we're hearing about (former government officials, party elders and, most intriguingly, current Democratic Congressmen and Senators given a delegate vote), I think we'll see a power struggle turn to upheaval.

What will not stand, I feel safe in saying, is the Democratic establishment circumventing the will of the people and casting their tipping votes for Hillary Clinton when Barack Obama is carrying all the excitement and promise of a new day.

Making him her VP won't cut it either. He needs to vanquish her over the next few primary days coming up. He's got the money and more of a head of steam headed into the upcoming caucus states. He can make life very uncomfortable for the Clinton campaign.

He needs to. And I think he will.

Well, that hurt. While I love seeing Bill Clinton on the winner's stage once again, I'm disappointed in last night's outcome. Not that I don't admire Hillary... I absolutely do. And I could, were it not for her past voting record and the inspirational campaign of Barack Obama, get very, very excited about the prospect of our first woman President.

But, really... it's this simple:

If you believe launching an illegal, immoral war against the Iraqi people which has no end in sight was a good thing... you're a Clinton democrat.

If you really can't wait to go after Iran next on the same sort of imaginary justifications and political, opportunistic posturing... you must also be excited about Hillary!

Hillary's experience, while vast and varied, includes enabling George Bush and the republicans in the greatest foreign policy tragedy of any of our lifetimes. But, hey... at least she's projecting "strength" in her refusal to apologize for it!

You know, the next well-intentioned whussy of a Democrat who has the balls to say something to the effect of: "America is never going to elect a black man" or "Do you know anyone outside of New York and California?" with regards to my enthusiastic confidence that Barack Obama will be the 44th President of the United States is going to get punched in the side of their non-attention paying head.

Senator Obama just opened a double-digit lead over Hillary the Dinosaur in New Hampshire. I would say this nomination is almost in the bag. On Wednesday morning, after the Democratic Establishment rank and file flock to his candidacy... after the South Carolina and Nevada Primaries later this month in which black voters are expected to surge the polls and unionized hospitality industry workers are expected to endorse heavily... he'll be an unstoppable freight train.

Now, I understand where doubt comes from... we've watched our leaders bow before Bush and his Republican thugocracy for too damn long. We've watched them whistle a melody while he appointed super-right wing Justices to the Supreme Court. We've watched them cow as Bush eviscerated Habeas Corpus, the Bill of Rights and the sanctity of the Geneva Conventions. And we've all choked down enough bile as scandal after scandal erupts then fades due to the timidity of a Democratic Congress unwilling to end the war, impeach the scumbags who deserve it, or bring swift action against the myriad of wrongdoings, law-breakings and shit-wipings they've foisted upon a staggered, beleaguered nation.

But if you're not paying attention to what Barack Obama is doing... if you're not aware that he just won the Iowa Caucuses with a turnout that favored Democrats almost 3-1 as opposed to Republicans... if you're not conscious of the fact that young people actually showed up to vote this time out... if you're not paying attention to the fact that both Iowa and New Hampshire (two of the whitest states in the country) have both independents and republicans showing up to cast inspired ballots for the great, Democratic hope...

You just might be a lost cause.

Get on the bandwagon, people. To naysay is to be mocked at this point so far as I'm concerned... to be laughed at heartily because you're on the wrong side of the sea change sweeping this pissed-off, yet yearning country.

Don't be a statistic.

Now this is damn good stuff...

A friend sent me this:

Quote of the Day: Ronald Reagan on Dubya

'A moment I've been dreading. George brought his
ne're-do-well son around this morning and asked me to
find the kid a job. Not the political one who lives in
Florida. The one who hangs around here all the time
looking shiftless. This so-called kid is already
almost 40 and has never had a real job. Maybe I'll
call Kinsley over at The New Republic and see if
they'll hire him as a contributing editor or
something. That looks like easy work.'

From the just published REAGAN DIARIES. The entry is
dated May 17, 1986.