Formality
As discussed elsewhere, today Congress officially tallied the electoral votes from the 2008 presidential election and declared Barack Obama the victor with 365 out of 538. It may just be a formality at this point, but still: as of today, Obama is officially the next President of the United States. After the trio of presidential heartbreaks (Gore in 2000, Dean in the 2004 primaries, and Kerry is the 2004 general), I’m still having a little trouble believing this actually happened.
Barack Obama outside American Dream Pizza, in Corvallis, Oregon.
Related, it’s also awesome to see that Howard Dean is finally getting credit for designing and implementing his successful 50-state campaign strategy. While mocked by traditional politicos, it resulted in Democrats realistically competing in races all across the country, rather than being confined to blue states and urban centers. Not a bad way to vindicate yourself after what turned into a disastrous 2004 primary campaign.
