Wow.

I've just returned from five days knocking on doors in New Mexico. Which was apparently very successful. As I haven't seen the county-by-county breakdown of New Mexico yet, I have no idea if my work actually made a difference in seeing the man get elected. It doesn't matter. I have never screamed like that in my life, and I have done some serious screaming. That was amazing. That was a mandate. That was a stunning, stunning night.

I will write some stories, some thoughts, and some notes for the future in the coming days. But for now brief notes. I know everyone has been saying they're "proud to be an American for the first time in eight years." That's not quite true of me. It's come to me in flashes even in the face of the bleak political landscape—my Constitutional Law and American History teachers in high school were just too damn good. But this is the first time in at least four years, and possibly even seven or eight, that I have *faith* in America. It is the first time I feel like my adulthood could take place in an America, a contemporary version of America, that I could truly love.

HOPE is not a campaign slogan. Last night I was ebullient with it; today and tonight, travelling back from the beloved swing state, wearing my "Moose for Obama" T-shirt for the second day in a row, I feel simply suffused with it. Yes, Silvana, there's work to be done, but now it's work people actually want to do. It's work defined in the positive. Not just because Obama is a Democrat do I feel this way; I would not have been happy had John Kerry won four years ago, for instance. I would have been relieved, but not happy. I am happy because we have a man of integrity.

And because the Obama girls are getting a puppy. I wonder what the criteria are to become the White House nanny.