Sweden loves Obama

The happy ladies in the picture above are Pascale (Canada), Sandra (Hawaii), Vivian (Texas) and Deidre (NY) at Pascale's house for a celebratory Obama breakfast. Breakfast made the most sense since the election wasn't called until around 6am here (although it was looking pretty good by 4am when I got up). That's why the newspaper headlines refer to Barack winning "this morning" or "over night." I have to say I would have killed to be in Chicago, or even back in SF for the victory. When I saw Jesse Jackson and Bill Clinton crying as Obama made his wonderful and appropriate victory speech, well, let's just say I was feeling very proud to be an American after a looooooooooong spell of embarrassment.

I've had all sorts of people want to talk about Obama's win with me the last couple of days. Even the lady at the bank who kept apologizing because her colleague didn't show up for an appointment (what is UP with Swedish banks anyway -- you have to hound them to give them your money?) said how happy she was that Obama won and wasn't I pleased. (Well, yes, but I'd be more pleased if your bank actually functioned.) The other day the paper said that 85%+ of Europeans in 13 or so countries supported Obama over McCain. It's a funny thing to be surrounded almost entirely by politically liberal, um, I mean progressive, people after leaving the same type of environment in SF. I was telling Adrian that I'm not sure I know a single Republican. While that's comfortable, it's not exactly great in terms of having to defend and debate your beliefs. But for today... who cares! Gobama!