Election Night Special

Seeing as this year's presidential election is pretty important for a lot of reasons, both good and bad, I have to admit that I'm a little disappointed I'm not at home in the US to experience the bizarre political climate first-hand. Being abroad means I have to be a lot more proactive to keep up-to-date, and I imagine that I'm missing out on some interesting talk on campus amongst the students and professors. Plus, this is the first (presidential) election where I'm old enough to vote, and I don't even get to go into a voting booth. Boo.

All that being said, though, it has been really interesting to follow the election from this side of the Atlantic. Every aspect of the election is covered by every major British media outlet. Literally everyone I've spoken to, British and otherwise, is well-informed about America's political situation, and has been following the election rather closely. Not only are people very familiar with Obama and McCain and their respective platforms, but Sarah Palin is an extremely hot item. Concrete, "UEA's only independent newspaper," a few weeks ago ran an article about her stance on environmental protection, and my flatmates love to bring up ridiculous things they've heard about her: She believes the world is 5000 years old! She thinks you can "cure" gays!! She HATES polar bears!!! All I can say is, "I know, right?!"

Everyone I've spoken to, British and otherwise, is hoping Obama's victorious. During my first week here I met a couple British guys who overheard me talking to some of my new friends about I don't remember what, and one of them interrupted me to say, "I'm sorry, but are you American? Please vote for Obama!" It wasn't until I promised that I would that they even introduced themselves.

Anyway, I sent in my ballot in the beginning of October, so here's hoping that it went through. All I can do now is sit back with my fingers crossed. As I mentioned earlier, they're keeping the pub open all night tonight, and I have a feeling it'll be the social event of the week, so I'm very excited about that. To get you in the election coverage spirit, take a look at the way the British do elections with this classic Monty Python sketch, "Election Night Special."