JOHN MCCAIN CONCEDES: The crowd boos Obama, but he silences them. “His success alone commands my respect for his ability and perseverance. . . . This is a historic election. . . . Let there be no reason now for any citizen to fail to cherish their citizenship in this, the greatest nation on earth.” The crowd cheers.
He calls Sarah Palin “One of the best campaigners I have ever seen, and an impressive new voice in our party for reform and the principles that have always been our greatest strength. . . . We can all look forward with great interest to her future service to Alaska, the Republican party, and our country.”
UPDATE: Mark Levin: “John McCain just gave a classy concession speech. If McCain had won, we were told of possible riots.”
ANOTHER UPDATE: Jim Geraghty: “I have many, many disagreements with Barack Obama. But tonight I congratulate him on his victory. I have seen a few critics say, ‘he won’t be my president,’ but that is nonsense. He will be my president, and I will wish him well, particularly as he takes on the duty of protecting the American people in a dangerous world.”
MORE: Bill Daly writes:
I can remember being enthusiastic about Kennedy winning the 1960 election. It was the last time in my life that I was ever enthusiastic about a Democrat winning. I’ve voted a couple of times for the Democrat in the meanwhile, but they lost, so there was nothing to celebrate. Massachusetts will do that to you.
Anyway, I’ll go on record as predicting that Obama will be almost totally ineffectual as President. He appeared to think during the campaign that the office of President held absolute power in the US, but that is not the case. The big winner, unfortunately, was Congress. I doubt that even a majority of Democrats in Congress are actually socialist, and while they will support tax increasses big time, there’s very little else of Obama’s agenda that they’re likely to back.
At least, we won’t have to worry about McCain being blamed for the inevitable screwups.
Question: what is the likelihood that in 2012, Iraq will still be an ally of the US?
Stay tuned. We’ll see.
STILL MORE: Hard feelings.
But Obama’s acceptance speech was classy. If he governs in that spirit, he’ll do well. Will he?