Wow

I’ve now voted in eight Presidential elections, and after last night, my record is evened at 4 and 4.

I started with a win in 1976 when I picked Carter, then suffered three losses in a row, Independent John B. Anderson in 1980, Mondale in 1984, and (holding my nose) Dukakis in 1988 (I really liked Pat Schroeder in the Democratic primaries); then I bounced back in 1992 and 1996, picking Bill Clinton, but since then, it’s been a bust, as both my choices, Al Gore in 2000, and John Kerry in 2004 fell to outgoing (yay!) President George W. Bush.

So it’s essentially been a lifetime—and if we take Mimi, for example, it’s literally been one—since my choice for President has won, and it’s been an entire adult existence—anyone born since the 1980s—since I’ve been really excited about the choice I made, winning or not (I naively thought Anderson had a legitimate chance, and I really believed my vote for him could change things, even though, since I was living in Los Angeles at the time, Reagan had already been determined the winner of the election by East Coast poll data and announced as such on TV.)

And what’s freakier to me is that nearly all of the candidates and issues I supported this time around have prevailed: Christine Gregoire has won re-election as Washington State Governor and ballot initiatives to help fund public transit (on which I’m riding right now as I type this), the Pike Place Market, and renovations to a number of city parks have also succeeded.

All this makes me feel more like part of the establishment than I’ve ever felt before; so much for being a rebel, and outsider, a maverick; now I’m in the majority, and while it’s nice to win, it’s sort of weird to be on the side that’s most like everyone else.

I’ll definitely take it though; and I’d be happy to do so again in 2012.