I wrote a comment to this diary and thought I would like to hear other people's stories about this. I am happy that so many people are really inspired by Barack Obama. I am also hoping that by the time November rolls around I will be as well. It is possible, and it would make me very happy.
But I was inspired to think about whether I had ever been to the polls in November (or frankly in the primaries) to vote for a presidential candidate who really inspired me, who made me thrilled and proud to cast my ballot for him (as prior to this time around, I have never had an opportunity to vote for anyone other than a him). After the fold, what I came up with.
It was a tough thing to think about. John Edwards was good in 2004, but not nearly as exciting as he was in 2008, so my vote for him does not work here (he was the only real alternative to Kerry by the time things got around to Missouri, and Kerry most definitely did NOT inspire me). Al Gore was okay in many ways in 2000, but he didn't excite me as much as he would have this time around.
I suppose it would be 1992 -- Bill Clinton in 1992, when I went to the polls (my first time in the US and not by absentee ballot in 8 years) and I felt there was a sea change coming. He was in favour of gays in the military; he and his wife were going to work for national health care; it was the end of the Reagan revolution. He had a wife who was fiercely bright, had a career of her own, and whom he treated as his equal. It was exciting.
Now that didn't work out quite as I wanted it to, but that was the last time I was just bursting with excitement to go to the polls to vote for president.
I hope I feel that excited this time around. I don't think I have ever felt that way before or since, that giddy feeling that you can't imagine. I was really happy after the 2006 midterm election, but it was because of overall results, not that I had voted for that one person who would rock my world. And we are talking about president here. Bill Clinton in 1992 was the last person (and probably the only person) I have ever voted for who made me that excited and proud and giddy all at the same time.