I have written this sentence many, many times.

I did intend to be here last night, but... (What excuse this time? Ah... I know!) my sleep patterns were fucked up after staying up to watch the US elections. (Good one, Jerry! Cheers!)

So, Barack Obama won.

Good for him. I hope he makes a difference. Of course that line doesn't mean a thing. George W. Bush also made a difference. War, death, instability, danger. Maybe Gore and Kerry would have been just as bad. Until we are able to pass into alternative realities and see how they got on, we will never know.

I am not going to piss on anybody's parade here, but Obama is not the chosen one, the messiah, Anakin Skywalker or Harry Potter. Obama is a politician. As such he will be pulled and pushed by the vested interests that supported him, as much as Bush ever was by the vested interests that supported him. Vested interests may not care about you or me or the right thing that should be done. It is the political game. It is the way it goes.

During the run up to the Carter-Reagan election of 1980, I remember reading a piece in one of the highbrow magazines. The gist of the piece was that whoever won the election, six months afterwards, a majority of people would wish that they had voted for the other guy. I suspect that this is what will happen this time.

I hope that Obama does good things, but am cynical enough to think that he may not.