I was living in downtown Detroit at the time. If you were to visit downtown Detroit right now, you might think you were in Brooklyn or something, but 10 years ago there really weren't any white people besides me and mk. I have never seen as optimistic of an atmosphere as the morning after the election. Bums were high fiving you on the street. I was in line at the bank, and I had to wait like 10 minutes even though I was second in line, because the tellers and the customers were just in a mood to talk about what the hell is happening in America, and I-thought-I'd-never-see-this-day sort of stuff. It was enough to make you tear up. At work (also in downtown Detroit) they basically cancelled everything on Jan 20, 2009 to let everyone gather in the auditorium to watch the inauguration. I remember clearly thinking that America had turned a corner. I'm still hopeful that we did. To paraphrase Dick Cheney, the insurgency is in its last throes. Hopefully I'm more correct than him!