I've been crazy busy – on a grading jag that just finished today.  Tuesday, of course, was consumed with the election.  Wednesday by grading.  But here I am tonight….

I watched the election results with my daughter and some of her friends.  They were ecstatic over Obama's win.  We stayed up to see the victory speech, which I liked (but I am an easy mark for Obama rhetoric).  And I thought McCain did the right thing in his concession.  The next morning my daughter (14 years old) had me print out Obama's speech and she read it back to me as we drove to school.  It's great to see the kids inspired by politics, appreciative of the social breakthrough, and energized for the future.

The same can be said for my students. Lots of smiles, lots of hugs, lots of hope.  I was only three years old when JFK was elected, but I imagine the optimism of this time is similar to that time.

I have been completely absorbed in election coverage these past few weeks.  I agree with Sullivan that Fivethirtyeight was extraordinary in their predictions.  And I have a soft spot for Pollster.com, since one of the analysts there is from my Ph.D. alma mater, Wisconsin.  The sophistication and predictive accuracy of the poll aggregators is something that stands out in this election.

Not much sense in trying to link to important stories – there are too many of them.  But I do want to take note of Laura, over at 11d, getting all Confucian on me with this post: A Good Leader is a Good Parent.  Her point is that the rhetoric of being a good parent was prominently featured in the Obama campaign and maybe that is a good thing.  The more public recognition of father's doing right by their kids the better.  And I think Confucius would agree.  He tells us to "cherish the young," and from that I take a message of living up to our duties to children.

Which reminds me, if I were to add to the list of books that Obama should read (ht Dan D), the choice would be clear: Mencius.  It's all about ruling with compassion and justice, while staying true to our closets loving relationships.  Good advice in any century.