Voted for change, and the country did the same.

One of John McCain's last campaign rallies was in Roswell, NM. May be he was hoping for some alien intervention. Sadly that never came - and we all know what happened next.

People have run out of adjectives to describe how historic and overwhelming the night was, and so I would not even try. It was my first time voting in a general election here in United States, and the process was mostly painless and filling in the bubbles made me feel a bit nostalgic. Networks called Pennsylvania early, with Virgina, Indiana and North Carolina very close, we never got a chance to get worried. It was effectively over (time to change the Orkut/Facebook/Gtalk status messages!) and Florida has lost the bragging rights of being the decider. We met a bunch of screaming supporters in downtown and watched him speak at a noisy and cramped bar.

It never felt close on election night. The primaries were more entertaining. And I have to figure out how can I live without all the polls, rumors, debates, speeches and analysis keeping me occupied.

Voting for Change, in Gainesville

So finally the first Tuesday after the first Moday in November is upon us. By this time, tomorrow, we should have a clear sense of where the night is heading for. As an avid supporter "for change", I hope that means whether its a narrow victory or a landslide for Barack.

I have been following politics for while, back from my days in India. The issues and the candidates interest me, for sure. I do have decently strong opinions about those. But what fascinates me more is what happens at the background - the tactics and strategies, the opinion and the exit poll, and in generally the things shape the outcomes, unbeknown to the general public.

This election offered plenty of those. I went to a Joe Biden rally on our campus yesterday. It was my first time willingly in a political rally, ever. And i also got to "meet" the now famous "Obama-bot", a moving robot with glowing blue eyes carrying Obama banners, made by UF students. While all that was so much fun, I noticed far more interesting things. I saw a disproportionate number of people wearing "turn Texas blue" shirts. It has been happening in all across the country - volunteers from Illinois swamping Indiana and Ohio, from all the southern states congregating in Florida and from Arizona going to Nevada and New Mexico. While I dont know if they can pull off wins in all these key states, it just shows the remarkable ground game Obama folks have put together. I read reports that in Ohio, they have calculated the number of votes they need block by block, precinct by precinct, and there are people in charge of making sure of that. Well, it is surely a bad year for republicans, but that does not take away the credit of building perhaps the most exhaustive ground organization in history by Obama folks. And just in case things do not go right, there are five thousand lawyers standing by in Florida, which has been jokingly called the largest law farm in country right now.

May the best candidate win, as long as it is Barack. That would be the easiest choice for me on the ballot.

And that is me with the "Obama-bot" on Sunday at the Biden rally.