[November 10, 2016] The first election I can remember as a young child was when John F. Kennedy (Democrat) ran against Rich Nixon (Republican) in 1960 and won. Rarely am I any longer surprised about election results but I had bought into current predictions of all the pollsters, political pundits, news reports, etc. that Hillary Clinton would easily win over Donald Trump. They were wrong and this was a most astonishing election.
I remember trying to convince my parents that JFK was the right man for the job and happy that he did in fact win. Like this election, the loser won the popular vote by a small margin but lost in the Electoral College. Yet, as a surprise to us all, on January 20th next year, President Trump will stand and swear on the Bible that he will support and defend the Constitution of the United States of America.
Like 46 years ago, our own son tried last week to convince my wife and I that the “other candidate,” Hillary Clinton in this case, was the right person for the presidency but the results were not the same. Our son is devastated and depressed over Clinton’s loss.
This Tuesday on Election Day I was also out and about talking with people in my New York City neighborhood (great weather) and found that nearly everyone was for Clinton. Early in the day they told me how they planned to vote and how historic it would be to have a woman as president. To them, she was a Democrat and a woman, nothing else mattered.
Everyone was talking about how things would be in New York under Hillary Clinton’s presidency given that she had been a Senator from our state. Early election results were coming in that supported that thinking and the media’s early coverage all were predicting a dominating Clinton win. Later in the day things started to change and yesterday when we woke up, Trump had won; surprising all of us who listened to the “experts” and neighbors.
Now is a telling time. How leaders act when they are defeated tells us a lot about their character. Clinton gave a gracious concession speech and seemed to be genuine in what she said. However, the political pundits and all those experts are trying to explain either how they were wrong or how terrible Trump will be as president. The future is not for us to see but the best leaders can do a fairly good job of it.
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