All I remember from the 2004 election -- well, all I remember aside from crushing disappointment and fear for the future -- is anxiety. I remember desperately checking surveys, exit polls, tv networks, rumor sites, political aggregators. I remember needing information like oxygen. Even the primaries were a swirl of unreliable data points and leaked perversions of statistical sampling methods. Tonight, for some reason, I'm perfectly calm. I have the exits, and am uninterested in them. I don't know if it's confidence in the outcome or a numbing exhaustion brought on by a long campaign or a zen acceptance of my own inability to control the outcome. Or is Obama's temperament simply infectious?
