Countdown to Revolution(?)

Tomorrow, we'll find out who the next president will be. It's almost like Christmas Eve, where you can't wait to wake up and see if the present under the tree is that sweet new robot toy you wanted, or some lame old sweater that your grandparents insisted you should have. The present under the tree is shaped like the robot, it feels like the robot, but you know better than to get your hopes up because there's been a Christmas or two where things didn't quite go as you had hoped. Oh, and Christmas only comes once every four years, and shapes the stability of the world.

It's an exciting time in this country, as we possibly sit on the verge of a revolution similar to the one we've seen since the 2000 election, only we could have an intelligent diplomat at the helm rather than a drunken yahoo. Since that fateful "election," we've seen why we don't need a president that we could "sit down and have a beer with," because most of the people you're sitting down having beers with have no business being in charge of anything. There's a lot of promises flying around in this election, perhaps more than one man could ever live up to, but that's just the nature of the beast. The bottom line is that the Bush reign is finally coming to a close, and people are excited to start rebuilding the shambles that he's left.

Election night is a crazy night, especially for those entrenched in the media. It's like the Super Bowl for football fans, only the season has lasted nearly two years. What will we do without the constant speculation and analyzation that has consumed our lives? What will John King do with his magic board? Who will Dick Morris make up slanderous lies about? And, dear lord, who will the late night comedians mock night after night without the hilarious and unpredictable W. at the podium? News junkies are about to enter a recession of their own, but perhaps it's for the best.

So where were you four years ago? I was in my junior year of college, fresh into the upper-division classes in Journalism school and trying to craft one of my first video projects: a short documentary on student activism during the election. It was a lofty and ambitious project for a group of four students that didn't really know what they were doing. Basically our strategy was to record as much as we could and sort it out later. The entire term's project rested on two or three days, and once it passed by, it was gone forever. No re-shoots or new interviews. Armed with cameras and microphones, we stormed the campus as the election came and went. In the end, we got some pretty cool stuff (and kept ourselves distracted while the country was voted down the crapper), and while I'd do a hundred things differently today, I learned a lot of lessons (like don't rely on any morons in the group to do what they claim they'll do).

If you've got a few minutes to kill, take a glimpse back four years ago, and remember all the excitement and misinformation that revolved around that election. Just bare in mind that this project was more of a learning experience for a few boozing college students than any sort of professional endeavor.

Now let's hope that 2008 goes a little smoother and we don't wake up on Wednesday saying, "It's not the end of the world". Hopefully it's the beginning of a new one.