Reid Pauly | Guest Room

There is only one window in our office on the third floor of the Rayburn Building, but it could not have been placed any more perfectly. The panes of glass frame a postcard image of the Southwest side of the Capitol Building. It is truly a sobering routine to walk to work in the shadow of two-hundred and fifteen years of American history. Two hundred and eighty-nine feet below the double dome and a towering statue of Freedom, workers have a new found sense of urgency as they throw together this nation’s 44th inaugural platform.

Asad Haider | Guest Room

I stayed away from the news on election night. In my stupor, all I could do was wipe my brow and listen as the classic Parliament track “Chocolate City” bumped through my brain. “We didn’t get our 40 acres and a mule, but we did get you,” declared the great musical statesman George Clinton. “A chocolate city is no dream.”

Americans love to feel good about themselves. The exhaustive yearning to connect with our leadership, our ideals, and our capabilities has been a primary driver of American electoral and cultural politics, and is perhaps one of our country’s greatest narratives. In the face of domestic or foreign adversity, Americans thirst to rid themselves of national self-doubt and to unify around national pride, the eternal stimulant of the American people. Such a mentality seems quite apposite since last Tuesday’s election as our generation — Generation Y — now finds itself at the helm of a resurgence of the ultimate restorative device: patriotism.

If there was any cold blood, it was impossible to tell. This past Monday marked another step in the symbolic changing of the guard, as President George W. Bush and First Lady Laura Bush welcomed President-Elect Barack Obama and First Lady to be Michelle Obama to the traditional tour of the White House. Although President Bush was the focus of continual criticism by Senator Obama, and despite President Bush’s publicly announced belief that Senator Clinton would be the Democratic nominee, both men were all smiles when they posed together outside 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President-elect Obama has told Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid he's not interested in seeing the Democrats oust Connecticut's Joe Lieberman from their ranks over his endorsement of Republican John McCain.

Obama told Reid in a phone conversation last week that expelling Lieberman from the Democratic caucus would hurt the message of bipartisanship and unity that he wants for his new administration, a Senate Democratic aide said Tuesday. This aide spoke on condition of anonymity because the discussions were confidential.

The caucus is the meeting of all Senate Democrats and at the beginning of each Congress it chooses the body's leaders. Lieberman, a longtime Democrat mostly recently re-elected as an independent, has continued to join the Democratic caucus.

In his undeniably inspirational speech after winning the race for the White House Tuesday night, Obama referred to us as “the young people who rejected the myth of their generation’s apathy.” At this, I, like every other member of Generation Y watching, felt a surge of pride at having voted and actively participated in what was one of most important elections in our nation’s history — excluding the annual votes for American Idol, of course. After the initial victory-speech-buzz wore off, however, I realized that my generation may not be as actively involved in the political process as Obama’s uplifting remarks suggested.

I had a couple of other column ideas for this week, but I came across a column in Friday’s Yale Daily News by a Yale senior named Elizabeth Moore (entitled “You made a big mistake, America”), which, in the context of the mostly feel-good nature of American politics last week, was too astonishing to ignore.

It’s not that she doesn’t have the right to say and believe what she wants; she certainly does. It’s just that if what she says is completely ridiculous, we all (Democrats and Republicans) have the right to point and laugh at it.

I’m no political columnist, but below are excerpts of the column with some comments interjected.

“Thank you, America, for making the biggest mistake of your life.”