Barack Obama wins, and is the 44th president of the United States.

Proposition 8 is winning, 53.7% to 46.3, with 22% reporting.

Are these tears of joy or are they tears of sadness?

They are both.

Frankly, we’ve been feeling a little left out. We’d read about these insidious “robocalls” on the internet but haven’t had the pleasure of receiving one yet. Until tonight.

We live in a very middle-class neighborhood just outside of San Francisco. The homes and some of it’s residents date back to the 1950’s and there’s a certain Edward Scissorhands/Tim Burton quality to the place. It’s an ethnically-diverse community, families with children playing in their yards and seniors out walking their dogs. We have our own schools and shopping centers. We moved here because it was affordable, close to San Francisco and seemed welcoming.

But not so much over the past few weeks. Yes on 8 signs began springing up like weeds recently. Some homes have plastered their windows with the ProtectMarriage logo. Just this evening we learned that a Yes on 8 rally took place in our neighborhood today, and the No on 8 sign we planted last night is now gone.

Perhaps it has something to do with the No on 8 fliers we have been putting in people’s mailboxes over the past few weekends. Or that there seems to be a church on every third block unsympathetic to our equal rights.

And tonight we come home to this:

The quote is from the Saddleback Forum that Barack Obama and John McCain attended back in August, moderated by Pastor Rick Warren of the Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, California. Allow me to provide the full quote, as the robocall edits out the “but” that follows Barack’s answer.

WARREN: There’s a lot more I’d like to ask on that. We have 15 other questions here. Define marriage.

OBAMA: I believe that marriage is the union between a man and a woman. Now, for me as a Christian — for me — for me as a Christian, it is also a sacred union. God’s in the mix. But –

WARREN: Would you support a Constitutional Amendment with that definition?

OBAMA: No, I would not.

WARREN: Why not?

OBAMA: Because historically — because historically, we have not defined marriage in our constitution. It’s been a matter of state law. That has been our tradition. I mean, let’s break it down. The reason that people think there needs to be a constitutional amendment, some people believe, is because of the concern that — about same-sex marriage. I am not somebody who promotes same-sex marriage, but I do believe in civil unions. I do believe that we should not — that for gay partners to want to visit each other in the hospital for the state to say, you know what, that’s all right, I don’t think in any way inhibits my core beliefs about what marriage are. I think my faith is strong enough and my marriage is strong enough that I can afford those civil rights to others, even if I have a different perspective or different view.

Another misleading ad from the Yes on 8 crowd. Recently Obama and Biden have come out more strongly against Prop 8 calling it unnecessary and wrong. While I obviously don’t share my candidates’ views on same-sex marriage, with an Obama-Biden administration I can at least see us moving in the right direction.

And Yes on 8? Thanks for the extra bit of motivation. I’ll be planting more signs in our neighborhood tonight. I will take a day off from work tomorrow and spend my early morning voting No on Proposition 8 and then casting my ballot for Barack Obama as our next president. I will then stand with my partner and my best friends outside my polling location distributing fliers and asking them to vote No on Prop 8. I will do my part.

Now you do yours. Vote No on 8.

Several months ago Barack Obama came out against Proposition 8 but hasn’t said much in the way since. Until tonight.

On the 10/30/08 edition of NBC’s Nightly News, Brian Williams asked Obama about his approach to picking Supreme Court justices in lieu of a litmus test. Half way through the answer, and unprompted, Obama brings up marriage and the right to privacy.

“The right to marry who you please, isn’t in the constitution. But I think all of us assume, a state decided to pass a law saying Brian, you can’t marry the woman you love, that you would think that was unconstitutional. Well, where does the come from? I think it comes from a right to privacy.”

See the clip below.

Maybe I’m reaching here but I think this a not-so-subtle nod to Prop 8 in California, and the proposed bans in Florida and Arizona.

While I would prefer something more forthright, I’ll take what I can get. What do you think? Am I totally off base here?

As many of you know, Gen. Colin Powell (R) endorsed Barack Obama on Meet the Press on Sunday. It is something that many progressives have been hoping and waiting for for some time. While it would be easy to dig into the partisan mud, the moment that struck me most was how the photograph of a Muslim soldier factored into Powell’s endorsement.

“I feel strongly about this particular point because of a picture I saw in a magazine. It was a photo essay about troops who are serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. And one picture at the tail end of this photo essay was of a mother in Arlington Cemetery, and she had her head on the headstone of her son’s grave. And as the picture focused in, you could see the writing on the headstone. And it gave his awards–Purple Heart, Bronze Star–showed that he died in Iraq, gave his date of birth, date of death. He was 20 years old. And then, at the very top of the headstone, it didn’t have a Christian cross, it didn’t have the Star of David, it had crescent and a star of the Islamic faith. And his name was Kareem Rashad Sultan Khan, and he was an American. He was born in New Jersey. He was 14 years old at the time of 9/11, and he waited until he can go serve his country, and he gave his life. Now, we have got to stop polarizing ourself in this way. And John McCain is as nondiscriminatory as anyone I know. But I’m troubled about the fact that, within the party, we have these kinds of expressions.”

The photo actually appeared in the New Yorker back in September. It wasn’t difficult to find.

It’s a stark, moving image. And speaks more truth than any political rally or campaign stop, Democrat or Republican. And then I noticed the date of his birth.

It’s a notable day. Abraham Lincoln was born on February 12. As was Charles Darwin.

But as I write this it gets harder and harder for me to look at the image. Kareem Rashad Sultan Khan was born 20 years to the day after I was born. I share my birthday was this hero, who has given more in his 20 years than I will give in an entire lifetime.

I ask, how many more need to die?