And All Is Right In the World

I saw the Cure up front on the floor last week.

My belongings have made it to port in the UK.

I'm back in France.

And the icing on the cake: Barack Obama clinched the Democratic nomination for the U.S. presidential race.

"Ok, so you saw one of your all-time favorite bands, all your worldly possessions have safely made their transatlantic journey, and you're in your newly adopted home. You're happier than a pig in shit. Why do you give a damn about who's President in the country you were so keen to abandon?" you may ask...

Good question. I can only stand to benefit from America's continuing downward spiral into the toilet bowl of history. It vindicates my decision to leave. It makes trips home like a third-world shopping spree. And, well, there's always the delightful schadenfreude brought about by years of hubris and hegemonic foreign policy.

But as much as those things do apply, I love America. My family's there. Most of my friends are there. Hell, I still pay some taxes there. So of course I have an interest in who's in charge. I'm not so selfish as to dump all of my interests from the last quarter century just because I bailed to another country. The red-white-and-blue (as ugly and asymmetrical a flag as it is) is in the fabric of my being. I'm as American as I am Iranian or Japanese. If not more so.

So damn right I'm celebrating the fact that there's the possibility - nay, a good chance - that Obama may well be the next president of the United States of America.

Besides, it'll finally bring it all to an end.

As the sole American in my office - and amongst other circles here in Paris - I'm subjected to unending questions. "Why is your president such an idiot?" "Do they purposely breed them that stupid in Texas?" "Why can't that bitch see that she's defeated?" "Did a losing candidate just threaten to obliterate another country?"

All valid questions, of course, but none I want to deal with on a daily basis. And soon, I won't have to. Because we damn well may finally have a president that will restore a bit of dignity, hope, and - dare I say - statesmanship to the office.

Of course, if McCain wins, fuck all y'all.