Yes We Can, Yes We Did.

I cannot express my gratitude, my astonishment and my complete and utter joy at the turn out of tonight's election.

I am proud to be a citizen of this country this evening.

I am so proud that we elected a man who ran a clean, positive campaign. That we PROVED to the world and to old Washington that their tactics were unnecessary in winning a campaign. We didn't need to lie or cheat to win: We needed what Obama had to offer.

I am glad that the time has finally come when we've placed the difference of skin color behind us and elected the man that was right for this country. He was elected, as Martin Luther King Jr. hoped, not for the color of his skin, but for the content of his character.

I am proud to be a UWEC college Democrat. I am proud that we ignored the taunts of our opponents and continued to bring hype and energy to our cause. That we had chalkers, "ninjas", temporary tattoos and Koch dressed up in a giant donkey costume literally making an ass of himself. I am proud that the Eau Claire campus had a 81% turn out.

In 2004, I was so dissapointed. I was 15 years old, unable to vote and was ashamed at the turn out of the youth. I vowed that I would do better. If I had to sit through another four years of Bush, I WOULD do better.
And we did. We showed the world that we are not only involved with the mall, our text messaging, our iphones and the Hills. We are young adults with a cause. We are showing the world that we do not need military force to solve problems, and we've elected a calm, level headed ideal thinker who will lead our generation to be something great. I can feel it.

America spoke up- the youth spoke up.

One thought occurred to me as I walked through the campus mall a few short days ago. The lawn was littered with Obama, Smith, Kind and Dexter signs, with the occasional rival republican signs. And I thought, "This is MY country. This is my future, this is my country, and we have not choice but to elect a leader who will help us achieve our goals."

And as the 44th President of the United States said this evening, we proved that our generation is not apathetic.

We are on fire.