Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin gives a thumbs-up during her speech at the 2008 Republican Governors Association Annual Conference Nov. 13. (Media credit: Marsha Halper/Miami Herald/MCT)

The moment Barack Obama’s presidency became a sure thing, a wave of relief came over me. This was not merely because I voted for him or because it marked a major turning point for our nation, but because finally the bitter campaigning had ended.

While some may feel that the time leading up to this historic presidential election was exciting and sensational, I felt the exact opposite. As someone who cared about the election, it was important to me to make my own decision about it. However, I am also someone who does not care to invest all her time and energy into politics, and after being repeatedly solicited to join the Obama campaign, I was getting fed up. It was not only on campus either — I received at least 10 phone calls from different Democratic groups asking me to sign up and join the campaign.

Although it is clear that every presidential election is important, and of course everyone who can exercise their right to vote should do so, to me politics in general is just one big dirty game.
The aggressive campaigning that felt like it would never end did the opposite of what it was supposed to do. Instead of the candidates highlighting their merits, what makes them qualified and what makes them trustworthy enough to run the country, all the focus seemed to be on controversy surrounding their personal lives.

The craziness that arose around Sarah Palin was ridiculous, and I could not help but wonder, what was John McCain thinking? If he wanted to get the nation’s attention, he sure grabbed it, but teaming up with Palin only seemed to backfire.

There were several things about Palin that I think stunned and outraged Americans. First of all, there was her 17-year-old pregnant daughter, supposedly engaged to the father of the unborn child. Secondly, her youngest, a baby she gave birth to despite knowing beforehand he would be plagued with Down syndrome. This was hardly a traditional “all-American” type family to introduce to us, and Palin’s family factors had trouble written all over them for the campaign.

McCain and his advisers should have known that in the dirty realm of politics, Palin was not going to appeal to Americans. She referred to herself as a hockey mom, but then again most hockey moms do not have pregnant teenage daughters, right? That sort of hasty negative opinion that so many Americans jump to is why the game of politics needs to be played carefully all the way through Although we had to endure several months of painful political campaigning, many of us had our minds made up much sooner — perhaps even based on our first impressions of the candidates.

And while Obama found himself amid political controversy as well, it seemed less of a problem because neither he nor Biden made outlandish comments giving Americans even more to talk about and react to. When comments surfaced to the American public from Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Obama’s former pastor, concern arose about Wright’s several denunciations and damnations of the U.S. government. However, Obama addressed this concern seriously, because after all, it was a serious matter that was not going to be ignored.
Americans had a legitimate reason to be concerned about Wright’s views because this man had been a role model to Obama. Handled differently and taken less seriously — or even worse, ignored — I have the feeling that Obama would not currently be the president-elect.

Palin, on the other hand, had a tendency to get herself into trouble when speaking and addressing the controversy around her and her family. Her statement, “The only difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull? …Lipstick!” was supposed to appeal to American moms, but it really just made it impossible for them to take her seriously or view her as a viable political figure. To me that line will always be remembered, but as a funny episode told around the dinner table in the years to come.

When deciding whom to vote for, there was sufficient reasoning for not supporting Obama or McCain. The decision is only made harder by the media’s circus-like coverage of the campaign, and the painfully obvious bias written all over it. Each individual has the right to make this decision on his or her own, based on objective information. Voting for the president should not be like deciding what to wear in middle school: it’s not about what everyone else around you is doing.

There were also those so emotionally invested in the election that it became all they could manage to talk about, and they always had an agenda to push in support of one candidate or the other. The focus should not be on trying to persuade others to vote a certain way — the focus should be on getting people registered to vote, because if they can exercise that right they will be forced to actively think about whom to vote for.

That is another factor which granted Obama’s victory — the turnout for voting in this election was at its highest especially for young voters like us. Now that the election is done, there is no turning back. Those who are unhappy and threatening to move to Canada can either pack their bags and head north or stay and deal with reality. After all, time will fly by as it always does, and in just four years we will get to see the dirty game of politics played out again in the next presidential election, and perhaps it will get even dirtier.