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I had a nightmare and I woke up in a cold sweat, my head pounding, and my whole body shaking.
I'd dreamed that Obama had been elected President of the United States. The votes had been counted accurately, Obama was announced to be the winner, and he got up to give his acceptance speech on primetime national TV.
Obama stood there waving his arms and giving the victory sign until the crowd stopped roaring and screaming their love. Then he said, "My fellow Americans, I want to thank you for this unprecedented honor. America has changed for the better and you are the ones responsible for that change, not me. I appreciate all your hard work and your love for your country and for your fellow citizens. I know that you only want what is best for America, and so do I. Our country is at war and we are under threat by terrorists. Our need for security has never been greater. That's why I know you'll understand my decision not to risk any disruption in the present course of events. I have decided that it is in your best interests, my own best interests, and the best interests of our country and of the world, for me to uphold the precedent set by the great Democratic Party presidential candidates in the previous two presidential elections. I know that you will give your full support to the man I am conceding to for the good of the country, the man who is the best qualified leader at this time, the man who has the full support of my mentor Joe Lieberman, and the man I am proud to introduce to you now, my dear friend and colleague, the new President of the United States, John McCain!
There was a stunned silence in the room for a few minutes. Then as his words began to sink in, people started booing, hissing, and throwing things. Obama and McCain were quickly hustled off the stage by the Secret Service and hundreds of cops in full riot gear appeared and started shooting rubber bullets into the crowd and macing, tasering, clubbing, and arresting people as quickly as they could. I don't know why I was there as I'm not a large Obama campaign donor, but dreams are strange and there I was. I was punched in the face by a cop and as I was falling to the floor in shock, that was when I woke up and realized I'd been having a nightmare.
I know it was just a bad dream and that senior citizens like myself aren't supposed to cry. But I've gone back and reread the Constitution several times carefully, and there is nothing in it to prevent a winning Presidential candidate from conceding to the loser, and no power granted to us to do anything about it if they do, as we should have learned from the last two presidential elections.
This is fiction. Nothing like this could possibly happen, even though something similar to this has already happened. Twice.
Or could it?
