Todays photo challenge,

Day 10

can't ( won't) live without.

My music.

Nothing like a good show tune to jump start the day.

***

Days have now gone by and the election night dust had settled. I find myself in a kindler, gentler, retrospective kind of mood today.

I couldn't help but feel for Mitt as I watched him give his concession speech the other night. As exhausted as we all were watching this years never ending Presidential campaign, imagine how bad he felt as he watched his Presidential dreams dwindle with every touch of John King's finger on the magic map.

After years of criss crossing the country stumping at every diner, pig roast and town hall meeting in search of a dream, he must have felt just as bad as you can feel watching Ohio and Florida turn blue right before his eyes.

It's easy for me to be compassionate today, hell, my guy won!

I'm sure Mitt, at his core, is a good guy. Don't you think? I mean, he's not Doctor Evil or Donald Trump.

I may disagree with what direction he wanted to take our country but I have to give him some credit. He did more than I did. He stepped into the political ring, which is like walking through the doors of Fight Club these days. All I did was sit back and bitch.

These politicians that I find so easy to jump on are at least "serving". I think most have good intentions.I don't think Mitt entered politics to get rich, he crossed that off his bucket list long long ago. He's been there, done that.

I can only assume Mitt's political life has been fueled by the fact that he wants to serve and if that's true, he deserves some credit. (Between me and you, I do think that Ann Romney already had window treatments for the White House picked out in her mind.) So, I stayed up late on election night to see what he had to say, to see how he would handle this devastating loss. He was gracious and said all the right things about the President and his family. But something was missing and I didn't figure it out until yesterday when I watched a video of an impromptu visit by the President at his election headquarters in Chicago. The room was full of young people. The President stepped to the microphone and spoke to these kids from the heart.

The young generation that were present in that room saw a humble man, thanking them for their hard work and trying his best to express his best wishes for them and what he felt in his heart. When he struggled to find the right words that would communicate his feelings, the tear that streaked his face said it all.

And, now I know what was missing as I watched Mitt's concession speech.

Emotion.

There was none. I was more emotional than he was.

 I'm probably being unfair here. In reality, not a whole lot of time passed between Carl Rove melting down on Fox News denying that Obama had just won the Presidency for the 2nd time and him standing in front of hundreds of disappointed supporters giving his concession speech. I don't think it had really set in yet.

I think Mitt Romney is a Patriotic American who wanted to serve his country. I recognize and appreciate that.

But we're moving FORWARD.