Conciliatory Tones

The room went quiet when John McCain gave his concession speech. Granted, the bloggers who stayed behind were mostly on the Democratic side, but for a brief moment, partisanship was put aside and Shireen Mitchell, who blogs about D.C. media said, "I think I'm going to cry," when McCain mentioned Obama's grandmother.

McCain's concession speech carried the same sober, generous spirit in the room.

And just as the speech rounded out feelings in the room, conciliatory tones emerged on the NPR.org community. Frankly, over the past few days, things had gotten ugly. Lots of name calling, lots of attacks on each of the candidates character, then, suddenly, as NPR projected Barack Obama would be the 44th president of United States, Kim Kennedy conceded "At the end Senator McCain once again shows that he is a good man."

D Alan wrote, "Well, as a McCain supporter, I must concede defeat and offer congrats to Obama and his supporters. This is my first time getting involved in politics and I appreciate those who I have challenged and had discussions with to enhance my own learning."

And, after the longest election in history, after a bitterly fought battle, Thomas Ellifritz, framed the future like this: "It is time to begin talking to each other. The long, bitter struggle of the campaign is over, it is time to heal and move on. Listening to McCain's concession speech. Both fine men!"

-- Eyder Peralta

12:24 AM ET | 11- 5-2008 | permalink

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