The votes are in and the die is cast: Barack Obama will be our new president come January.

It was a long election. I mean, a really long one. Democrats started their campaigns a year early as a show of their impatience eagerness to kick George Bush out of office. Republicans soon jumped on the bandwagon and started as well.

There were times when we thought it would be Hillary Clinton vs. Rudy Guiliani, or John Edwards vs. Mitt Romney. Somewhere in there Chuck Norris endorsed Mike Huckabee and a bunch of singers wrote songs about Barack Obama. It was a strange election to be sure.

John McCain put up a good fight but in the end he had too many strikes against him. He was 72 years old, which brought up questions about his health, he chose a relatively unknown Alaskan governor as his VP choice, which scared a lot of people who didn’t want her at the reigns should McCain pass on, and of course the stigma of an unpopular war in Iraq and the recent economic crisis may have made any Republican candidate persona non grata during this election cycle.

Barack got into office with an unprecedented amount of minority and young adult votes. Many black voters voted for one of the few times in their lives, which I find a little startling, actually. While I commend them for making their voices heard, one does have to ask if maybe the reason why minorities haven’t been better served in the past has less to do with this nation’s social structure and possibly more to do with a self-imposed exile from public life.

So, what does this all mean for the industry? Well, Barack is not opposed to increased oil production, but it’s not at the top of his priority list. He most certainly will seek to impose some sort of windfall profit tax on the industry eventually, but he’ll probably be too tied up with the Iraq war and the economy at the beginning of his administration to be concerned with that immediately.

There will be plenty of time to criticize any crazy policies he tries to enforce once he takes over the White House. But for now, he’s won a long-fought contest for the highest office in our land. He’s shown grace in his victory and he’s been admirable, so I look forward to the next four years with curiosity and not dread. Congratulations Mr. Obama, you’ve earned your victory.

And at the very least, all those whiny Europeans will have to shut up for a while. Hey England, France, Germany and the rest of Western Europe, you think you’re so progressive? We just elected a minority to presidency! Haha, trump that!