It's the end of the campaign, and everyone I know who's following things has become one raw nerve ending, wandering around, spasming at the release of every poll number, every questionable comment, every Palin rally and Biden gaffe.  I have found myself reacting more emotionally to just about every aspect of the campaign in the last few days: what else could explain my uproarious laughter at John McCain's QVC skit last night?

So, in the spirit of good campaign tactics, I'm going to play on emotions, today.  I told a friend of mine I was going to challenge her to a campaign cry-off in the near future, and I guess this is the beginning of that challenge.  If there are moments, stories, quips, or videos that have brought you to tears in this campaign, I'm encouraging everyone to share them below.  Let's have one final day of weepery, and then... well, let's hope it's over, for at least four years.

A note on this: trying to explain why something makes you cry is kind of like trying to explain why something make you laugh.  It's visceral, it's reactive.  But I'll try and put a little explanation into it anyway, because otherwise... I dunno, I feel like there isn't enough work going into it.

In no particular order, here are my Five Good Campaign Cries:

1). Will.i.am, "We Are the Ones."

I get the first little prickles in my eyes at the sound of the crowd chanting "O-ba-ma! O-ba-ma!"  There's also something about the pleas in Spanish that really move me, and the speech at 1:30.  "He's really going to be the president of the United States.  He's not going to be the president of the top ten percent or the president of the most powerful corporations, or the president of the most powerful lobbyists, he's going to be our president, he's going to speak for us, because we put him there."  Sure, there's some idealistic naivete in there, but... just to hear people speaking about a politician in that way gives me real hope.  Real.  Hope.

2). Early Voting in Evansville.
Ben Smith relates "an early voting story from a medical student in Evansville, Ind."  The killer is in the second paragraph:

I squeaked in just before the 7pm deadline to find two very frustrated poll workers and a line of a couple dozen people, due to problems with the computerized voting system not accepting people's driver's licenses. It was taking about 7-10 minutes per person just to get the computer to accept them as valid and to print out their ballot, causing very long delays.

For me the most moving moment came when the family in front of me, comprising probably 4 generations of voters (including an 18 year old girl voting for her first time and a 90-something hunched-over grandmother), got their turn to vote. When the old woman left the voting booth she made it about halfway to the door before collapsing in a nearby chair, where she began weeping uncontrollably. When we rushed over to help we realized that she wasn't in trouble at all but she had not truly believed, until she left the booth, that she would ever live long enough to cast a vote for an African-American for president. Anyone who doesn't think that African-American turnout will absolutely SHATTER every existing record is in for a very rude surprise.

There were about 20 people in front of me but remarkably not a single person left the room without voting over the 2 hours it took to get through the line.

3). AFL-CIO Leader Takes on Racism

I blogged this one before, but it is one of the best speeches I saw this season, in a season of admittedly good speeches:

"We're gonna be able to look back and say that 2008 was the year that the tide began to turn against the Rush Limbaughs and the Bill O'Reillys and the Ann Coulters and the right-wing race haters. Brothers and sisters, we're gonna be able to say that 2008 was the year that we took back our country, and built a government that embraced workers, and loved unions, and saw the power that we bring, and the justice that we instill in our country."

4). Donna Brazile Isn't Going to the Back of the Bus

This is another re-post, but I think it deserves it.  It's an impassioned, off-the-cuff rant on her hopes for the campaign, from a month ago.  What makes me teary about it now is how divisive things became, even after this plea for unity, and what it means for the future that her advice wasn't followed:

5). The Obamamercial

I know.  It's cheesy.  I'm not even the target audience for this video.  But at :47 in, when the camera has its first wide shot of Obama walking around a desk, in what Jon Stewart rightly called his practice Oval Office, that was the moment it really, truly, officially hit me: this man is going to be president.  The long dark night of the Bush era is over.  If there's a crisis -- when there's a crisis -- the speech that comes from the actual Oval Office won't be one that makes me cringe, or shudder, or search elsewhere for hope and answers.  It will be a speech that informs and reassures, from a man who has, I am now willing to admit unabashedly, brought me hope.  When decisions are made, I will be able to say I trust in the wisdom of my leaders -- not blindly, not uncritically, but with some real enthusiasm, maybe even with some pride.

There's quite a bit more that I found affecting in this commercial, like the older couple who, like my grandparents, worked so hard to own their home, only to find that ownership in danger as the cost of living outpaced their income, and the Kansas City family struggling to make ends meet.  And on.  And on.  But it's Obama that gets to me here, as it has been all along.

So, in closing, thank you, Sen. Obama.  Whatever happens Tuesday, it's nice to have felt this way again about my leaders and my country.

Honorable Mentions:

* Don't Vote Redux

Following up on the Don't Vote video, celebrities and a few non-celebs give their reasons for voting.  I am a sucker for people giving moving reasons to want change, particularly Neil Patrick Harris's "I fell in love and I want it to matter."

* Generation We Votes

These are my people.  Of course they make me cry.

* Yes We Can... Hold Babies Blog.  This is a special, sappy kind of teary.  Their first picture pretty much says it all: