UPDATE:

Tomorrow morning at 8:00 I will be sitting in a room at the Renaissance hotel watching CNN, pouring cups of coffee down my throat and trying not to let my blood pressure get too high. (I refer to the AmCham election-watch event — see more info here.)

As I’ve mentioned a few times recently, I have spent a huge amount of time following the election this year. Needless to say, the suspense is killing me, and I really need this to be over so I can move on with my life.

Why has this election been so different? For me, it isn’t all that different from 2004. I was, and am, a big John Kerry supporter and was hoping for his success four years ago. I thought he was extremely well qualified and would have made a great president. The fact that he is a fellow Boston College Law School alum was icing on the cake.

In the past four years, the mistakes made by the current administration have shown how important these elections are, and what a huge error it was not to elect Kerry in 2004.

During the primaries, I didn’t really have a horse in the race. The Democrats fielded a fairly weak slate of candidates, in my opinion at the time. Not to rehash too much, but the two main candidates, Clinton and Obama, were not too attractive to me for different reasons. I could never support Clinton because of her stance on the Iraq war, and I thought Obama was running for office four years too early. (I still believe he ran in 2008 just to set himself up for 2012, although that is something that would never be admitted at this point.)

All that being said, choosing Obama over McCain is a no-brainer for me. I’m a life-long Democrat and have not been a fan of McCain since his isolationist period in the mid-90s when he consistently railed against Bill Clinton’s attempts to use the U.S. military in Bosnia to stop genocide. His comments at the time were ridiculous. His shift into neocon mode when a Republican became president was naked opportunistic politics. No need to comment on the campaign he has run and his choice of VP — he was never going to get my vote.

More interesting is my view of Obama over the past few years. I remember watching his speech at the 2004 Democratic Convention. I was blown away — one of the best political speeches I’ve ever heard. I think I must have mentioned to my wife that this guy was a potential presidential candidate at some point.

I never thought Obama would beat Clinton, never thought he would collect enough cash, never thought his track record would be sufficient to get him the nomination. You never know how these things are going to turn out.

My biggest concern over a candidate with limited experience is that the mistakes of Clinton’s first term would be repeated. Clinton screwed up a lot of things in his first couple of years, arguably due to lack of experience. I am still concerned that an Obama administration may have the same trouble, and I hope I’m proven wrong. Given the flawless campaign he has run, maybe Obama will avoid those mistakes.

I still have my doubts as to the scope of change that will be possible given the structure of the U.S. government and the inertia that has set in with respect to health care, energy, and entitlement spending. For example, Obama’s health care plan is way too limited for my tastes, but I suppose he had to go with something that is politically feasible. I also have some other disagreements with Obama on policy. He is a bit too moderate in many areas (health care, gun rights, gay marriage) for my tastes and too far to the American political Left in others (international trade). I’m slightly worried about Obama’s China policy as well, but not too much.

To some degree, all of this is beside the point. Obama is the obvious choice here for me because I can’t stop thinking like a lawyer. The Bush Administration has shredded the Constitution. Obama and Joe Biden are both Constitutional Law professors — that’s enough for me right there. Andrew Sullivan highlighted this issue today as well:

But none of this compares to the task of restoring the rule of law and Constitutional balance. Unlike McCain, Obama has never wavered on torture or habeas corpus or on keeping the executive branch under the law. His deep understanding and awareness of the Constitution eclipses McCain’s.

Look, the guy was head of the Harvard Law Review and taught Con Law at U of Chicago Law School. Most people don’t really understand what that means in the industry — suffice it to say that he is (dare I say it?) one of the elite. I like elite, I like it a lot.

But I’m not just a lawyer. I’m also an expat. It should come as no surprise that I’m tired of explaining to people why Bush was elected/re-elected. I’m tired of having to agree with critics of the U.S. government, tired of being embarrassed by Bush’s latest blunder, tired of saying that this is all temporary (much more difficult after 2004). Bush, McCain and Palin bashing has been a great source of fun and entertainment over the years, of course, but yeah, I am ready for it to be over. Obama’s consistent talk about restoring the image of the U.S. in the world is probably the single most important issue for the average expat, and I dare say that he’s got the expat vote locked up solidly.

So that’s about it. No inspiring words or platitudes. I sort of bought into the "Yes We Can" spirit back in 1992 when Clinton came into office. I was young then and open to that kind of crap. These days I am impressed by a solid CV, intelligence, competence, and a calm demeanor.

I’m supporting the law school professor — there was never any doubt.