The winner takes it all

Thank you. Thank you, my friends. Thank you for coming here on this beautiful Arizona evening. My friends, we have -- we have come to the end of a long journey. A little while ago, I had the honor of calling Kerstin Pehrs to congratulate her. To congratulate her on being elected the winner of the Challenge of the Aros Blogger that we both love.

In a contest as long and difficult as this campaign has been, her success alone commands my respect for her ability and perseverance. But that she managed to do so by inspiring the hopes of so many millions of Americans who had once wrongly believed that they had little at stake or little influence in the election of a blog contest winner is something I deeply admire and commend her for achieving.

This is an historic election, and I recognize the special significance it has for African-Americans and for the special pride that must be theirs tonight.

I've always believed that America offers opportunities to all who have the industry and will to seize it. Kerstin Pehrs believes that, too. She has achieved a great thing for herself and for her country. Pehrs and I have had and argued our differences, and she has prevailed. No doubt many of those differences remain.

These are difficult times for our country. And I pledge to her tonight to do all in my power to help her lead us through the many challenges we face.

I urge all Americans who supported me to join me in not just congratulating her, but offering our blog president our good will and earnest effort to find ways to come together to find the necessary compromises to bridge our differences and help restore our prosperity, defend our security in a dangerous world, and leave our children and grandchildren a stronger, better country than we inherited.

Whatever our differences, we are fellow Americans. And please believe me when I say no association has ever meant more to me than that. It is natural. It's natural, tonight, to feel some disappointment. But tomorrow, we must move beyond it and work together to get our country moving again. We fought -- we fought as hard as we could. And though we fell short, the failure is mine, not yours.

I don't know -- I don't know what more we could have done to try to win this competition. I'll leave that to others to determine. Every candidate makes mistakes, and I'm sure I made my share of them. But I won't spend a moment of the future regretting what might have been.

I wish Godspeed to the woman who was my former opponent and will be my blog president. And I call on all Americans, as I have often in this campaign, to not despair of our present difficulties, but to believe, always, in the promise and greatness of America, because nothing is inevitable here.

Americans never quit. We never surrender.

We never hide from history. We make history.

Thank you, and God bless you, and God bless America. Thank you all very much.

I must confess: I still believe

Det här med att tävla i blogginlägg var ju så osedvanligt dumt att gå med på till och med för mitt bristfälliga omdöme. Aber Schande Sie als geben aus, som jag brukar säga. Jag behöver bara göra en rejäl insats de dagar jag inte är i Tyskland (Köln-Arsenal 23/7) så kommer det gå vägen.

Kerstin har dessutom en hel del inlägg som känns tveksamma om man skulle få för sig att applicera Man får inte blogga för mycket nonsens-regeln.

Detta är bara några exempel från tävlingen.

Med tanke på att alla mina inlägg är så sprängfyllda med substans kan jag bara säga att jag fortfarande tror på mig själv.

Det är inte över förrän Babben sjunger.

Omröstning

Ni har väl inte missat den lilla omröstningen till höger i Kerstins blogg? Nu lär det märkas om jag har några haters därute, än så länge har eventuella sådana hållit sig lugna.

Jag och Kerstin samt en till har redan röstat varsin gång och inte helt oväntat är det i skrivande stund en liten ledning för västra Aros. Nu är det er tur att välja sida.

Challenge of The Aros Bloggers

Look at my men. Their courage hangs by a thread. If this is to be our end, then I would have them make such an end, as to be worthy of remembrance.
King Theoden of Rohan

Jag går i tvekamp. Handsken (RIP) är kastad. Och jag kan inte göra annat än att bend over och plocka upp den.

Jag vet redan på förhand att det här är ett krig jag inte kan vinna (bara idag har Kerstin författat 24 inlägg) men jag brukar inte backa för en utmaning, och ibland händer det att storfavoriter faller. Sovjet i Lake Placid 1980. Sverige i Salt Lake City 2002. Arsenal på Wembely 2011.

And if this is to be my end, then I would have them make such an end, as to be worthy of remembrance.