Last Tuesday, after two years, 45 debates and $2.4 billion spent, American voters finally had their day. Is it just me, or does $2.5 billion seem an obscene amount of money for a country to spend on politics?

Nonetheless, I recently read an article in the London Sunday Times which stated: "This may seem a lot, but Americans annually spend $8 billion on hair care products, $64 billion on soft drinks ... so $2.4 billion isn't too much to pick the leader of the free world."

In Carroll County, it was good to see that we maintained our proper priorities with the idea of having an Election Day food drive to support Carroll County Food Sunday.

By late afternoon, when I checked with Marty Radinsky and Frank Baylor, Carroll Countians had generously donated five huge 150 cubic foot containers of food for the needy.

Radinsky said he hopes "to build (the food collection effort) into a Carroll County habit for elections in the future."

I've always been unrepentantly, patriotically, misty-eyed and corny about Election Day. It's a wonderful day to celebrate being an American.

Of course, whether you agree with his politics or not, we can all be proud that black, president-elect Barack Obama, transcended race and earned the vote of a majority of Americans to take over the reins of the Oval Office.

For those of us who are old enough to remember when a black man could not buy breakfast in a Westminster restaurant, the idea of a President Obama makes us proud to be an American.

Elections -- and change -- in our country have not always been so orderly.

Last Monday, when I was on the Marc Steiner Show with Lea Gilmore on WEAA, Morgan State University radio, we had as one of our guests Hans A. von Spakovsky.

He recently wrote an essay in the Wall Street Journal regarding voter fraud. The opening paragraph began: "In 1742, riots broke out in Philadelphia on Election Day over claims that German immigrants were being used to illegally increase vote totals. ...

"George Washington won a race for the Virginia House of Burgesses after buying gallons of liquor for voters. ..."

Now that's what we call a "spike" in the polls.

Washington in Washington

Let's go to last week's Sunday Carroll Eagle history trivia question: Who were the nominees for president of the Democrat and Republican parties in 1920?

Howard Smith, Sara K. Daniel, Richard Siehler, Sue Littlejohn, Michael Sears, June Horner, Dick Snyder, Ruth Anderson, Don Huber and Dr. Pat Turnes all knew that in 1920 the Republicans nominated Warren G. Harding for President and the Democrats nominated James M. Cox.

Thanks for all the feedback. I always appreciate learning even more history from the responses. This week's winner of the cherished Sunday Carroll Eagle mug is June Horner.

Sticking with the presidents and famous black leaders in history, I'm reminded that 100 years ago, Robert Russa Moton's predecessor as president of Tuskegee University, Booker T. Washington, was arguably the most powerful black leader in the nation from the 1890s until his death at the age of 59 on Nov. 14, 1915.

A number of years earlier, after he published his autobiography, "Up from Slavery," which quickly became a national bestseller, a commotion resulted when a president, a writer himself, invited Washington to dinner at the White House.

So here's this week's Sunday Carroll Eagle history question:

In what year, and under which president, did Booker T. Washington have dinner at the White House?

Think you know? Drop me an e-mail at kdayhoff@carr.org with Sunday Carroll Eagle in the subject line.

When he's not catching up on his sleep from watching election returns all night, Kevin Dayhoff can be reached at kdayhoff@carr.org.

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