You've found the new Welcome & Help forum. I'm Skinner, one of the Administrators here at DU.

[Riveting Rosie]

94. I got my first post at DU hidden, so I'm off to a great start!

Guess I shouldn't have wandered straight into Meta - and the big gravedancing thread that's currently all the rage, to boot. I guess my post was a bit over the top, but it felt good getting it off my chest.

Well, for my second post I figured I should say hello, but turns out I couldn't start my own topic here yet:

"You don't have enough posts to start new threads. Please reply to some threads first."

So I guess this thread is the next best thing: HELLO! I'm a South Dakota woman who currently lives abroad and who has been reading DU off and on for several years; probably since around the '08 election, and pretty much regularly since last fall. I never cared too much for posting stuff, and I still don't, but maybe you'll see me jumping in at times. Aside from the main forums, probably in my state forum, a few of the gender forums, and maybe also the Media forum since that's my line of work (I'm a print journalist, but that's all I'm gonna say, since I want to keep my DU identity separate from my real one. And no, I'm not somebody even remotely famous).

In my state, I don't have much to hope for in this election year. I live in one of the very few solidly Democratic counties, but it's probably a pipe dream to think Obama could carry the state. And neither Thune or the Palin clone we sent to the House are up for re-election and thus can't be given the boot. Still, I hope Obama will get re-elected, and I think he probably will. Like Skinner I think he's done a good job overall, but I do harbor some disappointment over opportunities lost, and what I view to be an in some cases almost maddeningly poor record on civil liberties. It's probably nothing I will go into further though, since I didn't come here to post negative things about our president in an election year - and I view the alternative to Obama as too terrifying to think I really have a choice as to how I will vote.

So, here's hoping for an exciting remainder of the year, and that DU - along with all other Democrats - will have reason to celebrate come November!