I could not be happier about tonight's election results. GO OBAMA! WHOO-HOO!!!!!
Now, I could spend some time addressing all the conservative viewpoints I've been hearing over the past few months. I could point out the hypocrisy coming from the McCain camp over family values. I could remind the McCain supporters that Reps told Hillary Clinton to deal with it when people started accusing the media of being sexist yet yelled and screamed when they thought Palin was being treated unfairly. I could also point out the under-handed tactics used against Obama throughout the last few months. I might even point out that all media is not liberal; we do, after all, have Fox News. Finally, I could reiterate the woderful phrase used by Gloria Steinem in an article: "The wrong woman and the wrong time."
Luckily, like the man I supported and voted for, I am above all that. All I am going to say is that I chose wisely. I spent a great deal of time following both McCain and Obama's campaigns. I read about their agendas from both biased and unbiased media outlets. I spent time trying to understand the issues and vote for the person who best represents what I believe in. I did not let factually-iffy email forwards dictate my political preferences; I preferred facts. In other words, I made an extremely informed decision that was based on my belief system and not gender or race issues.
To those Americans out there who are bitching up a storm, I have two things to say:
1. Get over it. Obama won the electoral vote by 2-1. That's huge and says a lot about the majority opinion in this country. The people have spoken and if they have spoken for the person you didn't vote for, oh well. That's the way politics work.
2. Suck it up. We Dems had to live with "W" for the last eight years. You can certainly suffer through Obama for the next four.
No matter what your political affiliation, however, this election has been historical and momentous. I am proud to be living in an era when an African American and a woman can run for the White House. This election just proves that democracy is still alive and well in America despite the cynics. Hopefully change is on its way and it is change for the better.
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16 comments:
WOOOOOO HOOOOOOOOOO!!!!
Yeah, Obama!
Virgina? Indiana? Blue?? Montana a swing state?
SWEET!
I am smiling this morning.
It's a GREAT morning!!! (After a loooong night. :-)
If you're in election withdrawal, check out Newsweek's "special election project" on their site. It has lots of stories about the campaign that Newsweek agreed to not release until today. Really heartening stuff about McCain--he comes off as far more decent than his campaign. Worse stuff about Palin and her shopping habits, plus her request to speak last night! Apparently McCain barely ever spoke to her. I almost feel bad for him, but in the end, it was HIS campaign.
My only criticism this morning: WTF is going on with the Senate races? I can't believe it looks like Stevens, a convicted felon, will win in Alaska. Between him, Palin, and Young, what in the world is wrong with Alaskans? I understand that MN was always going to be tight, but I thought we would pull out Oregon too. So the Senate is a little disappointing. (However, Kay Hagan YEAH! Poor Liddy lost her "Senator-in-name-only" seat.)
Oregon is still too close to call - only 75% reporting. Most of the missing precincts are in the west, where merkley would do well.
MN will go to an automatic recount because it is within .5%.
I have no idea what Alaskans are thinking.
Phil English was booted!
Nearly 5 p.m. Still no Oregon Senate. I've read both that it looks good and it looks bad! So who knows. Wish MN would have an automatic runoff like GA--with Barkley out, Al Franken would have a good shot at winning. With a recount, I'm much less sure.
Crazy, crazy Alaska! (still not called though)
Krista, what's your take on W. PA? We managed to keep our Dem seats in SE PA, which I was not sure about. Murphy in particular had a good competitor, but he hung in.
Moxiecat, thank you for sharing the Newsweek feature...its refreshingly addictive.
Western PA: my Congressional district (5) was the only open seat, and the Repub won handily. The dem had absolutely no help from the party. This is normally an R+10 district, so it was a longshot anyway. In CD 3 (Erie area), icky Phil English was ousted by a pro-life Dem who got LOTS of help from the party. Murtha easily survived after a bit of a scare - he will have that seat as long as he wants it. Altmire and Hackett, the other 2 freshman Dems, each won with 56%. The famed "T" is no more. I don't know what it is now, but it ain't a T!
Redistricting in 2010 will change my district, in particular, I think. I think the rural NW part and the State College area (increasingly Dem) will be split up as PA will lose a district. So my new Repub congressman may not have a long career.
Obama won outright 4 counties in "the middle" - where neither Gore or Kerry won any. Plus many other normally blood-red counties were much closer %-wise. The only counties where Obama did worse than Kerry & Gore were in the southwest. There may really be something to the racism accusation for Appalachia unfortunately. These counties were bigtime Clinton supporters (both Bill for Pres and Hillary in the primary), but this time they went for McCain.
I think Merkley pulled it out in OR. The main paper there has called it for him. And the Georgia seat is actually still in play, as they haven't counted the early votes yet, supposedly.
As happy as I am with the overall election, I am very upset with CA. Why can't people get over their homophobia and let gays and lesbians marry???? What harm does that cause???? Stupid close-mindedness.
I completely agree with you about Prop 8 in CA. The biggest threat to marriage is financial difficulty. That's the #1 reason why marriages end in divorce--NOT gay marriage! If a gay couple wants to get married, how does it affect me or anyone else?
If you look at the demographic breakdown of the decision, a huge number of under-35-year-olds voted for it, and 65+ against. This is another progressive issue where as more older voters die off and are replaced by younger ones, it will become less and less divisive. When they were discussing Prop 8 on MSNBC on Tuesday night, Chris Matthews said that liberal and progressive issues always win out in the long run, if not the short term (suffrage, feminism, civil rights, interracial marriage, etc.). Look at CT--this issue is not going away.
Did you know that Arkansas also approved a proposition that made it illegal for unmarried couples to adopt? It was to fight gay adoptions, but it rules out unmarried couples and single people who want to adopt too. What that says is, any married couple--even one that may be abusive or troubled--is better for a child than a stable single person or gay couple.
Districting is nuts. I looked at SE PA's congressional districts on the DKos map. My rep's area is so misshapen and it's not the only one! Patrick Murphy has all of Bucks Co. and ONE random spot in the middle of Montco. It doesn't make any sense at all. Who draws districts? Will the Dem House get to revamp it in 2010?
Sadly, while his comments were ill-advised, Murtha was probably at least partially right.
Here's a link to a NY Times map showing where McCain outperformed Bush: mainly Appalachia and into Arkansas. Must be lots of people in that area that were really concerned about their $250K+ incomes being taxed by Obama--right? ;-)
http://yglesias.thinkprogress.org/archives/2008/11/the_mccain_belt.php
I think you all have it right (both about Prop 8, Arkansas, and Appalacia for McCain) at this moment when the country came together to chart a new, more inclusive path, the country also proved that it could be mean spirited and exclusionary at the same time. Not that I am looking for a cloud in the silver lining, but one is certainly there.
I am still holding out hope for Frankin.
heather, you used to be one of my favorite cousins.
I wonder if the Arkansas shift to McCain was really just a spite vote b/c Obama beat Hillary in the primary.
As for Appalachia, unfortunately there are few possible explanations as to why those counties shifted from Clinton/Gore/Kerry to McCain, after 8 years of incompetence, no less.
Prop 8: Uggh. And in California. I suppose that if past civil rights issues had been put up to popular votes at the time, we would have been sorely disappointed. This is precisely why most advances in equality had to come from legislation or court decision on high. People hold on to their irrational prejudices. It's a shame GLBT have to wait so long - but progress is inevitable, if that is any comfort.
Jennica, I like the point you make about people dying out leading to the inevitable civil and social change needed. It's a bizarre way of looking at the situation but a logical one. It's just a shame that so many G/L couples have to stop wedding plans. I look forward to Sean Penn's film on Harvey Milk; it will be very timely.
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