In seventy-five days Barack Obama will be my president. If he governs as he has voted in the Senate, I will criticize his policies, but will understand he puts those policies forward in the national interest.
It looks like Obama will win with a popular-vote margin of about five points, decisive, but not a landslide. He is the first non-incumbent Democrat in seventy-six years to break 51% of the popular vote, being only the fifth member of his party to win a majority of the popular vote since the Civil War. Pretty impessive.
Barack Obama had the right slogan for the times, “change.” John McCain’s slogan, “Country First,” didn’t really capture the popular imagination. Perhaps, he should have run on reform, a word which has career and that of his running mate and would likely have defined his Administration had he won.
That said, given all Obama’s advantages, the financial crisis in the midst of the campaign, the media bias, his fundraising advantage, his ground game, right now it doesn’t look like a realigning election.
Should, however, the president-elect govern effectively, the election of 2008 could be a harbinger of realignment.
Peron is back in power. He was a great speaker – the crowds cheered and were wild about him. They Re-distributed. They Socialized. Has Argentina fully recovered even yet?
I’m listening to Requiem for a Dream right now – and have been on repeat. It just seems fitting since from what those of us who are awake have learned is that he is a skilled liar and manipulator. His very well written speech to the cheering throng already began to outline for his sheep that things won’t be what they necessarily thought they were going to get. No mention of 10x high electricity, gas, propane, natural gas, heating oil; rolling black outs. People – this man hates America and is hell bent on leveling it to make it a fourth world nation – behind is native born Kenya.
I wish I could be as positive as you are – I admire you for it – with fullest sincerity. I have looked into Hussein’s eyes and saw only darkness. I pray to God that I am wrong – but I right now truly feel like our country – our experiment in democracy and free market capitalism with life, liberty and justice for all just died.
To quote a character in a story so parallel to what has happened . . .
We have elected our own Palpatine . .
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWdrmv7PIBU
You want a harbinger of realignment? Go west.
It was a massacre out west. Current tallys have Obama up 9 in Colorado, 14 in Nevada, 15 in New Mexico and 24 in California.
The reason for those blow out victories? Latinos.
Obama won 2/3rds of the Latino vote nationwide and racked up huge margins out west. 69% in New Mexico. 73% in Colorado. 78% in Nevada. 75% in California.
John McCain, despite having been a voice of moderation on immigration policy within his party, paid the price for it’s xenophobic rhetoric on immigration.
Look, the Republican Party can’t win a national election with 1/3rd of the Latino vote. Thus, as much as it will pain some conservatives, the GOP is going to have to approach the immigration issue with more tact and compassion. Otherwise, the Republican Party will continue to get trounced out west. (Btw, New Mexico’s entire Congressional delegation went blue. All three house seats to the Democrats, as well as the Senate seat. That’s a realignment in New Mexico.)
Oh, and the solid south is dead. Virginia to Obama. North Carolina to Obama. (And though McCain has what looks like a comfortable lead in Georgia right now, we are hearing large early vote numbers are still absent from the count – as much as 600,000 votes. That is why the AP has yet to make a call on Georgia. It may still flip before all is said and done.)
And Indiana? It’s joined the rest of the great lake states – no longer a Republican stalwart. Indiana goes to Obama, as well.
There’s a lot of change in that electoral map, whether you want to admit it or not. It’s not your 2000 or 2004 map anymore.
He is the true reason to hate George Bush
Interesting fact (that I dug up based on trivia in this blog entry): Only 3 Democrats have ever won a larger percentage of the popular vote than Obama won last night.
1.) Andrew Jackson
2.) Franklin Roosevelt
3.) Lyndon Johnson
No, Obama is the reason to hate Obama.
AE,
Hate is too strong of a word. You can disagree with Present Obama, you can oppose his policies and question him (though not without risk, see Plumber, Joe the). But Hate? I hate few people. I’m-a-dinner-jacket being one of them. But I don’t hate my ex-wives, I’m definately not going to waste my hate on Present Obama.
One good thing about Obama’s win: There will be no President Hillary, ever. The GOP may well elect the first female President, in 4-8 years.
Exactly
It will be up to us – the believers in human freedom based on life, liberty and equality – to point out the *cause* of Obama’s disasters as they happen – i.e., bad philosophy & policy – and to bring freedom back as a meaningful alternative. I just hope we don’t have to go to jail doing it.
Agreed. To this day, for example, I still don’t even bother to hate Adolf Hitler: only the things he stood for, i.e., his evil philosophy and policies.
Sorry, I meant to say “human freedom based on life, liberty and equal opportunity”.
A2A, Stephen den Beste predicts the MSM will have to turn on Obama to regain their credibility. I don’t see it happening, but there you are.
A suggestion from another blog:
I’d add, put your 2007 tax return in that box as well.
V the K–you but it in a nutshell. Personally, as a mortgage consultant, I am looking forward to “shock and awe” experienced by those under 35 when they hear that interest rates are 17%!