Spokane7
33°
Good morning, Netizens…
As David Horsey points out, President Barack Obama may have an earful after the ballots are counted. Or maybe not, depending upon how much political joss can be derived by either the Democrats or the Republicans who successfully ran for election back East.
I have two schools of thought when it comes to post-election day news, which is probably why I didn’t have much to say about the election until it more or less was settled.
The first school observes that, at least in the Pacific Northwest, we nearly always have a tradition of holding election night parties in one of our favorite community bars, some of which last well into the night in tightly-contested elections. Based upon previous year elections, these occasions depend heavily upon a candidate winning in the ballots, for it they are not ahead in the ballot count, people tend to simply drift away to go somewhere else for their drinking. Since I staunchly abstain from drinking, I am about as embarrassing as a fat man at a foot race, since I am sober.
The other school, which the vast majority of citizens seem to favor, is simply sit transfixed in front of their televisions awaiting to hear which candidates and referendums won, and by how much, or even better, simply go to bed and await the morning news the next day after the ballots are counted. This is particularly true in the midst of this Recession, when some folks do not even have jobs and can no longer afford a trip across town to celebrate or cheer their candidates onward.
Initiative 1033, one of the most-hotly contested issues on the ballot, yet another test of Tim Eyman’s will versus that of the voters, seems certain to be headed to defeat. The voters will have to live with the free-wheeling spending habits of State Government, which may or may not be a good thing in the year of huge budget deficits and national recession.
Of course, if you take the tentative defeat of 1033 in stock, you might also contemplate the race between Mike Fagan and Amber Waldref for City Council District #1. I wondered from the beginning how many voters noticed the relationship between Fagan and Tim Eyman, and would vote accordingly. Now that Amber has cleaned Fagan’s clock, it will be interesting to watch the City Council as she assumes Al French’s former City Council seat. All I ever have asked of voters is that intelligent informed voters need fill out their ballots; everyone else need not apply. With slightly more than 50% of the registered voters casting their ballots, perhaps that happened this time.
Having spoken, I will only comment that I fully support Referendum #71. It is time we got the government out of our relationships, married or otherwise, and it appears to be winning. Now watch. Someone on the religious right will unquestionably sue to overturn or alter its intent.
As for the ballyhoo about President Obama and the purported effects of Republican wins in New Jersey and Virginia, I question the importance of their wins. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.
Dave
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spokelooneh on November 05 at 10:51 a.m.
Speaking of counting, I’d like to know why Spokane elections officials quit counting on Tuesday night around 9 pm with nearly have the ballots cast left uncounted, and at least one race pretty darn close.
spokelooneh on November 05 at 10:51 a.m.
edit “nearly half”
arliacne on November 05 at 11:03 a.m.
NPR reports that Republicans are counting the wins in Virginia and New Jersey as referendums on Obama’s first year. I think Republicans are grasping wildly at any straw within reach.
omaha on November 05 at 11:25 a.m.
arliacne: Well, losing Virginia and New Jersey certainly aren’t good news for Obama and the Democrats. Especially New Jersey, the President made more than a few trips campaigning in the garden state.
Sounds like those pooh-poohing the election results are the ones grasping.
DavidBray on November 05 at 11:56 a.m.
Ahhhhh, Omaha has it right. It isn’t the wins by Republicans that’s so important….it’s that Obama spent a lot of political capital and time trying to put the Dems. in the win column and he might as well have gone shopping with Michelle. He has the coattails of a naked dwarf and he’s only 10 months into his term!
It’s also about the overwhelming expression of concern by voters in the exit polls about the economy and what Obama is/isn’t doing to improve it. Not many fans of the “stimulus” plans either. Probably get more stimulus in a bowl of Wheaties.
These are RED flags and they stand out……The Dems and Obama better take notice or they’ll be selling apples on a corner in 2010 and 2012.
DavidBray on November 05 at 12:19 p.m.
Another subject: this vote-by-mail is a crock of doo-doo. It should be called the drag-it-out vote process. It takes weeks before a final vote count is done; days before you can be positive your candidate or issue actually won or lost. I used to greet the folks who manned the voting places like the true American volunteers they were. Now I get to look at a mailbox or a ballot box at the library.
I don’t know what “election night parties” you attend but the ones I’ve been to usually start about 7:30 and end about 8:30, because by 8:30 you’ve heard the numbers from the count for the night and won’t hear any more until the next day. Of course, if you’ve been around the campaign trail for more than a year or two, you know that those first counts are indicative of the final results about 98% of the time.
Before vote-by-mail those referred to election night parties would start at about 7:00 and last for hours as precincts were counted and posted as they came in….and the leading candidates or issues could bounce around a bit. By morning or sooner the outcome was finalized because by then the votes were almost all counted. The next days newspaper actually had a headline that didn’t involve blood! There was even a camaraderie between representatives from various campaigns that hung out at the election offices while votes were being counted.
Some things should be left alone. When we de-humanized the voting process, we lost a part of Americana we should have treasured. Leave it to the bean-counters.
JeanieSpokane on November 05 at 12:43 p.m.
David - I had this very conversation with my significant other, Mechanic Man. He HATES this mail-in ballot. He thinks it’s unconstitutional. It is our right to be able to go to the polls and vote. There is some kind of aura missing. What’s more – if you don’t go to a ballot drop place, you can actually mail your ballot – but, big BUT – you have to put a stamp on the envelope. So – what’s fair about that? In essence, you are paying a tax to send in your ballot.
spokelooneh on November 05 at 2:02 p.m.
Obama made a bad decision stumping for Corazine, who had done a lousy job as governor and had an approval rating of 30% and was even more in bed with the Corporate wing of the Democratic party than Obama was.
n Virginia, young people and “movement” liberals stayed away from the polls because the Dem candidate, Creigh Deeds, opposed nearly every major item on the Democratic party agenda, and had the personality of a toaster.
The winner, Bill Owens, was a bible-thumping arch conservative who energized the teabagger base.
If young Democrats had turned out at even half the rate they did in 2008, Deeds would have won handily. But since Deeds ran as a DINO, those young people didn’t turn out to vote, and Harry Truman’s admonition applied:
“When the Democratic candidate allows himself to be put on the defensive and starts apologizing for [being a Democrat], and says he really doesn’t believe in [their platform], he is sure to lose.
The people don’t want a phony Democrat. If it’s a choice between a genuine Republican, and a Republican in Democratic clothing, the people will choose the genuine article, every time; that is, they will take a Republican before they will a phony Democrat.”
-Harry S. Truman, May 17, 1952
John Stewart takes on the pundits on both sides regarding what the election meant:
“What is almost as fun as election night is the spin which emerges from both parties the next day. Conservatives began spinning even before the election was over by blaming a potential loss in New Jersey on voter fraud by ACORN. It turns out that spinning was unnecessary as Republicans actually ended up winning New Jersey’s Governor’s race.
In the clip below Stewart illustrates how both parties attempted to put the best light on the individual blows they took last night. Democrats tried to justify the loss in New Jersey by saying that Corzine should have lost by even more in that state. As Stewart put it that is pretty good “turd polishing” as Corzine still lost by four points in a state which favors Democrats.”
http://www.examiner.com/x-5738-Political-Buzz-Examiner~y2009m11d5-Video—Jon-Stewart-explains-the-spin-following-election-2009-in-Virginia-New-Jersey-and-New-York
Exit polling in both VA and NJ showed little to no direct anti-Obama sentiment, but that truth is of course is ignored by the pundits and gigantic spin machine which is lapped up by the ignorant.
Of COURSE it’s the economy, stupid. 10 months isn’t much to fix an economy that damn near went over a cliff a year ago, and has been screwed up for a decade.
As Paul Volcker said the other day:
“The former Federal Reserve chairman, who now heads the White House Economic Recovery Advisory Board, said Obama understands that “We cannot have so much consumption.”
Consumer spending accounted for 70 percent of the U.S. economy before last year’s economic meltdown, a level that Volcker said was sustained only by “the magic of financial engineering.”
“We cannot rebuild the economy to the tune of 70 percent consumption or housing booms. It will just break down again,” Volcker said.”
http://www.cnbc.com/id/33595482
mhibbs on November 05 at 2:41 p.m.
I’m with Jeanie on this one. I truly miss going to the polling place, chatting with the volunteers (did it once myself), signing in and going into the booth to mark my ballot. It was a ritual that I valued greatly. It’s just not the same sitting at the kitchen table marking my ballot. I hope they appreciate the coffee ring and the gravy stain.
Rifleman__Dodd on November 05 at 8:38 p.m.
I dont see why we dont vote over the web. The Space Shuttle people did it years ago.
The only change I see from the Obama presidency is the little bit in my pocket that keeps disappearing.
Fagan got slammed when he lied about his DILLIGAS email account that he initially used as his official compaign email w/the county.
I also was at one of the debates and some clown was running around with his hair on fire. I thought about locking the bozo in one of the restrooms.I didnt know whom it was until later when I saw his picture as a candidate.
He was a non-candidate from the get go as he didnt have much of a platform. Let him go back to work churning out initiatives…of which some were good and some were bad. At least as a paper hanger he kept some of our elected state officials honest and thats a tough and thankless job.
richard on November 05 at 9:52 p.m.
So how is it, Loone’, that a recent Gallup Poll claims that “conservative” remains the dominant ideological group in this nation—with between 39 and 41 percent of voters identifying themselves as either “very conservative” or “conservative”?
The percentage of independents describing their views as “conservative” has also grown, to 35 percent from 29 percent in just one year following the election of the transformational president.
Seems he is, indeed, transforming the landscape by energizing the dominant conservative element in this nation. Obama didn’t win because of his policies. He won because he is charming, he is young and vibrant and he has a beautiful youthful family, he is the best campaigner I have seen in my lifetime and … because his last name is not Bush or Clinton.
And while he was a great campaigner, the American people are seeing the huge disconnect bewtween his promises and his actions since taking office. He painted himself as a “moderate” who would repair race relations (polls show that the races are more polarized than any point in recent years). He said he wound not raise taxes on anyone earning less than $250,000 (he is raising “hidden taxes” everyday with more to follow) he said Afghanistan must be won (now he can’t even decide what to do while our soldiers are taking a beating while he dithers).
Even Obama’s personal numbers have slipped to 50%, while those opposing his policies are ranging up to 60%.
Gay marriage goes down in a very progressive state, making the score now 34 to zip in the nation. So much for progressivism sweeping the nation.
The gig is up, Loone’. And of course you are going to read and spit out all the “spinning” going on from the minions. I am surprised you didn’t quote Numb Nancy when she said this was a stunning “victory for the Democratic Party” because they eeked out a slim victory over a non-politician with no party backing and a sleazy Republicat who showed her true colors when she cried boo-hoo and then dropped out and endorsed a Democrat. And the Democrat still only won by a very slim margin. Good luck in a district where the Republican Party does not self-inflict its own death by nominating a candidate that was labeled “more progressive than I am” by a progressive Democratic strategist.
You are just loathe to acknowledge that a “mob” of racist Tea Partiers and Town Hall “bigots” can: blow the whistle on the corruption and sleaze of ACORN, creating a firestorm to end their funding; can expose and run from the White House a man who believes Bush caused 9/11; can stop the health care bill from coming to a vote this year; can energize an unknown accountant to enter a race he is ill-prepared to compete in and then comes within a hair of winning; can energize thousands and thousands of people to take to the streets and demand that they will not pay higher taxes and allow the party in power to steal their children’s future.
Seems those “racists” have effected quite a bit of “change and hope” over the past 10 months.
And how about that “Party of No?” “Two outta three ain’t bad” for a party that was written off just a few months age, has no leaders and has no platform of agenda and doesn’t have enough votes in congress to stop anything the Dems want.
There is a rise of free-market populism in this country that is just now starting to hit its stride and it has finally manifested in an election. Judging from the hyperbolic reactions, it is easy to say it is a political movement with staying power.
And we owe it all to Obama, Nancy, Harry, dozens of radical czars, Goldman Sachs lovin tax cheaters, and enough arrogance to fill Yankee Stadium.
But keep believing it was nothing … just as David Axlerod has told you to believe.
You and your “ilk” (to borrow your term) really don’t understand America do you?
spokelooneh on November 05 at 10:44 p.m.
Richard, your screed bores me but I do have a question.
“Even Obama’s personal numbers have slipped to 50%, while those opposing his policies are ranging up to 60%.”
Who are these people exactly that are opposing Obama’s policies that are ranging “up to” (there’s a joke) 60% in, apparently, personal approval rating?
Funny how you used to eschew any and all such polling, then again, you’re anything but consistent. Answer the question anyway.
lewis8457 on November 06 at 1:03 a.m.
when the hard core Obama supporters finally come out of the daze they are in the numbers will drop like a bag of rocks.
Don’t listen to what he says look at what he does.
arliacne on November 06 at 9:33 a.m.
All politicians, and I don’t care who they are or what party they fake allegiance to, say what it takes to get elected. None of them keep their promises - partly because they never intended to, partly because they weren’t fully in the loop and didn’t realize some of those promises simply aren’t attainable. I vote for platform, not people.
Carter was perhaps the best president we have had in our life times for bringing integrity to the office. He certainly is the very best ex-president in terms of the good he does for the World as a whole (anyone heard from George lately?).
Clinton was probably the best politician. He was someone who could get the Republicans to do what he wanted and make them think it was their idea all along.
Some one mentioned Obama winning on charm. How about Regan? There was a man who never should have sat in the Oval Office but had a likability factor way off the scale. I never voted for him, but I liked him (OK, and then there was Ford - a total enigma).
As for Republican wins in 2009? Who cares? Two wins of governorships means squat in the overall scheme. Only half the people even bothered to vote. I didn’t expect, and don’t expect, the young that forced the political climate to change last year to even take a passing notice until 2012 rolls around. They didn’t vote before 2008, they aren’t going to vote again until they are reactivated. I would deem it interesting to see a poll of those voters asking them who they would have voted for had they voted. That, I think, would be far more telling then the actual results of an off-year election.
What makes me chortle is how Republicans can grasp at such insignificance as some sort of sweeping mandate. Virginia and New Jersey simply followed the historical pattern, but take a look at Bill Owens of NY, and keep in mind Bloomberg didn’t win by much. Now granted the Republican’s hand picked yes woman for the NY congressional seat turned tail and ran, but my that same token Corzine most likely lost a lot of votes to Dagget, the independent, which sort of waters down Christie’s win to the wet noodle it was.
Just my opinion
arliacne on November 06 at 10:29 a.m.
Hey, lewis! I’m a hard-core Obama supporter and proud of it! I’d like to see you and a lot of others nay-sayer try to do that job. While you’re at it take a look at this:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/us_countries_rankings
The man has single handedly restored pride, honor and integrity to the United States in only 9 1/2 months. Not bad … not bad at all.
arliacne on November 06 at 10:31 a.m.
On second thought I would never want to see you or your ilk trying to do that job.
richard on November 06 at 5:44 p.m.
I am not sure what you are smokin’ or drinkin’ arliacne, but it sure must be good stuff! you are floating so far above the coulds you can’t see the ground.
You eplained away Obama’s specific promises (and I know all politicians do the same thing) but we weren’t told - mostly by media that HE was different; he was “transformational.”
I don’t know if you are 18 years old and thus still subject to hormonal inspirations which cloud your perceptions, but if not, then, as I said before, you sure are smokin’ some great stuff!
Oh, I see you have a peace sign for your moniker; that pretty much explains it all. Still wearin’ those tie-dye shirts and bell bottoms.
but keep posting, please, it is very, very entertaining..
And that is great that you are love with the image of Obama, we should all be allowed our indulgances. But when you do learn responsibility, you will realize that Obama is singlehandedly destroying my children and grandchildren’s future. And I resent that.
And Loone’ - i have no intention of answering your question(?) - first of all because it is incomprehensible and secondly, because you got the point of my post and you have no response.
Which is fine with me.
richard on November 06 at 5:53 p.m.
And you know what I really resent about the liberals and the progressives is their inate hypocrisy.
We are indundated with accusations of how the “corporations” are stealing form the downtrodden … and that is certainly very true in many instances.
But along comes this issue of global warming and the oligarchy, which Obama is creating, tells us we must radically change our economy (in addition to the radical change of our economy that health care reform [public option] will initiate) to address the warming in the atmosphere.
And no one in the liberal/progressive camp seems to care that it is the mega corporations and the blowhard individuals who will be making trillions of dollars. All “donated” by the downtrodden, the working stiff, the voiceless.
Hypocrisy and liberalism are becoming one and the same.
Diana on November 06 at 8:49 p.m.
Thanks for the Glenn Beck recap, Richard. Except Glenn spells it OLIGARHY.
spokelooneh on November 06 at 9:13 p.m.
LOL Diana.
arliacne on November 07 at 10:39 p.m.
“Oh, I see you have a peace sign for your moniker; that pretty much explains it all. Still wearin’ those tie-dye shirts and bell bottoms.”
- richard
You do realize that the peace sign came about as a symbol of nuclear disarmament, don’t you? It a combination of the semaphore flag positions for the letters “N” and “D”.
Oh, I see you have a blank head for your moniker. Never mind.