Election Night

Given how much emotional stake I had put in this election, I felt surprisingly calm on Tuesday day with the exception of the 5 o'clock hour. That is when the blogs became a-twitter with the rumored exit polling numbers. First, some demographic stats. Then gawker released a handful a battleground numbers that turned out to be incorrect. Drudge leaks +15 for Obama in PA....and then Gawker shows some updated results with much better margins for Obama. My girlfriend and I went to an election night get together at a bar in Virginia Highlands, but we left around 9pm because it was hard to follow the action on the TV at the bar. Not too long after we got home, they called OH for Obama and that was pretty much all she wrote. The rest of the night was spent texting and calling family and friends in celebration. I wish I could have mentally recorded the entire night in my head to play over when things aren't so rosy politically and otherwise. Now, we get to see if Obama can become the kind of president that all of us who voted for him, hopes and believes he can become. The night is something that I'll never forget, the sense of history is undeniable and there was several points in the night where I nearly broke into tears because of how monumental the occasion was. Who would have ever thought it would happen? The history notwithstanding, Obama has some serious work to do. The economy is in the shitter, we have troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, and a lot of people are going to be waiting for him to fail. Ultimately, he will fail in some regards. Nothing is ever going to be perfect, but I think he has demonstrated the intelligence and demeanor to become a very successful leader. I hope i am right.

How can we lose?

The wheels are coming off.

Less than a week before election day, it is clear that the Republican party is about to implode. Several reports have indicated growing dissension in the McCain camp, especially around the choice and performance of his VP nominee. According to one source McCain has even began snubbing her on the campaign trail.

Robert Draper writes,
I’ve heard from one well-placed source that McCain has snubbed her on one long bus ride aboard the Straight Talk Express, to the embarrassment of those sitting nearby.

This sounds like the kind of working relationship you'd want to have between a President and his number two.

In any event, some of these events and others got me to thinking about the future of the Republican party, especially if they receive the beating some people are forecasting. Will it be a death blow or just a temporary lull. Speaking in the short-term, I would certainly expect the R's to bounce back to some extent during the 2010 midterm election. That just seems to be the nature of the beast, of course there are some exceptions. However, given the demographic changes that will be occur over the next few decades, the Republican party as we know it appears to be in serious trouble.
Courtesy of the US census bureau, this table shows the projected US population by race from 2000 to 2050. Given how voting typically shakes out by race, it's clear to see that the Republican base of today is going to get proportionally smaller. It would seem to me that the party is going to have to do something to appeal to a broader mix of races to have any chance of winning. And if this presidential campaign is any indicator, they are a long way from achieving that.

For future reference

Here’s my 'Republican guide for how not to fake an assault in order stir up fear of blacks and scare people into voting against Barack Obama.'

1) Don't detail your immediate pre-assault activities on Twitter or Myspace in order to make the story more believable. It will look awfully suspicious to anyone with half a brain.

2) Don't scrawl perfectly formed letters on your own face while looking into the mirror. They will look backwards to others.

3) When making said letter on your own face, you might want to make it look a bit messy for that implies some sort of struggle.

4) Black eyes typically co-occur with some swelling. Thus, if you give yourself a fake black eye, you better be prepared to punch your own eyes to make them swell.

5) If the cops show up, you need to have ice water in your veins or otherwise they'll catch on. Don't act all weird and refuse medical treatment. The cops are not as stupid as you might think. They've seen it all. You might be able to fool the people at Fox News or knuckle-dragging right wing bloggers, but us bipeds will figure it out.

6) Don't stage it in front of a place that might have security cameras unless you are going to claim you were assualted by an invisible abberation.

You're committing voter fraud, no YOU are.

"In this election, it's a choice between a candidate who won't disavow a group committing voter fraud, and a leader who won't tolerate voter fraud," Palin said.

Really? Well, today the Obama campaign called bullshit on this phony "voter fraud" issue being raised by the McCain camp. The first thing we need to realize about this issue is that there is a long history of voter suppression efforts (caging, misinformation, intimidation) on the part of the Republican Party. The reason is simple, if the Republicans can prevent certain groups of people from voting, namely the poor and minorities, they greatly improve their chances of winning elections. One way they have tried to prevent people's votes from counting has been to make spurious last-second voter fraud claims, which they are doing again. The Bush administration put immense pressure on various state U.S. attorney's to investigate these, and other, claims around the time of elections in November, presumably with the hopes of swaying the election. Some of the attorney's didn't bow to this pressure and therefore 9 of them were fired. These politically-motivated firings then led to an investigation, which then resulted in many of Bush's cronies in the DOJ being relieved of their duties including Alberto Gonzales (who couldn't remember his own fucking name during the investigations).

As the memo states, the DOJ has the responsiblity to consider the allegations of "voter fraud" being made in the context of what the Republican Party has been doing for years and in the context of the criminal firings of several U.S attorney's and the investigation that followed. Folks, I am not making this stuff up. The McCain camp is pulling out all the sleazeball tactics Bush and other Republicans have been using for years. However, this year will be different.

Ladies and Gentleman....Public Enemy Number 1!

It's become almost sad to watch John McCain shed his last bit of dignity by going after Obama's "association" with Bill Ayers. Anyone with a few minutes can find out the truth about any of this. Obama served on an anti-poverty board for a few years with Ayers during the mid-90s. Ayers donated 200 bucks to his senate campaign and while the 2 appeared at a few public events together, there is no evidence of a close relationship. This whole thing becomes deliciously absurd when learning that the activities of this board were funded by Leonore Annenberg billionaire widow of Walter Annenberg, and John McCain supporter. By the same rationale used by the McCain/Palin campaign, she was not only "palling around" with a terrorist, she was funding them. Despite this, McCain was so freakin' happy about her endorsement that he made it public. This is all just a crock of shit of course, and it is starting to piss some of McCain's party members off enough for them to speak out on this. You wonder what the long-term effect of McCain's poorly run campaign and impending landslide loss will be on the Republican party. A good old landslide will have to make them re-assess just what their party stands for. You'd think the smart one's are going to realize that the party is going to be in shambles if they don't make significant changes. Of course, the religious right will vote for them no matter what, but that group is going to do nothing but shrink in terms their share of the USA's overall demographics. 30 years from now, the party better have figured out a way to appeal to a more diverse group or else they are fucked.

Conservatives for Obama

Former editor of the National Review endorses Obama.

I know of a few friends who for various reasons, although none so eloquently put as Mr. Allison's, that have jumped ship on the Republican Party during this election and are now firmly in Obama's camp. I think deep down some conservatives are starting to realize that the Republican party is not conservative at all.

But today it is so-called conservatives who are cemented to political programs when they clearly don’t work. The Bush tax cuts—a solution for which there was no real problem and which he refused to end even when the nation went to war—led to huge deficit spending and a $3 trillion growth in the federal debt. Facing this, John McCain pumps his “conservative” credentials by proposing even bigger tax cuts. Meanwhile, a movement that once fought for limited government has presided over the greatest growth of government in our history. That is not conservatism; it is profligacy using conservatism as a mask.

McCain is anti democracy

THIS JUST IN! John McCain campaign is attempting to prevent people from voting. This is just more of the same crap the GOP has been doing for decades. From the MJS:

McCain mailing draws complaints

The Wisconsin board that oversees elections is fielding complaints that Republican presidential nominee John McCain's campaign is sending out a mailing that includes an application for an absentee ballot - but in some cases the address is wrong.

Democrat Beverly Jambois of Middleton got one of the fliers addressed to her husband Robert, a lawyer for the state Transportation Department. They're registered to vote in Middleton, but the absentee ballot application was addressed to the Madison city clerk's office.

"They're trying to knock me off the rolls," she said. "I can't tell you how upsetting it is to me. This is how you win elections? By disenfranchising other voters?"

Kyle Richmond, a spokesman for the Government Accountability Board, said there have been 10 complaints in the past two days from those who got the McCain flier. The board's staff is investigating, he said.

Absentee ballots may only be used in the locality where the person is registered to vote, he said.

Mark Jefferson, executive director of the state Republican Party, denied there was any intent to prevent people from voting. The wrong absentee ballot applications were the result of incorrect information in databases used for the mailing, he said.

"You do the best with the lists you have, and no list is perfect," Jefferson said. "There is certainly no type of suppression effort going on."

He said the mailing was directed to hundreds of thousands of voters.

Local clerks now are processing absentee voting applications. The absentee ballots aren't sent until about four weeks before the election.

John McCain is a Liar

The lies just never stop. The McCain camp is banking on the notion that Americans stay misinformed and that his lies go unchallenged. Thankfully, the press is standing up and calling bullshit. Hopefully, people realize that lies in the context of running a campaign is an indicator of how McCain will govern. We should all be scared shitless. Here are some highlights.


1) He routinely lies about Obama's tax cut proposal. Obama's plan calls for tax cuts for everyone except those making over 250k a year. FALSE!

2) He claimed that Obama's "lipstick on a pig" comment was directed at his running mate. FALSE!

3) He approves a disgusting ad claiming Obama wants to teach "comprehensive sex-ed" to kindergartners. FALSE!

4) The McCain camp pants are on fire when they say that his VP nominee was against earmarks for "the bridge to nowhere." False! She was for it before she was against it.

Seriously, as Paul Krugman points out, these lies are so bad and so poorly cloaked that anyone can debunk them by doing a few minutes worth of research on the internet.

It's time to start questioning the integrity of a candidate that would engage in serial fibbing to gain the upper hand in the election. I don't care if he was a POW for 100 years, a man who demonstrates such a lack of integrity should not be president.

McCain loves pedophiles

McCain recycles an old smear on Obama with a creepy and despicable attack ad. Of course, the legislation in question was aimed to protect kids from pedophiles. Not something John McCain can get behind.

Empty Pant Suit?

Politics are dominating my thinking right now, so politics are going to dominate this blog. It's amusing to me to watch the republicans try and tote Sarah Palin out on stage as someone who has the experience to be VP and potentially president at the same time as criticizing Obama on the experience issue. The irony is delic(ious)!

We've all heard the "Alaska is close to Russia" bit and the "she's commander of the Alaska National Guard" line as support for the idea that she has foreign policy experience and that she can lead troops into battle. I'm amazed that so many people have repeated this utterly ridiculous statement.

It's going to be interesting to see how the 'get-to-know Sarah Palin' story unfolds. The McCain camp is obviously shielding her from any scrutiny by not allowing any 1 on 1 interviews. You'd expect that she would be on the Sunday morning shows this week. She was not. There is one interview lined up with Charlie Gibson. It'll be interesting to see the kinds of questions he'll be allowed to ask and how she answers them. You can draw your own conclusions about why McCain is protecting her from the media, but it seems to me it is being done because they fear she's not prepared to answer questions that will be asked of her. She's already demonstrated ignorance regarding economic policy when she said Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac had "gotten too big and too expensive to the taxpayers" during a campaign rally in Colorado. This is obviously going to be a key economic issue for the next administration as it appears the government is going to have bail out these lenders. The fact that she didn't know they were privately owned companies should scare the bejeebus out of people. Eventually she's going to have to pay the piper, answer tough questions on the Sunday morning shows, and prove she has a clue. Let's sit back and watch.

Hockey Mom's, PhD's, and Change

So, this whole political narrative about Sarah Palin being a tough "Hockey Mom" is such a fucking joke. I played hockey for 14 of the first 18 years of my life and as a whole the mom's were just like any other group of women. Many were like my mother who worked a full-time job, and some were stay at home mothers. Some were well off, others had less money. Some were religious, others less so. Some talked too much, others said too little. The same sort of description applies to hockey dad's as well. And for the life of me, I cannot think of one thing about watching their kids slap around a piece of vulcanized rubber that somehow makes them especially qualified to be President of United States. But, I guess you rely on these sort of sugar-coated stories and gimmicks when you are unable to run on the issues. You nominate a VP who, by any reasonable account, does not have the experience to act as President compared to any other of the candidates he was considering. For fuck's sake, she thinks oil pipelines and the war in Iraq are heaven sent. What kind of bat-shit crazy is this? Do people actually believe this crap?

It was equally hilarious to see the Republicans try to convince people that they are the party people should trust to "fix Washington." Somehow, I don't think that line will resonate very well when they have been in charge for pretty much all of the last 8 years. And while McCain said the word "change" about 50 times last night, he failed to into any specifics about what needs to be changed or who fucked it up.

Amidst all these political happenings, I managed to defend my dissertation this week am now officially Dr. Bossman.

***Warning: Heavy Political Content***


I have a sh*tload of person bias of course, but Barack Obama's speech was dead freakin' on last night. It was tough, inspirational, honest, and expertly delivered. He confronted the attacks that have been directed towards him in the last several weeks and threw it write back in the face of the McCain campaign. Now they have responded with an act of complete desperation by nominating the most inexperienced VP candidate ever (except for Stockdale, perhaps) as an attempt to gain the support of the mythical throngs of Hilary supporters who are supposedly on the fence. It funny because all these right-wing pundits who have been beating the 'Obama is not experienced enough' drum must feel like fools now. Not to be crude, but if McCain croaks while in office would you want someone at the helm who has been a mayor of a town of 6000 and Gov. of Alaska for 2 years. To top it all off, she's stridently pro-life, a creationist, and is stupid enough to believe that drilling for oil in ANWR will solve energy issues. AND! she has no idea what the job of the VP is. Seriously. I leave with some good humor from the Daily Show.

Everyone's a scumbag.

John Edwards just admitted to pulling a Newt Gingrich (i.e. cheating on wife who has cancer). Turns out Edwards was screwing some washed up party girl from the 80s and may or may not have sired a child with the woman. Not only that, his PAC had been funneling money to her shady video production company to the tune of 100k. So, he was taking money from all the people who admired his populist idea and giving it to his mistress. Wonderful. It's shit like this that turns the most idealistic person into a hardened cynic.

Maybe I expect too much of men like this. Politicians are granted extraordinary amounts of power, and it seems like very few of them can stay clean. If they don't end up fucking some staffer, they end up whacking off with some random dude in an airport bathroom. Or getting their pockets lined with kickbacks from fat Texas oilmen. Or get hummers from chubby chicks. Or choke on pretzels while watching scooby-doo reruns. Fuck em' all.

I don't really think this will have any effect on the election this year. Presumably Obama has kept it in his pants, and McCain should be running like the wind to avoid this issue (he cheated on and then divorced his first wife who had been crippled in a car accident). I guess we can be happy Edwards' campaign never went anywhere. I can't tell you how pissed I'd be if he had been the nominee and then this came out.

How do you say.......Fat Pig Hypocrite of the Year?

I really wished I had saved the letter Rep. Jim "I am taking my fucking gavel home with me" Sensenbrenner sent me in response to my letter supporting legislative efforts to legalize online poker. According to what he wrote in that letter efforts to allow online gambling would be the downfall of society. Crime rates would go up; teen pregnancy would skyrocket; the national debt would triple; alcohol, drug, and trans fat consumption would hit heights never seen before. Terrorism would be funded for life! Birds wouldn't fly anymore! And there would be a state of complete and utter paranoia!!!!!!

Ok Then. You couldn't imagine my surprise to learn that the esteemed Congressman from WI has won his fair share of money playing the lotteries in DC and WI. If he doesn't think that state sponsored lotteries leads to some of the same perils for some percentage of the population he is an even bigger douchebag than I think he is.