Hmmm... I thought that the darkest day was when Dubya got "elected" the first time (remember Florida?), and that was topped (bottomed??) by his re-election after voters saw four years of his stupidity.

I thought that both candidates left a lot to be desired.

I hate to toot my own horn. But toot, baby.

We can hold a Carwash.....

Nope.

yy

Nice concession speech too. Basically the "aw shucks" variety. I'm not sure anyone could have beaten Obama, but I would have appreciated a bit more effort.

Hopefully you'll be able to continue to do what you do Jon, even if you get taxed into bolivian.

Way to go out on a limb.

When will the Bengals win a Super Bowl. Now, that will impress me.

I just hope people are realistic. I voted for Barr, but I rather see Obama over McCain (even though Obama's tax-and-spend platform concern me). The social conservative and Bush mess turned me off.

edit away uncoolness

I don't think even God knows.

I have thought about this. If people were unhappy with Bush and the nation going to the right, Canada is more left than the US and you also have most of Europe to go to if you had the means to leave.

But where do people who want a more "to the right" nation go? (And no, this is not leading up to a "LOL Iran" punchline.). In all seriousness, what nation is out there that would be the "go to" place for someone no happy with the nation going to the left, but still want to remain within reason with regards to the civil rights they enjoy and the standard of living they are accustomed to?

Somehow I'm sure he'll get over the fact that you don't particularly care for him. Just a hunch.

I hate it when I get taxed into a small south american country!!

That is one of the things that grinds me about this current political environment (on both sides). In the end, a very large percent of the population voted for McCain, so.. basically lumping everyone together, calling them evil, stupid or whatever really doesn't help anyone unless you want to continue with an us vs them model all the time. :banghead:

I think and hope that Obama understands this even if large segments of the population don't.

Switzerland?

Electing Obama shows we're moving in the right direction as a country.

The results on the gay marriage bans show we still have a ways to go.

OK, that's a pretty classy crowd there, I'll give them that.

But I still disagree with the sentiment that Republicans don't boo and Democrats do.

Here's one of Dems booing Obama's assertion that "McCain served his contrary honorably".

YouTube - Obama Gives McCain The Finger

I don't think any of it means anything, and I don't have a problem with anybody booing whenever the fuck they want. Just the sentiment that only Republicans do it.

Sean Hannity I hope leaves the country as well; along with Rush Limbaugh.

+1

I apologize for the poor choice of words, which after a second reading certainly has a tone of racism, offensiveness, and ambiguity. Allow me to clarify: I was referring to the belief amongst SOME african-americans, (and minorities as a whole) that America as a whole is still "out to get" them. That their voice can not be heard. That race, ethnicity, and creed is still as much as a widespread issue that it bears consideration in seemingly every fundamental issue in the country. That "white america" only cares about the interests of itself. This perception was shattered tonight. Senator Obama has won a historical election by a landslide. Hell, Iowa voted 54% for Obama. So it is a testament to how far we have come, and a shame that we (whites, blacks, yellows, greens, etc.) decide to only focus sometimes on the pitfalls of our society when in reality we have come a long way in 50 or so years. Yes, horrible choice of words on my part and I should not have generalized "all" african americans. What I meant to say is that I am happy that America is now in a position where we can no longer say that some-ones race has a bearing on their ability to be treated objectively and fairly.

Congrats Obama.

I see lots of legal battles. It will over-turn in time, as the younger generation takes over. It's sad that these bans are being passed.

And I'll accept that with appreciation. I'm not going to lay any sort of claim to complete & utter colorblindness (I don't believe it exists period) but I'll stand by the absence of anything racial in my choice of phrases to describe the situation.
In more colorful terms, there's no rope there for any pitard hoisting.

As to the issue of hyperbole, I have to ask (legit, because I'm not sure, and because it's a more pleasant sidebar than parsing the losses in the House):
I generally interpret hyperbole, defined as "extravagant exaggeration", as including some intent. In other words, you're knowingly & intentionally, overstating some situation.

Rest assured that, from the very bottom of my heart & soul, I mean precisely what I said, is it still "hyperbole"? I guess what I'm asking is who determines the degree of "extravagant exaggeration", the speaker or the listener? An inquiring non-English major wonders & figures we've got enough grammar police that someone will actually know the correct answer.

I love the mountains!

And it just so happens, I'm learning German!

an ex-CA friend of mine tells me he still thinks it'll go down, and we have a while to go. I'm just praying for a friend of mine out there.

Are you suggesting that the people that voted for McCain represent the worst of us?

Kerry's concession came a day after the election, at Fanuiel Hall, before an invited crowd.

The people who voted Palin, maybe. :popcorn:

"Fairness" Doctrine, here we come!

I think booing at a concession speech is different than booing on the campaign trail. I found the boos during McCain's classy concession to be in very poor taste. That booing shouldn't be defended.

Great post. McCain is at 44 million votes and counting. Its not like there were a dozen people on his side.

I'll place a friendly wager that there will be no revival of the "fairness doctrine" during the Obama administration. Obama opposes it and I don't think anyone will push it. It's just a dumb idea.

So you think no Democrat has ever boo'd a concession speech? Or do you just get off correcting me all the time :)

CNN has projected a few ballot initiatives

Arizona's Gay marriage ban is projected to pass.

Michigan to allow medical weed is projected to pass

Colorado's "Life at Conception" is projected to fail.

Are you the same guy?

A much better explanation. :)

I don't know how realistic people are going to be. Like I commented to someone who asked on facebook about my status about the next four years being fascinating, I don't know how it's going to turn out.

There's too many unknown variables at play here to say anything with any real certainty.

Have you read any of the prior posts? Every concession speech that has been made on the same night as the election has had booing, regardless of party.

Well, that's half of Switzerland (just guessing). French is a spoken in a good portion of the western half of the country, and I believe a handful of cantons (pretty much states in Switzerland) speak Italian. I think a very small portion speaks Romansh.

Congratulations Obama.

So far a decent speech from him.

I have no idea on past concession speeches, but I would always say booing is very poor form. I just happened to remember Kerry's concession speech (perhaps because it was probably the best speech he gave).

This is a great speech.

Swiss-German is to German as Ebonics is to English. Found that out the hard way. :)

Probably. And that wasn't cool of me. My bad. I'll go edit. Now is not a night for discord. Now is a night for America.

The younger people are not bothered by race as much the older people.

Alright. We're on. I'll buy you lunch if I ever visit the city.

I just don't have the same faith in these guys that you do. Hopefully they can control themselves on stupid shit like this. I mean, the fact that it's even being discussed by peeps who have a lot of power(Schumer (sp) shows that they need to get a grip.

:confused:

That's a decent move!

The popular vote is a pretty good sign that the GOP isn't "dead".

good question - i'd be curious where the line is too.

btw jon - watching obama's speech - he's reaching out to you - he wants to mend fences. we're one america, not a collection of red and blue.

Hopefully Obama will be a better guy than I give him credit for. He's nowhere near as much of a douche as the Kerry's of the world. I just don't agree with a lot of his stances.

Imagine if it wasn't for Oprah, Obama wouldn't have run for election.

- Or did I hear the story wrong.

I am pretty sure Jon is too busy buying plane tickets to watch the speech.

Anyone getting a southern preacher vibe from this speach, an uplifting post? With Yes We Can replacing Amen?

I missed my electoral vote projection, but I nailed the popular vote, which is settling in at 51-48.

This country has the worst economy in 80 years, is involved in an unpopular war, and the incumbent president has an approval rating in the low 20's. In spite of that, the republican nominee, who should have lost by double digits, made this a respectable race.

:D

The crowd is creeping out me a litte. It's like the end of a movie with the crowd, music, and Obama's victory moves/statue.

I have a lot of respect for McCain, and I really think he did just about as well as anyone could really expect with a R- President in office with an approval rating in the 20's.

I think if McCain would have tried to hit Obama harder he would have just sent more of the middle running left.

The gap is about twice what it was in the 2004 Presidential race, 50.7-48.3. Many prominent Republicans were stating that since the Democrats couldn't make it closer, they were on their way to a permanent majority.

Biden has a pretty hot 57-year-old wife.

I guess I should have the TV on. Obama doing the robot or something?

She's no Campbell Brown though. Mmmmm....luscious!

Only 10% of California has reported in. That will move the dial a point or two.

The Bush "lead-in" was the difference. McCain had no business being that close. Though with all the mistakes (i.e. Palin), I don't think he possibly could have won here. He really maxed out the his own appeal and what appeal is left of his party. I think he had a great showing.

See, I would've voted for him if I expected him to do that.

Joe Biden's mom is the "Where's the beef?" lady!

Do you think the GOP is rather happy considering they were expecting a knockout punch tonight? I mean, the popular vote is pretty close. And red states flipped to blue, and he it was pretty much neck-to-neck in the battleground state. Is a vote against Bush and GOP more than votes making a permanent move to left?

South Dakota's ballot measure to limit abortions is projected to fail.

Arkansas's measure to deny adoptions to unmarried "sexual partners" is projected to pass. (For both heterosexual and homosexual "sexual partners")

I'm waiting for Oprah to rise.

This is making me want to play the Doonesbury Election '96 game, but I lost my disc somewhere at home. :(

Anything is possible!!!!!!!

Ugh. :banghead:

Him and McCain should have just thrown down on a Dance Dance Revolution contest and ended this 6 months ago.

The Man Who Defeated The Odds.

Never played the Doonesbury one, but played the absolute shit out of Power Politics. A game made by the same guy.

I like that old guy in a suit dancing and signing.

Yeah, some pretty horrible crap is still going down tonight.

Edit: At least the Colorado and South Dakota abortion ones are being defeated.

Winner

I think I dislike Dubya now more than even before. At least up until tonight, I knew the crap he brought to the office would end when he left. Now I know he has doomed us to four more years of crap.

Very disappointing, but not altogether surprising.

Hopefully.

I wouldn't recommend that ... he'd draw back a bloody stump if he got too close.

If I believed there was any degree of sincerity in that appeal (not watching, just taking your word on the content) for even a split second I'd at least decline in a reasonably more respectful fashion. But I don't, and therefore I couldn't.

I'm just so glad this three-year election campaign is over.

as long as soledad didn't say a word she could lick my balls while campbell and i had a good time

I've always gotten that feel from his speeches. Not a bad thing, just always noticed it.

Other notes:

Congrats to President Obama.
Great concession speech from McCain.

And while I'm not shocked that Obama won, I am surprised. Hopefully, the expectations on him will be reasonable from the majority of people. There will always be those that expect him to cure all of our ills and those that expect the country to implode within his term, but I believe he will be able to work towards turning things around and bring the country together. And, at least initially, his election will be seen as a good thing to other nations and may help our relations there.

We shall see.

OK, I don't have time to read everything, but apparently I was wrong. (I also don't ahve time to watch the Obama video linked). I have personally not seen the booing at Obama rallies. In particular, the two biggest stages: The conventions and the conession/v ictory speeches only had booing on the Republican side. When The Dems/Libs/Greens/etc do it, I still think it is disgusting.

Incidentally (I think the subject was in this thread, sorry if it was in one of the others), looks like Chambliss is going to end up beating Martin in the Georgia Senate race somewhere in the 51.5% to 52.5% margin, maybe dipping toward 51%. Currently 52.2% but my best guesstimate is that the outstanding votes will drop that a little further.

Some more projections

Nebraska's measure to "end affirmative action" is projected to pass.

Washington's measure to allow doctor-assisted suicide is projected to pass

Mass.'s measure to repeal to the state income tax is projected to fail (think I said this earlier)

Maryland's measure to allow slot machines is projected to pass.

Arizona's measure with regards to the laws about hiring illegal immigrants (not sure what this really means, but for those who care) is projected to fail.

Hurray, no more political ads!

I think we should ban the asshole that starts a "2012 presidential campaign" thread later this week.

So, follow conservatives, or republicans, or whatever......

Is this as bad as we can do? Can we manage to lose even more seats in 2010? The party totally deserved the ass-whooping it's taking, hopefully some can disregard or downplay their social agendas enough to bring back the party of smaller government. At least the one I've supported in the past anyways.

It's probably been discussed, but MA has some interesting stuff going on:

-Income tax not repealed
-Marijuana decriminalized (is this the lightest marijuana law in the country?)
-Dog racing abolished.

I like the first two results, I have mixed feelings on the third. The dog industry will just pack up and go to a less-regulated state (Rhode Island, I think). MA at least kept tabs on this industry.

oh really?

#1 great
#2 passed? that's cool (and no i don't smoke pot - never even have tried it. just think it makes sense from the perspective of jail space and $$ spent prosecuting)
#3 I'm all for NIMBY in this case. And if they do pack up and go somewhere else nearby, the opponents of it will hopefully just follow them there and get them booted from there

We should all be thankful that this was not too tight of a race because North Carolina is ridiculously close right now. With 99% and nearly 4.2 million of the vote in, Obama is leading by just 13,000 votes.

I'm with ya, as much as I hate Obama, the Republicans DESERVED an ass-whooping and from that side of it, I'm happy to see them get it.

I think we'll see a repeat of '92-'96. Obama won't part the seas and turn water to wine and 2010 will be a good election year for the Republicans. But the economy certainly will be much better by 2012 (whoever was president), and Obama will get the credit for that and win another 4 years easily.

The GOP has to evolve. And they will whether they want to or not. We're too fickle a country to have a one-party system. They just need to give us SOME alternative to stay competitive. They need to emphasize small government/strong military and downplay religion/morality.

I'll share your optimism and hope that that's how it goes down.

But if anyone lives in New England and is in position to own a dog - take a look at greyhounds, there's going to be a greyhound genocide shortly.

Greyhound racing gets an unfair rap. I think it's bullshit that MA banned it. If you're going to ban greyhound racing, you might as well ban horseracing along with it.

Wow. On my local Fox affiliate, Ralph Nader just asked if Obama was going to be "Uncle Tom" to corporate America (in reference to keeping 100 million Americans in poverty).

Even the Fox interviewer just about fell out of his chair.

I don't think conservatives need to completely throw away the playbook. There will be a number of democratic house seats that will roll back to the GOP next election. A lot of times one of these "waves" washes in a lot of oddball candidates are elected and then their electorate will have some buyer's remorse 2 years later. I would expect the House will be close to 50-50 by 2012.

I think the Dems are poised to hold a pretty fair lead in the Senate for at least 4 more years, as the GOP will have to defend more seats again in '10.

Unless JiMG is literally correct, I think Obama will be in good shape to have a successful presidency.

Absolutely no guarantee this is bottom, could easily miscalculate in a number of ways and lose more seats.

Since the next round is pretty much "local", it'll be about tailoring the message to fit. That means running fiscal focused candidates in the areas where that plays best, social focused candidates in areas where that plays best. But throw a fiscal focused (R) against a Bluedog (D) that remembers how to work the social element in the wrong place & you're looking at a loss. It's not too early to remind the national (R) that they flipped the nation when they took the South away from the D's, and failure to maintain attention to the social aspects of the campaign could hand those voters back to a D that played to them pretty easily.

okay - i'm all for that too

Looks like Indiana is going to be a close win for Obama.

He is up by about 17K with 99% in and most of the unreported areas are strong Obama counties.