Pencils down.
November 2, 2010 8:45 AM   Subscribe

It's Election Day in America, and as is so often the case in this fickle land, the results of the 2010 midterm elections are up in the air. Although President Obama's party is expected to suffer significant losses, record numbers of districts remain competitive, and even minute errors in polling could mean the difference between a historic Republican landslide and an unexpectedly robust Democratic defense. At stake are control of not just the Senate and House, but myriad state and local offices, many of which will play key roles in the dynamics of the 2012 presidential race -- and, more subtly but no less crucially, the once-in-a-decade congressional redistricting process. Much uncertainty surrounds the behavior of the electorate -- how many will turn out, and how informed will they be? To help move those statistics in the right direction, look inside for voter guides, national and state fact checkers, and an assortment of other resources to keep tabs on as the results roll in.

Factchecking Sites

National:
PolitiFact.com (Pants On Fire! Guide, Seven Key Distortions, subject directory)
FactCheck.org (Down-to-the-Wire Deceptions, Guide to 2010 lobbying groups)

State (including several local branches of PolitiFact):
Alabama - Arizona - Delaware - Florida - Georgia - New Mexico - Ohio - Oregon - Rhode Island - South Carolina - Texas - Virginia - Virginia 2 - Washington - Wisconsin

Voter Resources

Project Vote Smart's VoteEasy - Identifies local candidates and lets you auto-rank them by policy stance in a nifty Flash interface
Ballot Measures Database - A compendium of ballot measures from every state in the country
Google Voter Info - Uses your street address to pinpoint your polling place on Google Maps

Many state chapters of the League of Women Voters offer nonpartisan guides to local candidates and issues.

Same-Day Registrations

Even if you've procrastinated, it might not be too late to vote. Nine states allow for voter registration on Election Day: Idaho, Iowa, Maine, Minnesota, Montana, New Hampshire, Wisconsin, and Wyoming, as well as the District of Columbia. North Dakota has no voter registration system.

Sites to Watch

Streaming coverage: CNN, ABC, C-SPAN

FiveThirtyEight's Hour-by-Hour, District-by-District Election Guide - Breaks competitive House races down by likelihood of party switch and lists them by poll closing time; "magic numbers" let you project at a glance roughly how the night is going as individual races are called. See also their final, in-depth forecasts for the House, Senate, and state governorships.

270toWin.com - Offers interactive maps of the House and Senate races for you to plot out your own predictions and see how the final seat numbers would end up.

Intrade - Watch a political stock market react in real-time as the night unfolds.

(And, just for fun, how many of the 75 Senate candidates on today's ballots can you name?)
posted by Rhaomi (840 comments total) 98 users marked this as a favorite
 
Wow. Impressive post.
posted by josher71 at 8:47 AM on November 2, 2010 [3 favorites]


A nice comprehensive and informative post. Thank you.
posted by KirkJobSluder at 8:47 AM on November 2, 2010


Fantastic post, much appreciated.
posted by IjonTichy at 8:48 AM on November 2, 2010


This is a thing of beauty. Thank you.
posted by black rainbows at 8:49 AM on November 2, 2010


Great post. I can't vote, but if I could I'd definitely use that info. I did pass it on to some non-second-class citizens, though.
posted by hamida2242 at 8:52 AM on November 2, 2010


Find me a way to track NC State House District 103, and I'll be your best friend. Go Mom!

Yeah, really, that's my mother.
posted by MrMoonPie at 8:55 AM on November 2, 2010 [47 favorites]


If you believe that you have been denied the right to vote based on your race, color, or language minority status or that otherwise your voting rights under federal law have been violated, you may contact the Civil Rights Division of the United States Department of Justice
posted by entropicamericana at 8:58 AM on November 2, 2010


Yes, thanks for this excellent 1-stop resource!

I've already witnessed 2 good friends fighting on FB over this damn election. That's why I refuse to put the TV on today. Watching all the 8- and 12-box talking heads interrupt each other all day will definitely drive me to homicide.
posted by sundrop at 8:59 AM on November 2, 2010


Shit, I voted early and I'm going to be in a liquor-free location when the results start coming in. This election day sucks already.
posted by enn at 9:04 AM on November 2, 2010


I think that I'll avoid TV and stick to the web for results. I don't really want to know what Andrew Breitbart or Eric Erickson have to say about the election.
posted by octothorpe at 9:05 AM on November 2, 2010


Excellent post.

Well, I voted. Even with voter guides it took me a full hour. My district in SF has 5 pages front and back. If I'm going to do one thing that carefully, it might as well be voting.
posted by poe at 9:07 AM on November 2, 2010 [1 favorite]


Nice title.

Great post.
posted by indiebass at 9:08 AM on November 2, 2010 [1 favorite]


The one thing I care about - legal marijuana - I can't vote on.

If pot is legalized today in CA, I'll be a happy, happy man.

And it won't be weed that makes me happy. I'll find joy in hoping that our decades-long, disastrous, Constitutionally-adverse "War on Drugs" will be one step closer to ending.
posted by mmrtnt at 9:09 AM on November 2, 2010 [10 favorites]


I dropped my daughter off at school and then voted. I hope my team wins.
posted by Sailormom at 9:09 AM on November 2, 2010 [1 favorite]


If you find yourself hating your vote, this american life understands. The second half is particularly frustrating, though Andrew Gelman provides some critique of the "democrats suck at messaging" vs "the fundamentals ensured big GOP gains" debate.
posted by a robot made out of meat at 9:10 AM on November 2, 2010 [5 favorites]


even minute errors in polling could mean the difference between a historic Republican landslide and an unexpectedly robust Democratic defense.

I am fervently hoping for an unexpected polling error to have happened here in Wisconsin, because I am going to be so, unbelievably supremely pissed if Feingold loses, particularly in light of the fact that Johnson ran on so much bullshit.
posted by quin at 9:10 AM on November 2, 2010 [2 favorites]


YES on Prop 19.
posted by gman at 9:10 AM on November 2, 2010 [2 favorites]


Californians, don't let us down. Vote yes on 19.

-The rest of the world.
posted by Taft at 9:11 AM on November 2, 2010 [6 favorites]


i voted - there seemed to be some slowing up due to the new computer based system they have where one's driver's license is scanned and a laptop is used to access the list of registered voters - i think the old system where they went through rolls of printouts was a bit more fail-safe - what happens if the laptop dies?

this is in michigan
posted by pyramid termite at 9:12 AM on November 2, 2010 [1 favorite]


The only thing I would add is Ballotpedia, which helped me get through the eighty-bagillion state and local ammendments on the ballot.

Oh, and your local Bar Association probably also puts out a recommendation for judges on the ballot. They almost always recommend keeping all of them, but there was one here that got < 50% recommendation from lawyers who knew him well.
posted by dirigibleman at 9:12 AM on November 2, 2010 [1 favorite]


Just voted - this was an awesome post to come home to afterwards, although frankly I'm considering just avoiding politics until tomorrow morning, so as not to have to deal with the up down up down up down emotional roller coster that our 24 hour news cycle imposes on the political process.
posted by AdamCSnider at 9:14 AM on November 2, 2010 [1 favorite]


I didn't see that you mentioned absentee voting, which is becoming more and more common and plays a larger role that before, esp. during midterm elections. Otherwise, major fantastic post!
posted by Old'n'Busted at 9:14 AM on November 2, 2010


Oh, and your local Bar Association probably also puts out a recommendation for judges on the ballot. They almost always recommend keeping all of them

Here in Chicago the Bar and Council of Lawyers provides a list of some of the worse turkeys to remove.
posted by a robot made out of meat at 9:16 AM on November 2, 2010


I just voted for Jennifer Grey. This new phone voting system is fantastic!
posted by Dr. Zira at 9:16 AM on November 2, 2010 [4 favorites]


Early impressions are indicating high turnout, go vote! (unless you're voting Tea Party).
posted by T.D. Strange at 9:17 AM on November 2, 2010 [2 favorites]


Good education for all??? Is yer mommie a commie?

Seriously though, good luck to her and all reasonable people everywhere.
posted by Mister_A at 9:18 AM on November 2, 2010


Yes.
posted by boo_radley at 9:21 AM on November 2, 2010


Early impressions are indicating high turnout, go vote! (unless you're voting Tea Party).

Everyone should vote (even if they're going to vote Tea Party). Land of liberty and all that.
posted by robocop is bleeding at 9:24 AM on November 2, 2010 [6 favorites]


So if all I want to do is track the results in real-time, but not have it be a video, what site should I go to tonight?
posted by reductiondesign at 9:26 AM on November 2, 2010


(And if the Tea Party gets a high turn out, thus leaving the GOP stapled to that particular crazy tiger for years to come, well, that's just icing on the cake.)
posted by robocop is bleeding at 9:26 AM on November 2, 2010 [3 favorites]


Yay Oregon's mail-in voting. I voted a week and a half ago for my slew of dems.
posted by Mister Fabulous at 9:27 AM on November 2, 2010 [2 favorites]


Just voted in Minneapolis. Smooth and easy, although there have been reports of voter intimidation at other spots around the city.

I have an ideal setup tonight- band practice from 7-9:30, so I'll just rock out and drink beer without fretting (I've kind of made peace with whatever happens nationwide, but I'm feeling the MN Governor's race in my guts), and then hopefully catch election returns on the way back.

Also, since the guy running unopposed for Sheriff of Hennepin County is an asshole, I proudly continued the Minnesota tradition of writing in the Lizard People.
posted by COBRA! at 9:28 AM on November 2, 2010 [1 favorite]


Great post! Want to add this: Poll closing times by state
posted by zarq at 9:29 AM on November 2, 2010


Voted today - always glad to tap the checkbox for John Lewis. Georgia polling places are scanning ID for pollbook verification today; this is new, and someone in the line ahead of me freaked out a bit.

Post flagged as fantastic. Thanks, rhaomi.
posted by catlet at 9:31 AM on November 2, 2010


Seconding Ballotpedia-- it lists the authors and top contributors on both sides of all the ballot props, as well as the media endorsements. A lot of work those folks did to make my decisions much easier!

Also, a site I just discovered this year: Judgepedia. Voting for judges is weird (although in California we just vote Yes/No should this person be a judge, as opposed to choosing among candidates) but this site helped me get a better feel for the background of these folks who may eventually make their way up to the state or national supreme court.

I put my ballot in the mail Sunday!
posted by sarahnade at 9:31 AM on November 2, 2010


I just voted for Jennifer Grey. This new phone voting system is fantastic!

We must stop Palin at all costs!
posted by Joe Beese at 9:33 AM on November 2, 2010


leaving the GOP stapled to that particular crazy tiger for years to come

I am unfamiliar with this metaphor. Please continue.
posted by shakespeherian at 9:34 AM on November 2, 2010 [2 favorites]


Can someone explain to me why the US has mid-term elections? It seems like it must make actual governing a bit difficult, if you're having to campaign pretty much constantly...
posted by Happy Dave at 9:36 AM on November 2, 2010 [2 favorites]


And if the Tea Party gets a high turn out, thus leaving the GOP stapled to that particular crazy tiger for years to come, well, that's just icing on the cake.

wait until the tea partiers discover that the people they voted for aren't changing anything - they're not going to be satisfied if they "win" and "get" what they want, they're going to be appalled and very frustrated
posted by pyramid termite at 9:36 AM on November 2, 2010 [1 favorite]



Everyone should vote (even if they're going to vote Tea Party).


"It's better for democracy if my opponent wins with the majority of 100% of the voters than if I win with the majority of 30% of possible voters."
posted by drezdn at 9:38 AM on November 2, 2010 [1 favorite]


MrMoonPie: it looks like results for that district will be here (nothing showing up yet)
posted by exogenous at 9:38 AM on November 2, 2010


A very well-put together post -- thank you.
posted by blucevalo at 9:39 AM on November 2, 2010 [1 favorite]


MrMoonPie, I voted for your mom ifyouknowwhatimsayin.

Well, I would've if I lived in her district.
posted by graventy at 9:43 AM on November 2, 2010 [1 favorite]


Fantastic post--well done!

In light of the fact that certain parties have taken it upon themselves to challenge at the polls any voters they believe to be fraudulent, here's one addition: The National Voting Rights Act of 1965 makes it a crime to misinform and/or intimidate voters. If you run into problems at your polling place on Election Day, call Election Protection (administered by the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law) at 1 866 OUR VOTE (687 8683).

This is a special number set up by a coalition of civil rights groups to help protect voter rights on Election Day. The coalition has more than one hundred partners – including the NAACP, National Bar Association, NALEO, Native Vote, Asian-American Justice Center, National Education Association and the Brennan Center for Justice – at the national, state and local level and is providing live voter protection services now through Election Day for all 50 states.

Keep this phone number with you when you go to the polls. The hotline is available in English and Spanish to any voters who need information, assistance or guidance in understanding their rights.

You can also report problems at the polls via text message or the Web by using your Twitter account: @866ourvote
posted by magstheaxe at 9:44 AM on November 2, 2010 [3 favorites]


I voted this morning. We don't hold with those newfangled electric voting machine thingies in my town. There was one there, powered on, sitting untouched and neglected in the corner while we marked our X's on our paper ballots and fed them into the ancient-looking wooden box with a brass handcrank on the side, and the equally ancient-looking little old lady turned the handcrank and then crossed my name off the list. And tonight all the little old ladies will open up the wooden box and count up all the X's by hand, which will take a while because there will be at least a few hundred of them to go through. And tomorrow, god willing, we won't have abolished the state income tax. Wish I could've cast my vote for Prop 19, but doing my part to keep the MA state budget from having to run on, I dunno, vapor fumes and wishful thinking seems like a decent second best.

Meanwhile I'm going to do my level best to not obsessively check the polling results every ten minutes.
posted by ook at 9:44 AM on November 2, 2010 [2 favorites]


Can someone explain to me why the US has mid-term elections? It seems like it must make actual governing a bit difficult, if you're having to campaign pretty much constantly...

It's really more to do with various term lengths than anything. A senator's term is six years, while a member of the House has a term of two years. Put this with the President's four year term and you're going to have some elections in the middle of the POTUS term.
posted by shakespeherian at 9:44 AM on November 2, 2010 [1 favorite]


Can someone explain to me why the US has mid-term elections? It seems like it must make actual governing a bit difficult, if you're having to campaign pretty much constantly...

Yeah. Members of the House of Representatives have two-year terms ostensibly to keep them more accountable to The People. And the Senate has six-year terms, so only about a third of them are up for re-election every two years.
posted by lullaby at 9:44 AM on November 2, 2010


Can someone explain to me why the US has mid-term elections? It seems like it must make actual governing a bit difficult, if you're having to campaign pretty much constantly...

It's a feature, not a bug. The framers of the Constitution were much more aristocratic than anyone likes to admit, policy change in America is difficult by design, benefitting entrenched interests. The upper house runs only once every six years, giving Thier Lordships time to obstruct and block popular measures passed by the House of Dirty Commoners, who must constantly look over thier shoulders and fend off angry challengers.
posted by T.D. Strange at 9:44 AM on November 2, 2010 [17 favorites]


Can someone explain to me why the US has mid-term elections? It seems like it must make actual governing a bit difficult, if you're having to campaign pretty much constantly...

Bear in mind that only the House of Representatives is really having a "mid-term election." The HoR is intended to be incredibly accountable to the people, hence the two-year terms; constant campaigning is the price we pay for that.

Only 1/3 of the Senate is being elected right now (plus three or four special elections to fill seats), because they have six-year terms. They don't campaign as constantly as Representatives, but then you get Strom Thurmond and Robert Byrd ossifying in office.

Much of the rest of these elections are state-level, specifically because they don't want to conflate with the Presidential elections. But they're also mostly for four years, so they don't have to campaign as constantly as it seems, either.
posted by Etrigan at 9:47 AM on November 2, 2010 [1 favorite]


I didn't vote quite straight dem. I voted for the Green candidate in one contest where a Dem was otherwise unopposed, and I voted for a Libertarian in a contest where a Repub. was otherwise unopposed. It's damn hard to register a "none of the above" these days in a way that doesn't do real harm. I also voted "yes" on our bond prop for more sidewalks, footpaths & bike lanes.

Instant-runnoft/second-choice voting would be so nice.
posted by Devils Rancher at 9:48 AM on November 2, 2010




I was the first person to vote in my precinct in California, so for one brief, shining moment, it was polling 100% in favor of prop 19 (although the people in line behind me looked like they may be sympathetic).
posted by LionIndex at 9:50 AM on November 2, 2010 [11 favorites]


Dios mio Florida's governor race is looking much tighter on 538 then it has for weeks. I thought this was in the bag. I will start breathing into my trusty Nov. 2(tm) Paper Bag.
posted by cavalier at 10:05 AM on November 2, 2010 [1 favorite]


since the guy running unopposed for Sheriff of Hennepin County is an asshole

If I were eligible, I would hell damn well vote for a Sheriff COBRA!.

Just sayin'...
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 10:07 AM on November 2, 2010 [1 favorite]


oh, boy, this IS an important election for denverites

denver citizens to vote on extraterrestrial affairs commission

oh, yes, they really are
posted by pyramid termite at 10:08 AM on November 2, 2010 [2 favorites]


Voted in Worcester, MA around 9am this morning. It wasn't exactly busy, but there were a few more people than I was expecting - a pleasant surprise as turnout levels in my (poor, inner-city) precinct are usually pretty crappy. FiveThirtyEight says my US Rep is pretty much guaranteed to keep his seat (go go Jim McGovern - the only politician I've heard of who held a fundraiser in the skeeviest dive bar in Worcester) and the sitting Democratic governor has a good chance to hold on, but I'm really worried about Propositions 1, 2, and 3.
posted by xbonesgt at 10:12 AM on November 2, 2010


I requested a paper ballot as a tiny, futile protest against insecure voting machines. I recommend everybody do the same.

(Plus the lines are shorter.)
posted by callmejay at 10:12 AM on November 2, 2010 [1 favorite]


Voted this morning. Also, I'm really looking forward to the removal of the hundreds of Paladino signs that line the roadsides on my drive to work.
posted by pemberkins at 10:13 AM on November 2, 2010


Statement of Subject: Initiative Measure No. 1069 concerns the state seal.

Concise Description: This measure would require the Washington State Seal to depict a tapeworm attached to a taxpayer’s intestine, encircled by the words: Committed to sucking the life blood out of each and every taxpayer.

Should this measure be enacted into law? Yes [ ] No [ ]
posted by swift at 10:13 AM on November 2, 2010 [16 favorites]


ook: And tonight all the little old ladies will open up the wooden box and count up all the X's by hand, which will take a while because there will be at least a few hundred of them to go through.

Actually, hand-counting is faster and preferred over electronic voting, esp. if there is a recount needed. No need to go into a re-hash of security and whatnot. So don't diss what you have, revel in it!
posted by Old'n'Busted at 10:15 AM on November 2, 2010


Woo, North Dakota's lack of voter registration! One of my employees, newly moved here from Minnesota, was impressed with the lack of rigamarole and tomfoolery to get to vote; she even did early voting and was done last week.

My Tea-Party sympathizing coworker already has his "I Voted" sticker on his lapel, just to the left of his US-Flag-tie. Time to go cancel out his vote, I suppose. Wifey and I are going to go vote on my lunch hour today at about 1, at the El-Zagal Shrine Temple. Show my ID, fill in some boxes, be smug at the fact that my wife always puts me in as a write-in candidate for something (I think it'll be County Recorder this year), and then back to work. And, finally, we'll be rid of those Rick Berg / Earl Pomeroy commercials.
posted by AzraelBrown at 10:17 AM on November 2, 2010


MrMoonPie: it looks like results for that district will be here
Contact details modified! There's no "best friend" designation, though.
posted by MrMoonPie at 10:18 AM on November 2, 2010


...so for one brief, shining moment, it was polling 100% in favor of prop 19

Back when I was a young and gullible yute, I had a friend who swore he was going to smoke a joint in the voting booth because - according to him - the law forbid anyone from interfering with you while you cast your ballot. (This was back when smoking cigarettes was much more widely allowed, as well). He planned on eating the roach, and exiting the booth, sans evidence.

Don't know if he ever tried it, but sometime later today I hope to find that he could smoke it in his own damn home after voting, for chrissakes!
posted by mmrtnt at 10:18 AM on November 2, 2010


My local races are a lovely mix of "why even show up" (the Senate race is polling roughly 60/40) and "my gosh, this could come down to counting the provisional ballots" (some polls have the Governor's race to a margin in the thousands with expected turnout of 50%). I've never missed a chance to vote, so it'll be the 24th or 25th time for me, counting the CA recall and some silly "we have to do this tax ballot NOW so you'll get a primary, a special election, and a general in the space of five months" stuff. Only my fourth time neither working at the polls nor for one of the parties. I can't wait for the out of state political groups to get off my drive-time radio.

The democratic process rocks.
posted by SMPA at 10:20 AM on November 2, 2010


Concise Description: This measure would require the Washington State Seal to depict a tapeworm attached to a taxpayer’s intestine, encircled by the words: Committed to sucking the life blood out of each and every taxpayer.

Is there a list somewhere of other trivial awesome initiatives on the ballots today?
posted by reductiondesign at 10:21 AM on November 2, 2010


swift, that is kind of amazing. I wonder how many people will mark "yes" on a lark (and how many will mark "yes" out of an honest belief that they are being taxed dry when generally they are at or below national averages (general sales tax is above the national average, with gas and cigarette taxes ranking 3rd and 9th highest nationally, respectively)).
posted by filthy light thief at 10:21 AM on November 2, 2010


oh, boy, this IS an important election for denverites

denver citizens to vote on extraterrestrial affairs commission

oh, yes, they really are


I read this multiple times as an attempt to create a extramarital affairs commission. When I finally saw the flying saucer, I was relieved.
posted by Lord Chancellor at 10:28 AM on November 2, 2010


And even if you don't care much about US politics, Nate Silver's 5 reasons Republicans can do even better than expected and 5 reasons Democrats could beat the polls and hold the house (in the OP, "the difference between a historic Republican landslide and an unexpectedly robust Democratic defense") are interesting reads on statistics and polling in general, even though they are applied to US practices. On the pro-Dem side, the points that interested me was the fact that few pollsters call cell phones, and the urban youth are the prime demographic who have shifted away from landlines all-together, and more Republicans stick around for robo-polls than Democrats, further biasing phone polls.
posted by filthy light thief at 10:28 AM on November 2, 2010


Woo, North Dakota's lack of voter registration! One of my employees, newly moved here from Minnesota, was impressed with the lack of rigamarole and tomfoolery to get to vote; she even did early voting and was done last week.

Wait, really? Minnesota has registration, but it's same-day and easy as hell. There's very little rigamarole involved.
posted by graventy at 10:29 AM on November 2, 2010


I just got home from voting. My polling place was busier than I've ever seen it. Even though most of my fellow Kansans (especially out here in the sticks) are rabid right-wingers, it still made me feel good to see so much activity.

My son was a first-time voter today, and all the little old lady election workers smiled appreciatively at him. He single-handedly brought down the average age in the room by at least 20 years. (I hope more young people show up as the day progresses -- I kept text messaging my daughter to remind her, but she works nights and was probably still asleep).

As we were leaving, I asked my son how he liked the experience. He said it was "kind of boring" (which was pretty much my daughter's reaction the first time she voted -- C'mon kids! Show some ENTHUSIASM!) and my husband said "Well, we're excited for you anyway, so there!"
posted by amyms at 10:30 AM on November 2, 2010 [3 favorites]


Lucky. I just get to vote on whether or not the NJ state government can raid public worker's pensions.

Pro: People get the pensions they paid for.

Con: The state can't steal people's pensions to "kinda" balance the budget, for a little while, without raising taxes. Also, teachers have a union and therefore they suck (their logic, not mine, although I'm not thrilled by a lot of things the teachers' unions do), and therefore deserve to have their pension stolen.

As I'm not a single-issue deficit hawk and think people deserve their pensions, I'll vote for the amendment to protect their pensions. Really, I'm shocked this even has to leave the state senate.

Also, here's some free advice on how to balance the budgets, state political peoples: RAISE TAXES SOMEWHERE AND QUIT RAIDING PENSION FUNDS YOU'RE OBLIGATED TO PAY! Probably not on property taxes, since those are already the laughingstock of the nation, but as a person who buys a lot of pointless luxuries, a bigger sales tax would be okay. Or if you want to turn 206 into a turnpike to keep the damn high schoolers off of it so that it's less congested in the afternoon, that's cool, too.
posted by mccarty.tim at 10:31 AM on November 2, 2010 [3 favorites]


Wait, really? Minnesota has registration, but it's same-day and easy as hell. There's very little rigamarole involved.

That just goes to show just how little rigamarole there is! I dunno -- she was just relaying her story when everyone was talking, and I repeated it. Oh well.

Anyhow -- now I'm off to the Shriner's lodge to do my American duty!
posted by AzraelBrown at 10:33 AM on November 2, 2010


This year, DC instituted same-day registration, but didn't allow same-day party declarations, which prevented many of us (myself included) from voting in the primary...
posted by schmod at 10:38 AM on November 2, 2010


Could you CA folks provide the reliable links/information on how prop 19 is doing? I am not a smoker (eww!gross!*) but I want this to pass.

*that's not a moralizing "eww!gross!" I think cauliflower is, ounce for ounce, even grosser
posted by pointystick at 10:38 AM on November 2, 2010 [4 favorites]


I early voted and, as always, I was torn between feeling smug for not getting caught in the hilarious clusterfuck that voting day is in my precinct and feeling sad that I wouldn't get to participate in said hilarious clusterfuck that is voting day in my precinct.

And now I'm grumpy because I have to stay at work (I work for the county) until all the votes are cast and counted, and make sure nothing goes blammo with the posting of those results on the website. So it'll be either very boring and then I go home, or it will be very boring with moments of near-fatal excitement and then I go home.
posted by dirtdirt at 10:38 AM on November 2, 2010


CA results won't start coming in until 8pm locally, but your best bet is the here.
posted by entropicamericana at 10:41 AM on November 2, 2010 [1 favorite]


Something to bear in mind tonight as the results come in. A grown-up (especially a frustrated, overwhelmed and worn out grown-up) may allow a selfish child to snatch a toy away from a playmate momentarily. That doesn't mean the adult will let the selfish child keep it. The grown-up will, once the initial temper tantrum has run its course, slowly take the toy back while calmly explaining to the child "No. You have to share." The grown-up will do that because grown-ups are bigger than children, stronger than children, and because they know better.
posted by ND¢ at 10:42 AM on November 2, 2010 [15 favorites]


I think cauliflower is, ounce for ounce, even grosser

Yeah. And with any luck, in a few months, it will cost more than pot, too.
posted by mmrtnt at 10:43 AM on November 2, 2010


I miss going to the polling place to cast my ballot (heck, I miss the old machines with the curtain, and the lever that cast your vote and cleared the ballot,and opened the curtain when you were done). I liked seeing who of my neighbors had voted already, and got a strong sense of community and civic duty performed.
Now, I get to sit and ponder things with a cuppa and the voter guide (WA state - almost completely mail-in). I think it's better in many ways, but I still miss the polling places.
posted by dbmcd at 10:47 AM on November 2, 2010


Something to bear in mind tonight as the results come in. A grown-up (especially a frustrated, overwhelmed and worn out grown-up) may allow a selfish child to snatch a toy away from a playmate momentarily. That doesn't mean the adult will let the selfish child keep it. The grown-up will, once the initial temper tantrum has run its course, slowly take the toy back while calmly explaining to the child "No. You have to share." The grown-up will do that because grown-ups are bigger than children, stronger than children, and because they know better.
The awesome thing about that analogy is that everyone gets to say they're the adult and everyone else is the child. Try it! It works!
posted by verb at 10:48 AM on November 2, 2010 [9 favorites]


This is fantastic!

I voted in Pittsburgh around 11:00am, voter number 77 in my district. The Polls were deserted. A very nice young man wearing buttons and stickers supporting candidates I would not be voting for opened the door for me on my way in to vote, then held it open for me again on my way out, as I had my hands full with baby theBRKP, a much appreciated moment of civility after weeks of ugliness.
posted by theBigRedKittyPurrs at 10:48 AM on November 2, 2010 [1 favorite]


Metafilter:When I finally saw the flying saucer, I was relieved.
posted by wheelieman at 10:50 AM on November 2, 2010 [9 favorites]


My wife and I cast our ballots early and ran into one of the self-appointed election day "poll watchers" hovering outside of the church where we voted. He introduced himself as an "Election monitoring lawyer" and wanted to know if the judges were "checking photo IDs," and asked to see mine. I laughed and said no. He looked disappointed.
posted by verb at 10:50 AM on November 2, 2010


callmejay: "I requested a paper ballot as a tiny, futile protest against insecure voting machines. I recommend everybody do the same.

(Plus the lines are shorter.
"

Not everyone is temporarily able-bodied, though.
posted by ShawnStruck at 10:50 AM on November 2, 2010


Lucky. I just get to vote on whether or not the NJ state government can raid public worker's pensions.

This is how that was phrased on the ballot:
"Shall the amendment to Article VIII, Section II of the State Constitution, agreed to by the Legislature, which: prohibits collection by the State of assessments based solely on employee wages and salaries for any purpose other than providing employee benefits; dedicates all employer and employee contributions collected for any employee benefit fund, and all returns on investments of those contributions, to the purpose of that fund; and prohibits any transferring, borrowing, appropriating or using of those contributions or returns for any other purpose, be approved?"
Now, look at me with a straight face, and tell me that you understand that. I always voted by mail in NJ, just so that I could have interpreted versions of those ballot questions on hand to make sure that I didn't accidentally mis-parse a double-negative somewhere in the question.

Also, I'm somewhat heartened to see that it's probably going to pass, even in spite of the widespread vitriol against public-sector workers in the state. And, yeah. I'm no huge fan of the Teachers' Union, but the flat-out holy war that the governor is waging against them is hurting everybody, not to mention the $500 million he washed down the tube on the ARC, forfeiting $6billion that the feds and port authority were going to commit to that project, and losing a $400 million education grant because he messed up the paperwork, all toward the nebulous prospect of saving money. Sorry for ranting, but that guy is evil.
posted by schmod at 10:51 AM on November 2, 2010 [4 favorites]


The awesome thing about that analogy. . .

I prefer to describe my profundities as parables.
posted by ND¢ at 10:52 AM on November 2, 2010 [1 favorite]


I, for one, plan on flipping off any tea baggers I see "monitoring" the polls and if that bothers Jon Stewart, well, I guess he'll have to deal.
posted by entropicamericana at 10:56 AM on November 2, 2010 [4 favorites]


I filled out my absentee ballot on Sunday. It was nice to avoid that panic I typically feel when I don't know anything about the candidates for Comptroller or whatever. Of course then I realized that even having access to more information doesn't really make it much easier.

I had the most difficulty with my state senator: my choice was between the demonstrably corrupt former mayor of my town, who was also a Democrat and endorses lots of social policies I agree with, or my neighbor the Republican, whose website and published remarks are mum on social issues, and who seems like a nice enough guy when he's out for a walk. Then the Democratic candidate barraged me with negative mailers this week, and even sent a letter which said "I noticed you signed up to vote absentee...", which I felt was creepy.

Which reminds me of this Gary Wills quote: "I always vote the party. It’s ridiculous not to. You may like a person who is Republican, but if you vote for that person, you’re voting for all the apparatus that comes along with it."

I don't agree with Wills, or, I guess I feel that both apparati are pretty corrupted.

I requested an absentee ballot before I learned they'd be giving away WWE merch at the polling places, though. Guess I missed out, there!
posted by These Premises Are Alarmed at 10:57 AM on November 2, 2010


The great thing about this election is, regardless of the actual outcome, the take home "message from the people" we will hear repeated endlessly on the media machine from now until the next major election is that the American people voted the way they did in this midterm for one reason and one reason only: To send an unambiguous message to Washington that they don't like "Big Government Spending" and the only policies they ever want to see in the future are those that eliminate government workers and government subsidized industries, cut taxes (especially for wealthy people), and reduce benefit programs designed to provide assistance to them when they get fired from their government-subsidized jobs. Because at least then, they'll finally know without any room for doubt who to blame for the fact they haven't got a pot left to piss in. It'll be their own damn fault. And finally we'll have some accountability.

(I early voted last week. Not sure how this is going to turn out, but either way, I predict we'll be hearing the same message again and again.)
posted by saulgoodman at 10:58 AM on November 2, 2010 [6 favorites]


they'd be giving away WWE merch at the polling places

what
posted by entropicamericana at 11:01 AM on November 2, 2010 [2 favorites]


Then the Democratic candidate barraged me with negative mailers this week, and even sent a letter which said "I noticed you signed up to vote absentee...", which I felt was creepy.

There was a NYT magazine article this week about this kind of technique (referencing the person's voting history) in mailers results in higher turnout among recipients. Kind of interesting.

I can see the entrance to the local polling station from my window. No lines or anything as have been reported elsewhere in the state.
posted by enn at 11:03 AM on November 2, 2010


One thing I just realized with voting absentee is the lack of the nifty "I voted!" stickers. In some ways I feel kind of left out. < pout >
posted by Old'n'Busted at 11:08 AM on November 2, 2010 [2 favorites]


WWE planning a giveaway at the polls on Tuesday

That was the last I heard on the 28th, but I guess yesterday the DoJ sent a 'strongly-worded letter'. So I guess McMahon backed down.

No surprise, Linda has a history of paying for votesregistrations.
posted by These Premises Are Alarmed at 11:09 AM on November 2, 2010


I am not voting today. No senator running, no referenda I care about, and my congressman was a 50 point favorite. Am I a bad person?
posted by empath at 11:09 AM on November 2, 2010


Yes, but for unrelated reasons.
posted by shakespeherian at 11:12 AM on November 2, 2010 [3 favorites]


I want an "I voted" sticker.

Voted against the Great Evil that is Pat Toomey.

I almost wish I was a junkie, because tonight would be a great night to shoot up.
posted by angrycat at 11:13 AM on November 2, 2010


I am not voting today. No senator running, no referenda I care about, and my congressman was a 50 point favorite. Am I a bad person?

Given the low turnouts that people are reporting across the board, I have a sneaking suspicion that the polling leading up to this election may turn out to be very inaccurate.
posted by schmod at 11:13 AM on November 2, 2010


I voted early as I have done for the last several elections. Our current local kerfluffle is a US House race where one candidate hired a media firm that provided a Morgan Freeman sound-alike for an advertisement. It is still up in the air whether the candidate thought he was really getting Freeman or not.
posted by marxchivist at 11:14 AM on November 2, 2010


ShawnStruck: Not everyone is temporarily able-bodied, though.

I don't follow. Are you saying some people can't fill out paper ballots but they can fill out electronic ones? Also, shouldn't poll workers be able/required to help?
posted by callmejay at 11:17 AM on November 2, 2010


Sticker-wanters: Word document + printer + scissors + I don't know glue or something, maybe tape = you happy.
posted by ND¢ at 11:17 AM on November 2, 2010 [1 favorite]


Word document + printer + scissors + I don't know glue or something, maybe tape = you happy.

Wimps.

Tattoo or stay home.
posted by mmrtnt at 11:18 AM on November 2, 2010


Given the low turnouts that people are reporting across the board, I have a sneaking suspicion that the polling leading up to this election may turn out to be very inaccurate.

If they are inaccurate enough that the GOP candidate in my urban minority-majority district where he is polling at 24% wins, we are in real trouble.
posted by empath at 11:24 AM on November 2, 2010


I miss going to the polling place to cast my ballot (heck, I miss the old machines with the curtain, and the lever that cast your vote and cleared the ballot,and opened the curtain when you were done). I liked seeing who of my neighbors had voted already, and got a strong sense of community and civic duty performed.
Now, I get to sit and ponder things with a cuppa and the voter guide (WA state - almost completely mail-in). I think it's better in many ways, but I still miss the polling places.


Actually, you can hand-deliver your ballot to a polling place today, rather than mailing it in. I just got back from walking over to the library in town, and was thanked by three little old ladies who were working the polling place for doing my civic duty. I even got an "I voted" sticker to wear today. I'm sure I could have hung out there and seen who else wandered in. There were others parking and walking toward the building with ballots in-hand as I left the building.

I like the vote-by-mail system overall, but I understand missing the lively throng of old-style voting days.
posted by hippybear at 11:25 AM on November 2, 2010


I voted early. You can say a lot of bad things about Texas government (and I do), but one thing we do well down here is early voting. You get the opportunity to vote for about two weeks in advance as well as on election day. Holding elections on a Tuesday makes it hard for a lot of people to vote, so setting up early voting centers around town over the course of a long period makes it much easier for everybody to get to the polling place.

They do give you "I voted" stickers for voting early, too.
posted by immlass at 11:30 AM on November 2, 2010


hippybear: when I used to live in a small community in a rural county, it was really nice to go and vote in person. But now that I live in the 'burbs, I find it's not so enjoyable - everyone is in a major. frickn. hurry. to get in and vote and get out. So its really funny/weird that being able to vote-by-mail in a higher population density area makes it better vs. doing it where driving 20+ miles to the polling place where you could vote, smoke, drink coffee, and shoot the shit with people.
posted by Old'n'Busted at 11:32 AM on November 2, 2010


I moved from one end of my county to the other, and I never registered my new address with the Elections board (or changed my Drivers License, yet).

I noticed to day that my current neighborhoods polling place is pretty much across the street from my apartment. I could make it there in time tonight, but I would not be able to make it across the county, where my official polling place is still listed on my voting card, in time to vote.

So...I wonder if I would be able to cast some sort of provisional ballot, or something, anyway. Anyone have a clue on this? It's Delaware.
posted by mreleganza at 11:32 AM on November 2, 2010


I just voted, which was thoroughly uneventful. The only people passing out info at the front were Republican, which I hadn't really expected. Their little voting guide was predictable as far as suggesting I vote for the Republican candidates, but also suggested voting "yes" on all the ballot questions.

Question 3 was "Shall The Philadelphia Home Rule Charter be amended to add the following additional prohibited grounds for discrimination in City procurement contracts: discrimination on the basis of ancestry, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, age or disability?"

So I did what the Republicans told me, for that question anyway.
posted by sepviva at 11:32 AM on November 2, 2010 [1 favorite]


My polling place is a high school with many entrances. I showed up at about 7:30 this morning, walked in the wrong door, and wandered around aimlessly for a few minutes before I figured out where I needed to go. Nobody seemed to care that a strange adult was wandering around the school. I felt a little bit like a creep and/or Doc Brown.
posted by uncleozzy at 11:34 AM on November 2, 2010 [1 favorite]


cavalier: "Dios mio Florida's governor race is looking much tighter on 538 then it has for weeks. I thought this was in the bag. I will start breathing into my trusty Nov. 2(tm) Paper Bag."

Your bag has room for air? My Nov. 2 Paper Bag is completely stuffed with a 1.75 liter bottle of Svedka Vodka.
posted by symbioid at 11:37 AM on November 2, 2010 [9 favorites]


Bookmarked, fav'd, facebooked, and flagged as fantastic. Best of the web for reals. This is what the Internet is for, and this is why I'm proud to be a MetaFilterian.
posted by unregistered_animagus at 11:38 AM on November 2, 2010 [1 favorite]


Last night I got drunk and Facebook-friended everyone on my ballot (well, everyone whom I could find on Facebook). Today I will let whether they friended me back unduly influence whether I vote for them. :D
posted by Jacqueline at 11:41 AM on November 2, 2010 [3 favorites]


...I proudly continued the Minnesota tradition of writing in the Lizard People.
Whoa, what? As a Minnesotan by birth, I have no recollection of any prior Lizard People caucuses

Also, here in Rhode Island we can still vote a straight party line on our ballot. This year, the usual choice of R or D is joined by "Moderate" (though there were few enough on the slate, what with the ballot being littered with independents afilliated with the Cool Moose, Vigilant Fox, and "An Hour with Bob" micro-parties).
posted by wenestvedt at 11:41 AM on November 2, 2010 [1 favorite]


mreleganza, take a copy of a current utility bill, bank statement, government check, paycheck or other government document that shows your name and address across the street and they should let you vote a provisional ballot. Bear in mind that you will only be able to vote for federal offices. But if its that or not voting, do that.
posted by ND¢ at 11:42 AM on November 2, 2010


Given the low turnouts that people are reporting across the board, I have a sneaking suspicion that the polling leading up to this election may turn out to be very inaccurate.

I'm confused by this--all the reports I've seen have been saying the turnout out is high or at worst average for a midterm election.
posted by overglow at 11:44 AM on November 2, 2010


WWE WTF? How the fuck does he not understand that it's pretty fucking blatantly wrong what he's doing and the DOJ enforcing the books is somehow in the wrong in his eyes? I hope your wife loses. JUST LIKE ROWDY RODDY PIPER IN ... (OK, I don't remember my 80s Wrestling that well... But the Hulkster was the dominant one for a while, wasn't he?)
posted by symbioid at 11:44 AM on November 2, 2010


My polling place is a high school with many entrances. I showed up at about 7:30 this morning, walked in the wrong door, and wandered around aimlessly for a few minutes before I figured out where I needed to go. Nobody seemed to care that a strange adult was wandering around the school. I felt a little bit like a creep and/or Doc Brown.

They moved our polling place from a small church to one of the local High Schools last year, and it was almost impossible to get in and out of there. I switched to absentee this year, and I'm definitely missing the "experience" of voting.
posted by Big_B at 11:47 AM on November 2, 2010


Your bag has room for air? My Nov. 2 Paper Bag is completely stuffed with a 1.75 liter bottle of Svedka Vodka.

I like the guy in one of the last election threads who said he always just buys the cheapest bottle of malt liquor he can find... it seems more a fitting companion to the American elections than quintuple-filtered Swedish vodka
posted by crayz at 11:47 AM on November 2, 2010 [1 favorite]


I like the guy in one of the last election threads who said he always just buys the cheapest bottle of malt liquor he can find...

Unless there's someone else on MeFi who drinks the cheapest, most horrible booze available while watching the election returns, that was me. You're all welcome to join me in the tradition, of course.
posted by Faint of Butt at 11:50 AM on November 2, 2010 [1 favorite]


Could you CA folks provide the reliable links/information on how prop 19 is doing? I am not a smoker (eww!gross!*) but I want this to pass.

*that's not a moralizing "eww!gross!" I think cauliflower is, ounce for ounce, even grosser


Plus, have you ever tried to roll a joint with that stuff? It crumbles all over the place!

In all seriousness, I'd also like to know how Prop 19 is doing -- I sent money almost every time they asked, so I've got something like $300 riding on this. Small price to pay for freedom...
posted by vorfeed at 11:52 AM on November 2, 2010 [3 favorites]


You drinkers should be glad you don't live in Norway. On election day, any sale of alcohol is forbidden as long as the polling places are open. I assume not even Utah goes to that extreme.
posted by ymgve at 11:55 AM on November 2, 2010


...I proudly continued the Minnesota tradition of writing in the Lizard People.
Whoa, what? As a Minnesotan by birth, I have no recollection of any prior Lizard People caucuses


The Lizard People slunk in behind Franken.
posted by COBRA! at 11:59 AM on November 2, 2010 [1 favorite]


I was voter #715 at my polling place at about 1pm. (I'm the Hammerin' Hank of Democracy.)
posted by escabeche at 11:59 AM on November 2, 2010 [3 favorites]


You drinkers should be glad you don't live in Norway. On election day, any sale of alcohol is forbidden as long as the polling places are open. I assume not even Utah goes to that extreme.

Actually, liquor laws vary by state (and sometimes even county) in the US, and there are some states which have the exact same prohibition on election day sales as Norway. Utah is one of them. Here's a complete list (you can ctrl-F to search for "election").
posted by hippybear at 12:04 PM on November 2, 2010 [1 favorite]


vorfeed: "In all seriousness, I'd also like to know how Prop 19 is doing -- I sent money almost every time they asked, so I've got something like $300 riding on this. Small price to pay for freedom..."

It was doing well for most of the fall, but polls started trending against it in the last month or so. I don't know the latest news, but I'd guess it's an underdog now, or at most a 50-50 split. It may still be saved by high youth/minority turnout, who disproportionately support the measure and are underrepresented in polls. There's also the fact that many supporters may be reluctant to admit their support to a pollster.
posted by Rhaomi at 12:05 PM on November 2, 2010


You drinkers should be glad you don't live in Norway. On election day, any sale of alcohol is forbidden as long as the polling places are open. I assume not even Utah goes to that extreme.

Tucson AZ does (or did when I lived there, 1983-2005)
posted by mmrtnt at 12:06 PM on November 2, 2010


entropicamericana, thank you!
posted by pointystick at 12:11 PM on November 2, 2010


Rhaomi, thanks for a great post - awesome!

I wish I read it before I voted. I never thought to ask what # voter I was at my voting place. I voted at a small fire department - very neighborly, I have always previously been in bigger venues with a lot of hoopla going on outside. This was quiet and civil. Nobody there looked like Hitler. Course, this is the northeast and we are generally pretty liberal, cough--Scott Brown--cough.

xbonesgt, hey neighbor, that's my home town.
posted by madamjujujive at 12:22 PM on November 2, 2010


Sending happy election results thoughts to our friendly neighbours to the South and hoping for the best.
posted by jokeefe at 12:22 PM on November 2, 2010


Wait, what? Some states don't allow liquor sales on election days? What is the rational behind that?
posted by Old'n'Busted at 12:23 PM on November 2, 2010


Some states don't allow liquor sales on election days? What is the rational behind that?

This restriction is a relic of the Prohibition era when saloons sometimes served as polling stations.
posted by hippybear at 12:25 PM on November 2, 2010 [1 favorite]


I wonder how effective the Facebook nagging to vote will be. It's really in your face.
posted by smackfu at 12:29 PM on November 2, 2010


Because at least then, they'll finally know without any room for doubt who to blame for the fact they haven't got a pot left to piss in. It'll be their own damn fault. And finally we'll have some accountability.

That's right. Because if the history of the persecution of Jews in Europe has taught me anything it's that scapegoating is a rational process, and the pogroms stop when you realise it was your fuedal lord all along.
posted by rodgerd at 12:33 PM on November 2, 2010 [2 favorites]




ND¢: "Something to bear in mind tonight as the results come in. A grown-up (especially a frustrated, overwhelmed and worn out grown-up) may allow a selfish child to snatch a toy away from a playmate momentarily. That doesn't mean the adult will let the selfish child keep it. The grown-up will, once the initial temper tantrum has run its course, slowly take the toy back while calmly explaining to the child "No. You have to share." The grown-up will do that because grown-ups are bigger than children, stronger than children, and because they know better."

Until, one day, they find out that the "toy" the left out for the child to play with was a gun. Then the grown-up got shot because it was foolish enough to leave this toy out.

(I'm not quite sure what your analogy was about, but I figured this was another vague analogy that could be interpreted in a few different ways, too)
posted by symbioid at 12:34 PM on November 2, 2010


Old'n'Busted: "One thing I just realized with voting absentee is the lack of the nifty "I voted!" stickers. In some ways I feel kind of left out. "

I've always voted in person and never gotten a sticker for my efforts. Who gives out stickers? I've been ripped off.
posted by octothorpe at 12:39 PM on November 2, 2010


Excuse me, but I feel cheated that we didn't get a mariachi band near my polling place. We had nothing.
posted by madamjujujive at 12:42 PM on November 2, 2010




I just voted. I didn't get a cookie. I didn't get a sticker. I didn't even get a receipt.

What gives, America? I just gave you a direct injection of will of the people, straight to your mainline, and the freakin' blood people give me better stuff? I once got two movie tickets and a towel for giving blood. And while I can generally only vote once or twice a year, I can give blood every two months.

But seriously, yeah democracy representative democracy/republic!
posted by mccarty.tim at 12:48 PM on November 2, 2010 [1 favorite]


(I'm not quite sure what your analogy was about. . .

It was a parable.
posted by ND¢ at 12:49 PM on November 2, 2010


Liquor stores in Utah are owned by the state. The consensus among my co-workers is that those stores are closed today.

Leaving convenience-store beer and spinning in place as the only legal options.
posted by Joe Beese at 12:51 PM on November 2, 2010


I've always voted in person and never gotten a sticker for my efforts. Who gives out stickers? I've been ripped off.

I'm sporting one of these today, and I stuck my "I Voted!" sticker right in the middle of the thought bubble. Went down right at 7:00 -- the poll workers were all still sleepy and I wisht I'd broughten them coffee. One young-ish 20- something was being shown the ropes by her mom, who has worked at my location for all the 13 years I've voted there.
posted by Devils Rancher at 12:57 PM on November 2, 2010 [1 favorite]


The most activism I've seen from Tea Party types around here (Somerset County, New Jersey, a slightly right-leaning county, but mainly just because there are a lot of wealthy people who don't want taxes) is some ugly homemade VOTE TODAY - VOTE REPUBLICAN signs. They're really under-doing themselves, because last year they gathered at the post office to picket "ObamaCare." There were Hitler moustaches on Obama, and unfavorable words used towards Speaker Pelosi. I think I even saw some of the infamous "Burry ObamaCare with Kennedy" signs. This far north, I guess the far right has to overcompensate.

I don't think they got the irony of gathering at the post office to complain about a public option.
posted by mccarty.tim at 12:57 PM on November 2, 2010


Ooh! Can you do a parable about the rent, and how it's too damn high?
posted by Mister_A at 12:57 PM on November 2, 2010


Actually, liquor laws vary by state (and sometimes even county) in the US, and there are some states which have the exact same prohibition on election day sales as Norway.

That would explain the lyric from the X song, The New World. "Honest to goodness, the bars weren't open this morning. They musta been voting for your President or something."
posted by cottoncandybeard at 12:58 PM on November 2, 2010 [1 favorite]


It was doing well for most of the fall, but polls started trending against it in the last month or so. I don't know the latest news, but I'd guess it's an underdog now, or at most a 50-50 split. It may still be saved by high youth/minority turnout, who disproportionately support the measure and are underrepresented in polls. There's also the fact that many supporters may be reluctant to admit their support to a pollster.

It was down seven points in the two latest polls I've seen. Not sure if there's any chance it'll pass. But I'm going to vote for it after work today, and I'm one of those folks without a landline that are underrepresented in polls.
posted by Thoughtcrime at 12:58 PM on November 2, 2010


Something to bear in mind tonight as the results come in. A grown-up (especially a frustrated, overwhelmed and worn out grown-up) may allow a selfish child to snatch a toy away from a playmate momentarily. That doesn't mean the adult will let the selfish child keep it. The grown-up will, once the initial temper tantrum has run its course, slowly take the toy back while calmly explaining to the child "No. You have to share." The grown-up will do that because grown-ups are bigger than children, stronger than children, and because they know better.
It's important to remember, though, that eventually the child grows to become an adult, while the adult can become old and infirm. Sooner or later, the roles are reversed and the adult will depend on the child. Thus, it's important for grown-ups to remember to treat their children well and use their temporary power carefully.
posted by heathkit at 12:59 PM on November 2, 2010 [4 favorites]


"Burry ObamaCare with Kennedy" signs

Fuck, reading that is like lifting up a rock and seeing all these gross insects scurry back and forth.
posted by angrycat at 1:07 PM on November 2, 2010


Two ballot proposals in Michigan:

1. To call a new Constitutional caucus for the state constitution. Apparently, this is required every 16 years.

2. To ban felons from seeking public office for 20 years after their conviction, if the conviction involved certain offenses related to the job. I guess this means that an armed robber would be all right to run for office, but not an embezzler? Is embezzlement a felony?



I got a sticker, too. But no cookies, so kind of a rip-off when compared to giving blood.
posted by palindromic at 1:12 PM on November 2, 2010




I just voted. I didn't get a cookie. I didn't get a sticker. I didn't even get a receipt.

Really? That's unAmerican! I got a sticker and the receipts from my eleventy zillion ballots. The polling place this year was in someone's garage, and the owner of the house was also offering coffee.
posted by rtha at 1:14 PM on November 2, 2010


Is embezzlement a felony?

In Michigan it depends on the amount involved and other circumstances. For regular folks it can be a misdemeanor, but for public servants and their agents it's a felony if the amount was more than $50.
posted by jedicus at 1:17 PM on November 2, 2010


My wife and I cast our ballots early and ran into one of the self-appointed election day "poll watchers" hovering outside of the church where we voted. He introduced himself as an "Election monitoring lawyer" and wanted to know if the judges were "checking photo IDs," and asked to see mine. I laughed and said no. He looked disappointed.

Verb, Can you call 1-866-OUR-VOTE (1-866-687-8683) and let them know what happened? I'm doing election protection/anti-intimidation work in Minnesota, and we're getting a lot of reports like this. 866-OUR-VOTE is both tracking those incidents and sending response teams when appropriate.

Anyone else that has this happen, PLEASE call the OUR-VOTE line. It's important.
posted by elmer benson at 1:18 PM on November 2, 2010 [18 favorites]


My voting precinct is my apartment complex. At the pool.

It's like 150 feet from my front door. Not voting for me is a level of laziness that even I am not comfortable with.

Beats the shit out of the old Texas precincts. 3 hour wait in some school.
posted by Lord_Pall at 1:21 PM on November 2, 2010 [1 favorite]


Thanks, jedicus, good to know.

That proposal is basically in response to some law-breaking members of the Detroit city government. It would seem to me to be the kind of measure that would really draw suburban Republicans out to vote, so it's a bit odd that it was put up by a Detroit Democrat.
posted by palindromic at 1:27 PM on November 2, 2010


Verb, Can you call 1-866-OUR-VOTE (1-866-687-8683) and let them know what happened? I'm doing election protection/anti-intimidation work in Minnesota, and we're getting a lot of reports like this. 866-OUR-VOTE is both tracking those incidents and sending response teams when appropriate.
Thanks a lot, elmer. I did!
posted by verb at 1:28 PM on November 2, 2010 [3 favorites]


verb: "My wife and I cast our ballots early and ran into one of the self-appointed election day "poll watchers" hovering outside of the church where we voted. He introduced himself as an "Election monitoring lawyer" and wanted to know if the judges were "checking photo IDs," and asked to see mine. I laughed and said no. He looked disappointed."

Some polls will have attorneys monitoring activity - I did this in the last two Presidential elections. The group I was with was the Legal Rights Voting Team, put together by Washington state Democrats, but we were trained to be EXTREMELY non-partisan. Our goal was to make sure everyone got to vote who showed up to vote, even if it was by provisional ballot. If there were any problems, we had numbers for a so-called "boiler room", where other attorneys would be in contact with people who could go into court or whatever was necessary. We were to not interfere in any way with the process unless we saw, as I mentioned, someone being turned away from the polls.

I miss doing this now that Washington is vote-by-mail, especially in King County. I never saw any problems, but it was something I could do to protect the right to vote.
posted by Lulu's Pink Converse at 1:30 PM on November 2, 2010 [1 favorite]


That proposal is basically in response to some law-breaking members of the Detroit city government. It would seem to me to be the kind of measure that would really draw suburban Republicans out to vote, so it's a bit odd that it was put up by a Detroit Democrat.

The Democrats don't want Kilpatrick to come back and shit all over whatever race he feels like shitting up for the rest of his life. And he'd do it, too, just to show people.
posted by Etrigan at 1:32 PM on November 2, 2010


angrycat : Fuck, reading that is like lifting up a rock and seeing all these gross insects scurry back and forth.

Hey now, that's a completely unfair characterization. Those "gross insects" are an important part of our ecological system and the world would be a much worse place without them.

Unlike the Tea Party.
posted by quin at 1:32 PM on November 2, 2010 [5 favorites]


For anyone following the Five Thirty-Eight Hour-by-Hour guide linked in the OP, an important note: Indiana polls close at 6 p.m. local time. Although most of the state is on Eastern time, there are bits in the northwest and southwest corners on Central time, so polls in those areas close at 7 p.m. EDT. Of the five Indiana districts listed in the 538 guide, three of them (the 2nd, 8th, and 9th, which happen to be the three most competitive) are partly in the Central Time Zone, so minute-by-minute watchers should not expect media to project winners in those districts until 7 p.m. EDT at the earliest.
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 1:36 PM on November 2, 2010


Speaking of FiveThirtyEight's hour-by-hour guide, here's the latest version with the site's final projection data.
posted by Rhaomi at 1:39 PM on November 2, 2010


I think I'm gonna whip up a few "I'm drunk, and I vote" pins.
posted by symbioid at 1:39 PM on November 2, 2010


Some polls will have attorneys monitoring activity - I did this in the last two Presidential elections.
Yeah, though we were wearing obvious "I JUST VOTED!" stickers, and he was checking photo IDs after we left. Later I mentioned the weirdness of it to my wife and she mentioned that one of the election judges had warned her about the guy -- apparently a number of people had thought they were legally obligated to show him their ID, etc, and he kept dashing whenever the judges came out to check. So. Ultra-shady.
posted by verb at 1:45 PM on November 2, 2010


It [Proposition 19] may still be saved by high youth/minority turnout

I can't believe it took me this long to see what you did there
posted by ook at 1:47 PM on November 2, 2010 [9 favorites]


FUCK 538 is predicting a Toomey win

FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK

Anybody have any heroin? Or maybe a big club. Will somebody just club me in the head?
posted by angrycat at 1:49 PM on November 2, 2010


Hey, I gave up on the Sestak thing a while back. I voted for the guy, but he's never been within spittin' distance the past several months. I hope he pulls off a miracle, but it looks like we will now have two conservative anti-abortion senators in PA.
posted by Mister_A at 1:54 PM on November 2, 2010


Really? My sense of it was that when folks saw how nutty things were getting Delaware, people were like, whoah, now, let's be sensible.
posted by angrycat at 1:55 PM on November 2, 2010


Some polls will have attorneys monitoring activity - I did this in the last two Presidential elections.

The kind of work you're talking about, Lulu's Pink Converse, is the opposite of what we're seeing across the country, and the opposite of what verb encountered. While Minnesota and other states have pretty strict laws about voter intimidation, there are some groups that want to suppress voter turnout by confusing voters, or insisting that voters need documentation they don't actually need to vote.

Like I said, we saw some pretty awful stuff prior to Election Day in Minnesota, and it seems like it's still going on (that's my polling place in the photo, btw) today.

Sheesh.
posted by elmer benson at 1:59 PM on November 2, 2010


538 has a 69% chance of a Kirk win over Giannoulias and an 82% chance of Brady win over Quinn. Maybe I should just start drinking now.
posted by enn at 1:59 PM on November 2, 2010


One piece of good news:

ABC News pulls plug on Andrew Breitbart

posted by Joe Beese at 2:03 PM on November 2, 2010 [13 favorites]


When looking at the 538 numbers, it's importat to remember a 69% chance of winning isn't the same as a 69-31 lead in the polls. In other words, one of three races where he says the Republicans have a 66% chance of winning should go for the Democrats for his model to be accurate.
posted by These Premises Are Alarmed at 2:03 PM on November 2, 2010


Toomey, unfortunately, doesn't say the kind of crazy things that Christine does. He just says, "more jobs! Less taxes!" Look, you and I know he might as well be saying, "unicorns! And helicopters! For everyone!" but people seem to buy that crap. I don't know why Sestak didn't push his military service harder to be honest.
posted by Mister_A at 2:03 PM on November 2, 2010


That is good news on Breitbart. What was ABC thinking?
posted by These Premises Are Alarmed at 2:05 PM on November 2, 2010


Apologies if this has been discussed elsewhere on the Blue, but what is up with that voter fraud app? Is it as hokey as it seems or is it legit? Or does that remain to be seen?
posted by nzero at 2:11 PM on November 2, 2010


Well, just got back from the polls. I voted YES on Prop 19.

Hoping for the best, guys. Time and time again, the majority of California inexplicably votes the exact opposite of how I vote, on nearly every single issue, so hope I didn't jinx it.

*sighs*
posted by The ____ of Justice at 2:17 PM on November 2, 2010


These Premises Are Alarmed: "When looking at the 538 numbers, it's importat to remember a 69% chance of winning isn't the same as a 69-31 lead in the polls. In other words, one of three races where he says the Republicans have a 66% chance of winning should go for the Democrats for his model to be accurate."

Yeah, that's great and all, but... Feingold is 2.7 right now (last I looked about a half hour ago). So... while his polling percent is 46 or whatever, that doesn't give me hope. Oh well. It was a good run. Tomorrow is "Punch a Republican in the Dick Day".
posted by symbioid at 2:21 PM on November 2, 2010


I'm sure there's always a table at the FOX family for Breitbart, anyways.
posted by symbioid at 2:24 PM on November 2, 2010


The Premises Are Alarmed : I do not believe that is actually how statistics work. If I flip two coins that both come up heads, I'm not betting the farm on tails. If all three Rs win, it won't invalidate the model.
posted by absalom at 2:39 PM on November 2, 2010


Just got back from holding my nose and voting a mostly Democratic ticket. Except for Leeland Yee. Sorry Leeland, it was your shitty luck that you made my state stand up in front of the Supreme Court on election day and take a big old dump on the First Amendment. No nose-holding for you. I wrote in Jello Biafra 'cause I had California Uber Alles stuck in my head.
posted by Doublewhiskeycokenoice at 2:41 PM on November 2, 2010 [3 favorites]


The FiveThirtyEight liveblog is now up, for those who want their real-time coverage sans video.

Also interesting: the return of the NYTimes "Word Train" feature, which asks voters "What One Word Describes Your Current State of Mind?" and then sorts the stream of words by party. The 2008 version (discussed previously) can be found here.
posted by Rhaomi at 2:43 PM on November 2, 2010 [3 favorites]


The Premises Are Alarmed : I do not believe that is actually how statistics work. If I flip two coins that both come up heads, I'm not betting the farm on tails. If all three Rs win, it won't invalidate the model.

Over a sufficiently large number of elections, though, you'd see 538's 66% favorites win 2/3 of the time and its 33% underdogs win 1/3 of the time, if Nate Silver's method works. If the 66% favorite always wins then "a 66% chance of victory" is meaningless.
posted by gerryblog at 2:47 PM on November 2, 2010


I wrote in Jello Biafra 'cause I had California Uber Alles stuck in my head.

gingerbeer and I both hummed this as we colored in the arrow for Jerry Brown.
posted by rtha at 2:48 PM on November 2, 2010 [4 favorites]


On election day, any sale of alcohol is forbidden as long as the polling places are open

Tucson AZ does (or did when I lived there, 1983-2005)


It hasn't since at least 2007. I used to work at a liquor store, and that was our #1 question coming in the door on election days. I don't know why they thought we'd be open...just to sell overpriced crackers and sparkling cider?
posted by lizjohn at 3:07 PM on November 2, 2010


ymgve wrote: "You drinkers should be glad you don't live in Norway. On election day, any sale of alcohol is forbidden as long as the polling places are open. I assume not even Utah goes to that extreme."

I don't know about Utah, but Oklahoma does go to that extreme. Until a couple of years ago when liquor stores were required by law to close at 7PM, that meant no liquor could be sold on election day. Now the liquor stores open up for an hour after the polls close.
posted by wierdo at 3:15 PM on November 2, 2010


Toomey dialed back the crazy significantly in this election. I recall his run six years ago being a lot nastier this turn around. People's memories are short (unfortunately) which worked to his advantage.
posted by theBigRedKittyPurrs at 3:25 PM on November 2, 2010


I recall his run six years ago being a lot nastier THAN this turn around.

Communication fail all around today.
posted by theBigRedKittyPurrs at 3:26 PM on November 2, 2010


ymgve wrote: "You drinkers should be glad you don't live in Norway. On election day, any sale of alcohol is forbidden as long as the polling places are open. I assume not even Utah goes to that extreme."

I don't know about Utah, but Oklahoma does go to that extreme.


Kentucky, too. No booze 'til the polls close.
posted by Rykey at 3:35 PM on November 2, 2010


Seems like the best left-leaning Americans can hope for is that in four years the Tea Partiers are just as disappointed and demoralized as they are today. So it goes.
posted by The Card Cheat at 3:36 PM on November 2, 2010


Kentucky, too. No booze 'til the polls close.

Same in Indiana. Which maybe has something to do with those two states being the first to close their polls.
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 3:37 PM on November 2, 2010


Are you a NON-Californian who supports Proposition 19, and you wish that you could somehow help get out the vote or help the pro-legalization effort, even though you don't live in California?

Well, you can! Right from your own phone, for free!

Check out this neat online phonebanking tool from the YesOn19 campaign:
https://secure.yeson19.com/page/content/dialer

That website will help you make calls to registered California voters, urging them to support Prop 19 and reminding them that the polls in California are open until 8 PM Pacific Time. It's super-easy to do, and hey, it can help you pass the time while waiting for other election results to come in. And because of the time difference with the eastern US, you can use the site most of the day today.

Please tweet/re-tweet/Facebook the link so that your fellow pro-legalization friends can use the tool too.

*fingers crossed for the proposition's success*
posted by Asparagirl at 3:41 PM on November 2, 2010


All of you people complaining about not being able to buy liquor on election day just need to make a spontaneous trip to Vegas. We *never* stop selling booze here. :D
posted by Jacqueline at 3:45 PM on November 2, 2010


Yes. Please call me phone more. The 18 calls on Sunday were not nearly enough. *sigh*
posted by Big_B at 3:46 PM on November 2, 2010


MY. Call MY phone.
posted by Big_B at 3:46 PM on November 2, 2010


verb: "
Some polls will have attorneys monitoring activity - I did this in the last two Presidential elections.
Yeah, though we were wearing obvious "I JUST VOTED!" stickers, and he was checking photo IDs after we left. Later I mentioned the weirdness of it to my wife and she mentioned that one of the election judges had warned her about the guy -- apparently a number of people had thought they were legally obligated to show him their ID, etc, and he kept dashing whenever the judges came out to check. So. Ultra-shady.
"

Absolutely, THAT nonsense is ultra-shady and not part of anything I was ever trained to do. I did approach a few people whom I overheard having some issues with being on the books, after they'd walked away from the polls. But my only question was "were you able to vote?" If they said yes, I said great! If they said no, but they wanted to vote, I introduced myself, told them why I was there, and asked if they wanted assistance. Some people did, and I helped them best I could, and some people didn't, and that was their right. Nothing identified me as being anything other than a volunteer attorney monitoring the poll - no party affiliation, nothing.

There was a mention of numbers you could/should call to report what went on at your poll, and I'd encourage you to call, even if it was hours ago. That kind of information helps track and crack down on voter interference now and in future elections.
posted by Lulu's Pink Converse at 3:51 PM on November 2, 2010




Here's a mathematical analysis of what happened the last time the House went Republican:

We got fucked.
posted by entropicamericana at 4:01 PM on November 2, 2010 [20 favorites]


Who knows on Prop 19. So hard to tell if the polls are remotely accurate. I've been asked what I think will happen about every ten minutes for the last month, and I just say I don't know. Well, I have a longer answer than that about win or lose, this initiative has changed the conversation so much, etc. But I don't know, and I've seen every poll and focus group report done. We'll find out this evening how accurate the polls were.

Thank you to everyone who donated money or made GOTV calls for Prop 19. There's been a lot of help from outside CA on this campaign, and it's all appreciated.

Funny campaign story: this morning I was scheduled to do a media bit on 19. When I arrived, I was told I was debating a former narcotics prosecutor who was going to talk about federal law, etc. Not really my idea of fun. I brushed up on my legal talking points, we get in place, reporter opens, I say my piece, he turns to the former prosecutor and asks him why he's opposed. "Oh, I support Prop 19" he says. Goes on to talk about how mj prosecutions are a waste of time and resources, and why 19 is a good idea. So he and I took turns talking about the various benefits of 19. Best "debate" with a former narcotics prosecutor ever!

Here's the latest on exit polls. The Secretary of State site linked above is the best place to watch the vote. Every other site just pulls from there. Based on past experience, I would say that the LA Times and Sac Bee sites are usually pretty good election coverage in general.
posted by gingerbeer at 4:03 PM on November 2, 2010 [5 favorites]


Ladies and Gentlemen: Senator Rand Paul.
posted by joe lisboa at 4:06 PM on November 2, 2010


(is it possible to anti-favorite your own comment?)
posted by joe lisboa at 4:07 PM on November 2, 2010 [9 favorites]


Based on all the forecasts, I'm not surprised, but my guts still churned when I saw just now that a Rand Paul win is pretty much in the bag. Thanks fellow Kentuckians.
posted by Rykey at 4:08 PM on November 2, 2010


I choose to think of it as Kentuckians vindicating Aqua Buddha worship.
posted by Flunkie at 4:11 PM on November 2, 2010 [4 favorites]


Ladies and Gentlemen: Senator Rand Paul.

Sweet!

Let's have some Tea Party slash fiction to commemorate the occasion.
posted by BigSky at 4:14 PM on November 2, 2010 [1 favorite]


I choose to think of it as Kentuckians vindicating Aqua Buddha worship.

Or not being politically astute enough to know you do not go on national media and proclaim your opposition to the federal Civil Rights Act, but hey. Then again, maybe that played to his favor. Sigh.
posted by joe lisboa at 4:14 PM on November 2, 2010


A man who rejects the 1964 Civil Rights Act has just been elected Senator from Kentucky.

The South is rising again, it seems.
posted by Avenger at 4:15 PM on November 2, 2010 [1 favorite]


I need some advice. Everyone here seems so pro-19 (CA), but is there any merit to concerns about workplace safety, driving under the influence, and loss of federal funding? ("Proposition 19 gives drivers the 'right' to use marijuana right up to the point where they climb behind the wheel", "no company in California can meet federal drug-free workplace standards, or qualify for federal contracts", etc.) The rebuttal to the "against" argument in the voter guide is hardly a rebuttal at all, and to be honest, the "against" argument seems much more reasonable and clear-headed.

What about props 20 and 27? I've heard varying opinions on the redistricting commission. Is it a good idea or no?

Thank you!
posted by archagon at 4:17 PM on November 2, 2010


Consolation prize:

Kentucky’s second-largest city has elected an openly gay man as its next mayor. Vice-Mayor Jim Gray was victorious tonight in his second campaign for the city’s top job, beating incumbent Mayor Jim Newberry.
posted by Joe Beese at 4:21 PM on November 2, 2010 [2 favorites]


Or not being politically astute enough to know you do not go on national media and proclaim your opposition to the federal Civil Rights Act

Yeah, I thought that, and the headstomp episode, would have tipped the scale in Conway's favor for sure... but if the Paul supporters around here are any indication, his biggest selling point is that he's not a liberal. His other super-shitty qualities just don't seem to register with people.

I'd like to revel in the idea that he'll totally make the people who voted for him sorry for doing so, but I suspect it'll be easy enough for them to blame "the liberals" for the mess he helps create too.
posted by Rykey at 4:22 PM on November 2, 2010 [1 favorite]


Mother of God. This means we finally get to see how shitty everything will be with the Tea Party in power! Reams and reams of conjecture about what these political trolls would do will be tested in the crucible of REAL LIFE POLITICS!
posted by mccarty.tim at 4:23 PM on November 2, 2010 [2 favorites]


Reams and reams of conjecture about what these political trolls would do will be tested in the crucible of REAL LIFE POLITICS!

My gut feeling is that they'll become regular corrupt politicians who's goal in life is to continually get elected while doing as little actual work as possible -- just like all the other politicians in America.

I mean, Rand Paul has already said he's against Socialism unless it's Medicare, in which case he's in favor of it because doctors like him "deserve a good living". He's transparently stupid, but he's got an "R" next to his name so naturally Kentuckians will vote for him. He's One Of Us.
posted by Avenger at 4:28 PM on November 2, 2010 [7 favorites]


1) Wall of NO now one million percent more NOey.
2) Birther commitees.
posted by Artw at 4:28 PM on November 2, 2010 [1 favorite]


Wait, doesn't this mean the Democrats get to call the shots and gut the Republican's reform, completely reshaping it into the opposite of what the party faithful hoped for, as they're now the senate minority and can filibuster? Or does it not work in reverse?
posted by mccarty.tim at 4:29 PM on November 2, 2010


Er, wait, I meant house minority. Derp.
posted by mccarty.tim at 4:30 PM on November 2, 2010


This means we finally get to see how shitty everything will be with the Tea Party in power!

Even if every Tea Party candidate won, they would not comprise a majority of GOP legislators. Those that do not get co-opted by the existing power structure will not be able to get lunatic legislation past a majority Democratic Senate and a Democratic President.

No matter what else happens tonight, the Tea Party will not be "in power".
posted by Joe Beese at 4:32 PM on November 2, 2010 [3 favorites]


I'm still betting on birther hearings though, or whatever stupid and ugly thing they can waste peoples time with that involves a lot of grandstanding.
posted by Artw at 4:34 PM on November 2, 2010


So, you guys think O'Donnell will become the spiritual leader of a faction of the GOP like Sarah Palin is, despite having no direct political power? I mean, all Sarah Palin did to get famous was lose John McCain the campaign, but now she's Right Wing America's Sweetheart. O'Donnell is running one of the most hilarious campaigns ever, and she's losing it all by herself.

And Palin's shown you don't need policy genius or to be up on what the kids think about the issues to become a political superstar.
posted by mccarty.tim at 4:34 PM on November 2, 2010 [1 favorite]


Actually, I would personally be in favor of electing Tea Partyists if they actually had a coherent set of policy objectives that could be measured and judged.

If they actually came out and said "We're going to get rid of all Federal Taxes, but consequently destroy Social Security and Medicare.", I would actually support them being elected just so that people could experience the world-class clusterfuck that would ensue once 40 million grandmas and grandpas get thrown out into the cold.

As it stands, most of the Tea Party platform consists largely of MEXICANGAYSNEGROSTAXESDEFECITS!!!!!!!!111, and a lot of screaming about "taking America back from the elites" and whatnot. There's nothing there to disagree with, really. I mean, we make fun of them because they come across as buffonish but is there anything to say, "No, your policy won't work but mine will?"

Are there any Tea Party policies (not slogans, not rallying cries, but real, actual policies that can be implemented by law) that exist in the real world?
posted by Avenger at 4:36 PM on November 2, 2010


I hope my team wins.

Everything that is wrong with US politics in 5 easy words.
posted by oncogenesis at 4:40 PM on November 2, 2010 [7 favorites]


For whatever its worth, I passed the relatively rigorous MD driver's test while high on pot. To do that, I had to pass a road course with a taciturn and malevolent cop sitting in the passenger seat evaluating me on: a surprise stop situation, a 3 point turnaround and parrallel parking.

When it was all over he just sat there for an eternity before saying, "You got a heavy foot, son." He passed me with 100% on the road course, but that was 40 years ago and the pot wasn't as potent back then.
posted by Huplescat at 4:43 PM on November 2, 2010 [1 favorite]


This measure would require the Washington State Seal to depict a tapeworm attached to a taxpayer’s intestine, encircled by the words: Committed to sucking the life blood out of each and every taxpayer.

Two questions: Is this a real thing (did it make the ballot)? Is it going to pass?
posted by drezdn at 4:43 PM on November 2, 2010


Musical chairs. It's my party and I'll cry if I want to. Pass the parcel.

Rest of the world: The cake is a lie, isn't it.
posted by vectr at 4:46 PM on November 2, 2010


You know, some how I managed to live through the disaster of the '94 midterms and not get completely depressed.

But that was because I didn't know what was coming.

Sometimes the knowledge that comes with age fucking sucks monster donkey balls.
posted by angrycat at 4:51 PM on November 2, 2010 [8 favorites]


archagon: "I need some advice. Everyone here seems so pro-19 (CA), but is there any merit to concerns about workplace safety, driving under the influence, and loss of federal funding? ("Proposition 19 gives drivers the 'right' to use marijuana right up to the point where they climb behind the wheel", "no company in California can meet federal drug-free workplace standards, or qualify for federal contracts", etc.) "

A couple of points:
-- driving under the influence (alcohol or mj) is currently illegal in CA and will remain so. Do not drive while impaired. Prop 19 does not create any protections for people who drive impaired. You can drink right up until you get behind the wheel now, but it's a really bad idea and you can and hopefully will get arrested if you do it.

-- your boss can still fire you if your mj use interferes with your job. What your boss can't do is fire you for smoking up over the weekend. There is no conflict with the federal drug-free workplace standards (which do NOT require drug testing). As with alcohol, if your use is interfering with your ability to do your job, your employer may take whatever action they usually do in that situation.

-- there is no conflict with federal law. There is nothing in the US Constitution that requires a state to criminalize any particular conduct. CA is free to remove criminal penalties for marijuana possession/cultivation and the feds don't have a legal basis to challenge that. They can and have stated that they will continue to enforce federal law, but the vast majority of mj arrests are state and local.

I hope that is helpful.
posted by gingerbeer at 4:52 PM on November 2, 2010 [8 favorites]


Voter caging in IL
posted by dirigibleman at 4:58 PM on November 2, 2010 [2 favorites]


More detail on the workplace thing -- employers can and assuredly will say you can't use mj in the workplace, just as they say you can't drink on the job. Alcohol is legal to use for adults, but no one assumes that means that you can drink on the job or drink while driving a school bus. It's nothing but hyperbolic fearmongering by the opposition to say that these things would be legal for mj use if 19 passes.
posted by gingerbeer at 5:00 PM on November 2, 2010


Musical chairs. It's my party and I'll cry if I want to. Pass the parcel.

Rest of the world: The cake is a lie, isn't it.


Looks like Prop 19 passed.
posted by joe lisboa at 5:03 PM on November 2, 2010


Kidding! Vote for 19!
posted by joe lisboa at 5:04 PM on November 2, 2010


gingerbeer, that's very helpful. Thank you!
posted by archagon at 5:04 PM on November 2, 2010


You're very welcome, archagon. Thanks for asking.
posted by gingerbeer at 5:10 PM on November 2, 2010


ABC is projecting Democrat Coons in Delaware. Farewell for now, Christine "I am Not a Witch" O'Donnell.
posted by bearwife at 5:11 PM on November 2, 2010 [2 favorites]


Linda McMahon losing in CT should be interesting, considering she spent $50 million of her own money. I can just imagine Vince's reaction: "Just how am I supposed to pay these roided up maniacs we call employees now? They can kick our ass, you know..."
posted by jonmc at 5:11 PM on November 2, 2010 [1 favorite]


At 8:00pm EDT, Channel 7 in NYC reported that there were "ballot issues" in Bridgeport, CT, and a request has been made to extend poll closing for another 2 hours. Lines there are very long.

I'll try to find a link.
posted by sundrop at 5:14 PM on November 2, 2010


Wait, McMahon lost?
posted by joe lisboa at 5:14 PM on November 2, 2010


No, but she's projected to last I heard.
posted by jonmc at 5:15 PM on November 2, 2010


Victim of the Glorious People's Elbow?
posted by joe lisboa at 5:18 PM on November 2, 2010 [3 favorites]


Link for my previous post:


posted by sundrop at 5:19 PM on November 2, 2010


Victim of the Glorious People's Elbow?

"What's your platform?"

"Well I wou-"

"IT DOESN'T MATTER WHAT YOUR PLATFORM IS!"
posted by Doublewhiskeycokenoice at 5:20 PM on November 2, 2010 [8 favorites]


And in what is already a tough night, this announcement: ACORN files for bankruptcy.
posted by madamjujujive at 5:20 PM on November 2, 2010


Oh shat. Let me try that again: Here, try this!
posted by sundrop at 5:21 PM on November 2, 2010


Sharron Angle Files Voter Intimidation Complaint

Quote:

The complaint is based on an article, which appeared Tuesday morning in National Review, that alleged Reid's campaign worked with sympathetic executives to put pressure on union casino employees to vote.

Supervisors were instructed to track down employees who hadn't voted and find out why, according to e-mails obtained by reporter and conservative blogger Elizabeth Crum.

Reid's campaign offered money and buses to get the workers to the polls, proposed that Reid personally intervene and told the bosses at Harrah's to "put a headlock" on supervisors to make sure they got workers out to vote, according to the e-mails between an unnamed Reid staffer and Harrah's executives. A casino executive distributed a spreadsheet with the names of employees and asked supervisors to track whether they'd voted.

posted by BigSky at 5:26 PM on November 2, 2010


Fox is projecting McMahon loses. ("Democrat ekes out win . . . ") That is rather sweet.
posted by bearwife at 5:28 PM on November 2, 2010


Golly!
posted by nomadicink at 5:28 PM on November 2, 2010


Once this election is over, I look forward to generously donating to candidates in other countries who will make those countries just as shitty as our foreign funded winners will make ours.
posted by Joey Michaels at 5:29 PM on November 2, 2010 [3 favorites]




Dems take Senate seat in West Virginia. GOP takeover of Senate now increasingly less likely.
posted by joe lisboa at 5:36 PM on November 2, 2010 [2 favorites]


Also according to TPM, Republican Senate victories: Richard Burr, NCarolina; B. Mikulski, Maryland; Richard Shelby, Alabama; Keny Ayotte NH; Marco Rubio FL; Rand Paul Kentucky
posted by madamjujujive at 5:37 PM on November 2, 2010


Republicans are not going to take the Senate. Blumenthal has won the critical Connecticut Senate race.
posted by bearwife at 5:37 PM on November 2, 2010


Yay, Connecticut, yay West Virginia, and thank you Bill Clinton!
posted by madamjujujive at 5:40 PM on November 2, 2010 [1 favorite]


Hurray, only the House will be batshitinsane, which is actually pretty normal.
posted by nomadicink at 5:41 PM on November 2, 2010 [6 favorites]


I didn't think I'd be able to make it, but I did manage to get to my (very poorly marked, btw) polling place. Hooray for RI for keeping polls open 'till 9!

The one ballot measure here that's really interesting to me is the question to change the name of the state from "The State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations" to just "The State of Rhode Island." Apparently, being part of the Union during the Civil War and outlawing slavery wasn't enough, we need to remove "plantations" from our state name 147 years later as a gesture against slave holding. Um, in case you can't tell by tone, I think this is a really redonkulous gesture and think the name of the state is effin' awesome.

YOU CAN TAKE PROVIDENCE PLANTATIONS FROM MY COLD, DEAD BALLOT.
posted by sonika at 5:44 PM on November 2, 2010 [3 favorites]


However, Republicans appear already to be up two House seats, one in Arkansas, despite Bill Clinton's efforts there.
posted by bearwife at 5:44 PM on November 2, 2010


The one ballot measure here that's really interesting to me is the question to change the name of the state from "The State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations" to just "The State of Rhode Island." Apparently, being part of the Union during the Civil War and outlawing slavery wasn't enough, we need to remove "plantations" from our state name 147 years later as a gesture against slave holding.

TPM had a story on this. Apparently the original Providence Plantation was one of the first colonies to openly oppose slavery. Rhode Island Colony, meanwhile, was heavily involved in the slave trade.
posted by dirigibleman at 5:50 PM on November 2, 2010


I live in Nevada. While Tea-Party candidates all over the country have been spouting off asinine statements and dropping like rocks in a pond in the polls, Sharron Angle has only made gains. Two days ago, it looked like we were voting to become the front-runner for State having the most embarrassing political representative.

I mean, in the back of your head you can think of a thousand reasons why the polls might be off, that young people carry cell phones, that many Nevadan's who work in the gaming and entertainment industry (that Harry Reid helped build and continues to receive generous support from) may be at their jobs at prime polling hours, that when it comes down to it nobody is going to cast out our flawed but hard working Senate majority leader, and the most powerful politician in our state's history.

The Intrade profile for the Nevada Senate race today is astonishing. After hovering around 30/100, basically a 3:1 shot to win, the numbers inexplicably spiked in Reid's favor. In sports betting, a good technique is to bet late on the "underdog", and I think that is exactly what has happened, except in this case, there is no spread to cover.

Just now, I saw that Angle has filed a voter intimidation complaint against Reid, and the campaign has come full circle. From Angle's candidacy as a political outsider who will shake up politics in Nevada, to her rhetoric ringing true to many eager ears looking for a better representative, to respected State politicians "reaching across the aisle" and backing Reid who has fought for our State and its fragile economy harder in the past two years than anyone, to Angle filing a voter intimidation act on Nov. 2.

I just hope there is a web cam somewhere on Sharron Angle's face the moment she realizes that she never had a chance.
posted by clearly at 5:50 PM on November 2, 2010 [1 favorite]


Chris Matthews is eviscerating Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) on the vague cuts-across-the-board pablum. Nice to finally see.
posted by joe lisboa at 5:54 PM on November 2, 2010


Wow MrMoonPie, one relative a Democratic politician, another a, wait for it... Green politician? OMG. Could anything be more awkward? Really.
posted by NortonDC at 5:56 PM on November 2, 2010


GOP wins control of the House of Representatives, circa 9:00 PM EST.
posted by joe lisboa at 6:00 PM on November 2, 2010


Also according to TPM, Republican Senate victories: Richard Burr, NCarolina; B. Mikulski, Maryland; Richard Shelby, Alabama; Keny Ayotte NH; Marco Rubio FL; Rand Paul Kentucky

Mikulski's a Democrat.
posted by Faint of Butt at 6:00 PM on November 2, 2010 [2 favorites]


Wisconsin Senate race still too close to call. Colorado, too.
posted by joe lisboa at 6:02 PM on November 2, 2010


Yes she is and good for that! Sorry about that and thanks for the correction FoB
posted by madamjujujive at 6:03 PM on November 2, 2010


That's, like, literally lawsuit-worthy bullshit.

Heh.
posted by zarq at 6:07 PM on November 2, 2010


NBC projects a 57 seat pickup in the House. Nate still holding at 55-56.
posted by Joe Beese at 6:07 PM on November 2, 2010



Kentucky’s second-largest city has elected an openly gay man as its next mayor.



A major victory for proponents of gay mayorage.
posted by louche mustachio at 6:07 PM on November 2, 2010 [23 favorites]


So, 2012 elections, who's your pick?
posted by nomadicink at 6:08 PM on November 2, 2010


CNN exit polls show Bennet leading Buck in Colorado, 49-47, and Feingold just one point behind Johnson in Wisconsin (lol rhyme), 50-49. High margin of error, though.
posted by Rhaomi at 6:09 PM on November 2, 2010 [1 favorite]


According to Rand Paul, America is exceptional because we have lived and fought for the principles of freedom. Not counting that whole Civil Rights Act, of course. Fucking phony piece of shit.
posted by joe lisboa at 6:09 PM on November 2, 2010 [2 favorites]


Oh man, the current results are showing Onorato winning here in PA. I know that he's probably going to lose and I hate early results giving me false hope.
posted by octothorpe at 6:09 PM on November 2, 2010




I'm glad Linda ('Because She's Bought Everything Else', as the billboard near my house said) lost, although I didn't think she really had a shot. That $50M jolt to the state economy can't hurt (well, regional media buys probably help NY as much). I mentioned the WWE merch controversy upthread, but did you all know there was also a WWE event scheduled for this evening in Bridgeport (Connecticut's largest and poorest city), ironically in the same venue that Obama spoke at on Saturday. Totally a shady way to effect the vote.

I also agree that most 'Tea Party' candidates, at least at the national level, will get sucked into the machine more than anything else. We'll see though.
posted by These Premises Are Alarmed at 6:13 PM on November 2, 2010


Ah, now Nate adjusts to 57.

He called Chandler (KY-6) "the sort of Democrat who will have to win if the party is going to avoid getting completely slaughtered" - and favored him by two points.

With 96% counted, he's leading by less than 500 votes out of almost a quarter million.
posted by Joe Beese at 6:14 PM on November 2, 2010


I just hope there is a web cam somewhere on Sharron Angle's face the moment she realizes that she never had a chance.

Are you sure? She came really damned close, even if she loses. It's hard to tell if Reid's win is guaranteed, though. Both the Republicans and Democrats are framing rural and early voting in their candidate's favor. Most news reports say a Reid win depends on the way Independents vote.
posted by zarq at 6:14 PM on November 2, 2010


ABC News appears to have called the PA governorship for Corbett (R).
posted by Doofus Magoo at 6:18 PM on November 2, 2010


I was too busy being a little kid to watch the republicans when they took the house and stuff in 1994. Was it bad? I survived it, so it can't be that bad, right? And Clinton got a second term, and that second term was pretty awesome.
posted by mccarty.tim at 6:19 PM on November 2, 2010


Damn, Chandler's lead now less than 150. That's bound to be a recount.
posted by Joe Beese at 6:21 PM on November 2, 2010


Are you sure? She came really damned close, even if she loses.

Absolutely not.

Most news reports say a Reid win depends on the way Independents vote.

Isn't that the case with every non-deep red/blue race?

I don't think it is guaranteed by any stretch, but Reid has consistently won close elections in a politically fickle state.
posted by clearly at 6:22 PM on November 2, 2010


Honestly? My money's still on Romney.

There is a zero percent chance the republicans will nominate a mormon for president.
posted by empath at 6:26 PM on November 2, 2010


There is a zero percent chance the republicans will nominate a mormon for president.

But a slightly better than average chance they will nominate a moron for president. Shit, it worked before.
posted by joe lisboa at 6:27 PM on November 2, 2010 [5 favorites]


empath: "There is a zero percent chance the republicans will nominate a mormon for president."

Then again, they seem to love Glenn Beck.

The bigger handicap for him in my mind is that he essentially agrees with the Democratic leadership on the most contentious policy issue of Obama's presidency.
posted by Rhaomi at 6:30 PM on November 2, 2010 [1 favorite]


Widespread problems at the polls.

"Voters in some states encountered isolated problems with electronic voting machines and delays in the opening of polling stations, but they also reported many instances of voter intimidation and misinformation.

Officials from the Election Protection Coalition, an association of voting rights groups that operated a national hot line for voting-related complaints, said that by early Tuesday evening their hot line had received more than 15,000 calls, with the most coming from California, Texas, Pennsylvania, New York and Georgia.

One of the most worrisome things we’re seeing is an uptick in voter intimidation and misinformation compared to prior elections,” said Wendy Weiser, director of the voting rights and elections project at the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University.

In Louisiana and New Hampshire, for example, voters heard robocalls that said they could vote online or by telephone. In Minnesota, Tea Party groups e-mailed supporters and told them to wear buttons or stickers saying “Please ID me” even though a federal judge ruled that they could not, because some voters might worry that they would have to produce identification they did not have.

Phony absentee ballots were reportedly mailed to some Pennsylvania voters with an incorrect return address. Spanish-language robocalls went out in Los Angeles, telling people to vote Wednesday."


Why am I not surprised...
posted by VikingSword at 6:30 PM on November 2, 2010 [1 favorite]


Honestly? My money's still on Romney.

Really? I think Palin's going to go for it, especially after looking at that Senate map for 2012. President Palin with a Republican House and Senate? She won't let anyone else have that prize.
posted by nomadicink at 6:30 PM on November 2, 2010


drezdn wrote:
This measure would require the Washington State Seal to depict a tapeworm attached to a taxpayer’s intestine, encircled by the words: Committed to sucking the life blood out of each and every taxpayer.

Two questions: Is this a real thing (did it make the ballot)? Is it going to pass?


It was legitimately proposed, but it wasn't on the ballot (it must not have gotten the 241,153 signatures required.)

This is my first year voting in a new state (Washington), and I was floored by the BIG! CONTROVERSY! surrounding 1098, which would've created a state income tax (apparently Washington doesn't currently have one) on income in excess of $200,000/year. The increased revenue would allow them to cut property and small business taxes, fund schools, etc., but it's become a huge issue, even overshadowing local coverage of the neck-and-neck Senate election.

It makes me miss California. I would've liked to vote on 19.
posted by kagredon at 6:31 PM on November 2, 2010


Ladies and gentleman, I present to you... with fear and loathing unbounded... the next vice president of these united states. It looks like Ilario Pantano is running an RCH behind in down east NC but I doubt we’ve seen the last of him.
posted by Huplescat at 6:31 PM on November 2, 2010


Doofus Magoo: "ABC News appears to have called the PA governorship for Corbett (R)"

Damn. At least Sestak seems to be holding on.
posted by octothorpe at 6:32 PM on November 2, 2010


Nate Silver: Sestak Has Serious Chance in Pennsylvania
posted by madamjujujive at 6:34 PM on November 2, 2010 [1 favorite]


Damn. Locally, it looks like Republicans are going to get control of the County Commissioners. That sucks more than usual, because it will look like a referendum on the Republican controlled school board who have been trying to re-segregate the schools.

Fuck.
posted by marxchivist at 6:35 PM on November 2, 2010


Christine I-am-Not-A-Witch giving a very bizarre concession speech at the moment. Quote: We have won. Unquote.
posted by joe lisboa at 6:36 PM on November 2, 2010


XQUZYPHYR: interesting points, all, but what do you make of the fact that he signed proto-ObamaCare into law in MA, something he presumably cannot run away from or against?
posted by joe lisboa at 6:37 PM on November 2, 2010


Someone tell that kid to stop chewing her gum with her mouth open.
posted by gman at 6:39 PM on November 2, 2010


something he presumably cannot run away from or against

Have you followed his record on abortion?
posted by Joe Beese at 6:40 PM on November 2, 2010 [1 favorite]


Did O'Donnell congratulate her opponent? Would have been nice, but I didn't hear it.
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 6:40 PM on November 2, 2010


Have you followed his record on abortion?

Of course. I know he is a phony piece of shit. But I am not a likely GOP voter. Which is why I ask.
posted by joe lisboa at 6:42 PM on November 2, 2010


The Tea Party folk will not cotton to Romney. Are you saying, from two years out, that he'll win the entire kit and kaboodle? Or just the GOP nomination. I'd say you're on some damn fine glue in the latter case, just garden variety glue in the former.
posted by raysmj at 6:42 PM on November 2, 2010


Did O'Donnell congratulate her opponent? Would have been nice, but I didn't hear it.

No, but she reminded her supporters that they have the rented hall for the rest of the night and should party. Also too: she won because her voice was heard. Despite losing in a landslide or something.
posted by joe lisboa at 6:43 PM on November 2, 2010


Or the reverse, rather. Serious glue in the former, regular glue in the latter.
posted by raysmj at 6:43 PM on November 2, 2010


Anyone projecting a White House for Certain win in 2012: It's a midterm election, for god's sake.
posted by raysmj at 6:44 PM on November 2, 2010 [1 favorite]


Also, Rubio just kicked off his 2012 presidential campaign, didn't he? Although I don't know his record, I probably won't agree with him much politically, but up there, he sounded very... presidentiable.
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 6:44 PM on November 2, 2010


There is a zero percent chance the republicans will nominate a mormon for president.

Reminds me a bit too much of statements made in previous U.S. election threads along the lines of "America will never elect a black president!".
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 6:47 PM on November 2, 2010 [2 favorites]


MeForeigners, I'd like to ask something: Are these elections more comfortable and entertaining from the outside? As although I like all the funny soundbites, this one's kind of making my tummy churn.
posted by mccarty.tim at 6:47 PM on November 2, 2010


Yeah, Rubio's circulating a soundbite of "I will always be the son of exiles." Amazing, the cognitive dissonance required -- he is aware that half of his partymates would just as soon have sent his family back, right?
posted by cmyk at 6:47 PM on November 2, 2010


What about props 20 and 27? I've heard varying opinions on the redistricting commission. Is it a good idea or no?

I think the idea of a non-partisan redistricting commission is a good one in theory. In practice, I wonder people learn to game it over time, just as they've learned to game the current system, and if there might even be less democratic feedback than we've got now.

Then there's the fact that the current practices favor Democrats somewhat, which is nice when the Republican party has completely lost its mind.

But over all, I think it's a good enough idea that it deserves a real shot. I'd like to see how it pans out on a state level before I make any conclusions. So I voted no on both 20 and 27 -- let's keep the redistricting commission that we voted for in 2008, let's not use it on the federal level just yet. Laboratory of democracy and all that.
posted by weston at 6:48 PM on November 2, 2010


Holy shit, I never actually looked at Rand Paul before. He looks like the secret bastard child of Tommy Carcetti and Malcolm Tucker.
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 6:48 PM on November 2, 2010 [4 favorites]


Also, Rubio just kicked off his 2012 presidential campaign, didn't he?

Yes, though based on the content of his speech, I got the distinct impression he will be running against the younger Castro brother for the presidency of Cuba in 2012. I love a rags-to-riches, coming-to-America story as much as the next guy, but do not try to sell me that package when the contents, when opened, reveal the usual Tea Party bullshit.
posted by joe lisboa at 6:49 PM on November 2, 2010


Not that this is any surprise, but local media here in Arkansas have just started calling it for Boozman over Blanche Lincoln.
posted by box at 6:49 PM on November 2, 2010


mreleganza, take a copy of a current utility bill, bank statement, government check, paycheck or other government document that shows your name and address across the street and they should let you vote a provisional ballot. Bear in mind that you will only be able to vote for federal offices. But if its that or not voting, do that.

Thanks. Despite going to the wrong polling place at first, at the correct one I was able to vote fully (not provisionally).
posted by mreleganza at 6:49 PM on November 2, 2010


mccarty.tim: "MeForeigners, I'd like to ask something: Are these elections more comfortable and entertaining from the outside? As although I like all the funny soundbites, this one's kind of making my tummy churn."

You guys were a lot more fun the night Obama won.
posted by gman at 6:50 PM on November 2, 2010 [4 favorites]


the Republican controlled school board who have been trying to re-segregate the schools

Um, what?
posted by one more dead town's last parade at 6:51 PM on November 2, 2010


Question 3 was "Shall The Philadelphia Home Rule Charter be amended to add the following additional prohibited grounds for discrimination in City procurement contracts: discrimination on the basis of ancestry, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, age or disability?"

So I did what the Republicans told me, for that question anyway.
posted by sepviva


sepviva: There's a similarly worded proposition on this year's Arizona Ballot, and there was one in 2008 as well (maybe 2006 too?). Not sure if your initiative is the same, but in AZ the initiative is actually cleverly designed to appear to be pro-diversity while actually being an anti-"affirmative action" proposition. It ends things like programs that support minority-owned businesses, etc.

So, it looks like the race for 2012 is already on. I've decided that just voting, occasionally giving money, and writing the odd letter or two to my elected reps isn't enough; it is the bare minimum of good citizenship. I can't be out pounding the pavement every day, but I need to figure out a way to be more of a presence and a voice, actually DOING something to try to guide this country on the right (that is, correct) path.
posted by Saxon Kane at 6:53 PM on November 2, 2010


Are these elections more comfortable and entertaining from the outside?

Yes, of course. When idiots get merrily elected to high office here (as happens here, too, as you may know) I get angry and spend the remainder of the evening smiling wryly at the jokes on Twitter and such, and crying into my beer; when you guys do it I feel sorry for you (honestly) but I get angry only by proxy because they can't hurt me directly, and the jokes end up being much funnier that way.
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 6:54 PM on November 2, 2010


I still don't think Palin is going to run. Nor do I think her a front-runner for the nomination if she does. (Campaign management matters. Ask Hillary.)

But if she does win the nomination, I do not think her unelectable. After another year of double-digit unemployment, any Republican at all will have a shot.
posted by Joe Beese at 6:55 PM on November 2, 2010


Yes, Rubio is a much more likely Presidential candidate in 2012 than Palin. She may want it, but she can't win. Her numbers are rotten even in this year in which the Tea Party is probably hitting its peak.

Also, things are going to look very different in 2012 if, as is likely, the economy has fully recovered and the unemployment rate has finally gone down.
posted by bearwife at 6:55 PM on November 2, 2010


Nate now projects House R+60.
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 6:56 PM on November 2, 2010


MetaFilter: where you could vote, smoke, drink coffee, and shoot the shit with people.
posted by nrobertson at 6:57 PM on November 2, 2010 [1 favorite]


Honestly, I'm not even sure Chris Christie can get a second term, much less the presidency. I get that conservatives like him, but to everyone else, he's a boisterous anti-choice bully who likes to benefit his cronies.

But then again I'm from New Jersey, so what do I know? It's the REAL AMERICANS in places like Kentucky who know what's good for us!
posted by mccarty.tim at 6:57 PM on November 2, 2010


Nate now projects House R+60.
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 9:56 PM on November 2 [+] [!]


Eponysterial.
posted by mccarty.tim at 6:58 PM on November 2, 2010 [25 favorites]


I was too busy being a little kid to watch the republicans when they took the house and stuff in 1994. Was it bad? I

yes. welfare reform was enacted and people suffered. Legal Services was gutted and people suffered. Newt Gingrich shut down the govt I think twice.

So, yes.

But if Sestak wins, damn, that will feel good. I found a Toomey sign tonight and put my fist through it. It'd would have felt better if it'd been his fucking face, though.
posted by angrycat at 6:58 PM on November 2, 2010 [1 favorite]


Here we go ...
posted by joe lisboa at 7:00 PM on November 2, 2010


I think the Republican convention 2012 may be super entertaining - the nominee might be decided there! I can see regional divides, maybe Romney doing well in the NE, Palin everywhere else with Huckabee picking up enough states and not throwing them one way or the other to keep it interesting... Let 'em duke it out on the floor! Because I tell you, the Republican establishment will keep funding whoever's not Palin until the fat lady sings, and Palin's people will keep funding Palin til well past that time. Could be a real doozy.
posted by Mister_A at 7:00 PM on November 2, 2010


BREAKING: John McCain retains Senate seat at cost of some shriveled, little thing called his soul.
posted by joe lisboa at 7:01 PM on November 2, 2010 [6 favorites]


Also, things are going to look very different in 2012 if, as is likely, the economy has fully recovered and the unemployment rate has finally gone down.

Not to be all Debbie Downer, but there was a bit in the NYT today about how those elected this year will be able to claim they turned the economy around, and voters will find such arguments compelling.

/pounds desk with head, again and again
posted by angrycat at 7:01 PM on November 2, 2010 [3 favorites]


Nate now projects House R+60

The only real question was whether the pickup would exceed 1994's. Looks like it will.
posted by Joe Beese at 7:01 PM on November 2, 2010


I agree, Joe and bearwife.

As I said, I don't agree with Rubio but looking as an outsider (who hadn't seen him speak before), he looked like an intelligent man, a clear speaker, and a man with genuine passion.

Beside him, Palin has the power to make headlines, energize women voters, and thrill the Tea Party base.

Rubio/Palin 2012?
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 7:01 PM on November 2, 2010


Fuuuuuuuck they're calling the house for the crazies.
posted by nevercalm at 7:03 PM on November 2, 2010


Palin won't run second in a ticket again. If she's running, it's for President.
posted by octothorpe at 7:04 PM on November 2, 2010 [2 favorites]


bearwife: "if, as is likely, the economy has fully recovered and the unemployment rate has finally gone down."

Could you expand briefly on why you think this is likely, especially the unemployment rate fully recovering? I'm wondering what structural signs you're seeing that I'm missing, because I see slim to no chance of this happening by 2012.

It took a long time to do all of this damage, and it seems to me that it will take more than a couple of years of fake GDP growth to fix it.
posted by pikachulolita at 7:04 PM on November 2, 2010


> Um, what?
posted by one more dead town's last parade


Yeah. Lots been going on in these parts lately. One of the Repub board members broke with the majority recently and their new assignment plan won't be able to go into effect for the next school year anyway.
posted by marxchivist at 7:05 PM on November 2, 2010


As I said, I don't agree with Rubio but looking as an outsider (who hadn't seen him speak before), he looked like an intelligent man, a clear speaker, and a man with genuine passion.

Agreed. But still do not see Palin accepting second-fiddle again, though. Not with all them moneys to be made on the speaking circuit.
posted by joe lisboa at 7:05 PM on November 2, 2010


Guardian on O'Donnell: "Let us never speak of her again, except as the answer to a trivia question."

I don't know, that's what I said about Palin, who I am speaking about right now.
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 7:06 PM on November 2, 2010


I am trying desperately to hang on to a few shreds of happiness from the Giants winning the World Series, but these returns are seriously harshing my mellow, goddamn it. But I can't look away, either.
posted by rtha at 7:06 PM on November 2, 2010


Goldman Sachs is not expecting that the unemployment rate will simply peak at 10% and then head lower in 2011. Instead, they are expecting that the average national unemployment rate for all of 2011 will be an average of 10.0%.
posted by Joe Beese at 7:06 PM on November 2, 2010 [1 favorite]


Worried about Feingold...
posted by AwkwardPause at 7:08 PM on November 2, 2010


Antifavorited, Joe Beese.
posted by mccarty.tim at 7:09 PM on November 2, 2010


Texas media is calling our Governor's race for Rick Perry. No surprise, alas. This time, if Texans tell you to vote against our governor when he runs for president, listen to us! Perry makes Bush look moderate and sensible.
posted by immlass at 7:10 PM on November 2, 2010 [1 favorite]


Vitter will be able to keep himself in diapers for a while longer.
posted by Joe Beese at 7:10 PM on November 2, 2010 [2 favorites]




the average national unemployment rate for all of 2011 will be an average of 10.0%.

Shit dude, I expect it to get worse. I mean, the double dip's already on it's way and now government's not gonna do a goddamn thing about it.
posted by fungible at 7:12 PM on November 2, 2010


God, I'd forgotten that the Quayle-spawn was running. Here's hoping he embarrasses himself just as much as his pa
posted by angrycat at 7:12 PM on November 2, 2010


Damn, Texas is a goner. I knew it was a bit of a pipe dream to expect White to win, but I thought it might be at least a bit closer.
posted by SNWidget at 7:13 PM on November 2, 2010


One more dead town's last parade: The Wake co. school board is trying to end busing in favor of "neighborhood schools." Housing in Wake county is so segregated that the schools would end up being very divided along racial lines. (I used to work at a library in inner-city Raleigh, and there were days when I would be the only white person to come in the library all day.)

Is it only because I'm a foreigner that my teeth grate whenever I hear people proclaim America the best, freest, wealthiest, chocolatiest country in the history of ever? I recognize that this is an ideological position rather than a fact-based position, but do these politicians realize at all that there are a lot of statistical metrics that don't exactly bear this out? I'm sympathetic to gun owners who'd have trouble under European firearm regulations, but can they present a good-faith argument that life in Toronto is, on average, poorer, more oppressed, and less chocolatey than life in New York?
posted by Jeanne at 7:14 PM on November 2, 2010 [6 favorites]


Michael Wolff keeping it kayfabe for The Guardian:
Beyond ideology, could it be that this is the year the most dweeby, creepy, and unctuous win? Hate to admit, I'd become rather fond of Linda McMahon in Connecticut, the undoubtedly vulgar, but extremely energetic and over-the top, Republican candidate who built a television wrestling empire. She lost to the Democrat, Richard Blumenthal, with his weird and often weepy attachment to the military – so much so that he inflated his resume into having himself serve in Vietnam, which had no relationship at all to reality. The wrestling exec or the toy-soldier boy? Sheesh.
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 7:14 PM on November 2, 2010 [1 favorite]


I mean, the double dip's already on it's way and now government's the Republican-led House of Representatives is not gonna do a goddamn thing about it.
posted by joe lisboa at 7:15 PM on November 2, 2010 [5 favorites]


octothorpe: "Palin won't run second in a ticket again. If she's running, it's for President"

She loses, she gets to be Secretary of State! I mean, FFS, she can see Russia from her porch!
posted by symbioid at 7:16 PM on November 2, 2010


Reminds me a bit too much of statements made in previous U.S. election threads along the lines of "America will never elect a black president!".

Except that we're not talking about Americans as a whole, we're talking about Republicans -- a party which is dominated by a evangelical religious sect which views Mormons as basically being little more than Pagans in disguise. If Romney could get past the primary he might have a shot at the White House, but he won't even get that far.

Republican bigotry is eating it's own, for once.
posted by Avenger at 7:17 PM on November 2, 2010


Stay classy, Fox News.
posted by teraflop at 7:18 PM on November 2, 2010 [7 favorites]


(if you value your sanity, don't read the comments on that article)
posted by teraflop at 7:19 PM on November 2, 2010 [1 favorite]


Is it only because I'm a foreigner that my teeth grate whenever I hear people proclaim America the best, freest, wealthiest, chocolatiest country in the history of ever? I recognize that this is an ideological position rather than a fact-based position, but do these politicians realize at all that there are a lot of statistical metrics that don't exactly bear this out? I'm sympathetic to gun owners who'd have trouble under European firearm regulations, but can they present a good-faith argument that life in Toronto is, on average, poorer, more oppressed, and less chocolatey than life in New York?

As an American, the scariest thing about this election is finding out that people actually appear to believe in American Exceptionalism.
posted by 2bucksplus at 7:19 PM on November 2, 2010 [5 favorites]


dammit Massachusetts, why does the guy in charge of paying for the Big Dig have a reasonable chance of being elected governor?
posted by xbonesgt at 7:20 PM on November 2, 2010


Phony absentee ballots were reportedly mailed to some Pennsylvania voters with an incorrect return address.

Shit like this makes me want to beat the people who do it bloody.
posted by rtha at 7:20 PM on November 2, 2010 [2 favorites]


AwkwardPause: "Worried about Feingold.."

Dude, you have no idea how depressed I've been all day. I pretty much accepted today that this is it. It hurts. Like a motherfucker. I can't believe it.

And if you knew his opponent. This is a guy who fucking testified against allowing the Catholic Church to be held liable for pedo-priests
posted by symbioid at 7:24 PM on November 2, 2010 [3 favorites]


Palin won't run second in a ticket again. If she's running, it's for President.

Agreed. But still do not see Palin accepting second-fiddle again, though.

I should clarify. If Rubio is, although Tea Party, more acceptable to traditional conservatives (did you get a load of all the God-speak in that speech?), not to mention now elected to Washington office, he would be well positioned to bridge the ideological and electoral gap between Tea Party and Vanilla Republicans.

So I imagine Palin will run, will campaign, will go out some time not long after New Hampshire, and Rubio could then easily select her as running mate to court the core Tea Party vote and the women vote, while triangulating the shit out of himself campaigning as the even-minded social conservative he'd like to be seen as and march into the White House.
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 7:24 PM on November 2, 2010


I'm watching Cantor on MSNBC and he's refusing to give a straight answer to any questions about anything.
posted by octothorpe at 7:25 PM on November 2, 2010 [1 favorite]


What I find scary is that Sarah Palin actually bragged that she doesn't follow any political philosophers, but believes in "American Exceptionalism." That's like bragging you love the USSR propaganda so much that you're their Number 1 Useful Idiot.

I mean, seriously, we were taught in school that American Exceptionalism was a propaganda technique, not a mandate/scientific fact!
posted by mccarty.tim at 7:26 PM on November 2, 2010 [1 favorite]


You could well be right, goodnewsfortheinsane. But it is so. far. out. in terms of electoral politics, especially presidential electoral politics these days. Here is hoping your analysis is wrong, if only for the sake of the Republic.
posted by joe lisboa at 7:26 PM on November 2, 2010


I'm watching Cantor on MSNBC and he's refusing to give a straight answer to any questions about anything.

Yeah, just watched that and it is still unfolding. Finally calling the GOPers out on recycling empty talking points. They are preaching to the choir tonight, likely, but it is good to hear this honesty all the same out of a cable network.
posted by joe lisboa at 7:27 PM on November 2, 2010


Can you expand briefly on why you think this is likely?

Yes.

I don't think it's going to look the same in 2012 . . . and if the economy isn't awful, it won't be a good environment for Republicans to win back the White House. And they are toast if they run Palin at the top of the ticket.
posted by bearwife at 7:28 PM on November 2, 2010


Here is hoping your analysis is wrong, if only for the sake of the Republic.

Agreed. Is this where we do that thing from The Great Escape where Steve McQueen makes moonshine for July 4th and toasts to "Independence!" and the British dude goes, "To the Colonies!"?

If so, to the Colonies!
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 7:32 PM on November 2, 2010


Sestak? Sestak!
posted by joe lisboa at 7:34 PM on November 2, 2010


One editorial by an acknowledged optimist/perma-bull, associated with a small but pricey evangelical college in Illinois, is all you're going on?
posted by raysmj at 7:34 PM on November 2, 2010 [1 favorite]


I don't think it's going to look the same in 2012

It will make the $4,000,000,000 spent this year look like chump changd.
posted by Joe Beese at 7:35 PM on November 2, 2010 [2 favorites]




Huplescat wrote: "When it was all over he just sat there for an eternity before saying, "You got a heavy foot, son." He passed me with 100% on the road course, but that was 40 years ago and the pot wasn't as potent back then."

Ironically, the person who did my driving exam told me to drive faster, so I did. I did my exam in a 1988 Mercedes-Benz 420SEL. That bastard could move, despite weighing more than many houses. After that, we just talked about how nice it is to be able to go out and get ice cream at 10 at night if you want to, when you have a driver's license.

Personally, I was more concerned with not getting any more tickets for not having a license.

box wrote: "Not that this is any surprise, but local media here in Arkansas have just started calling it for Boozman over Blanche Lincoln."

If you'd asked me six months ago, I'd have said you're nucking futs if you thought that would happen. Boozman is popular in the 3rd district, being the 3rd district, but I figured he would bomb in the rest of the state. Unfortunate that the former mayor of Rogers is getting the nod in the House. I do not like Mr. Womack. I guess he could be worse. It could have gone to Jim Holt.
posted by wierdo at 7:36 PM on November 2, 2010


joe lisboa: "Sestak? Sestak"

Tied now at 86% reporting. Grr, this is heartbreaking.
posted by octothorpe at 7:36 PM on November 2, 2010


Nate now predicting 64-65.

Markos calls the Ohio races a "bloodbath".
posted by Joe Beese at 7:37 PM on November 2, 2010


NBC: Feingold lost.
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 7:39 PM on November 2, 2010


Feingold down. Repeat: Feingold down.
posted by joe lisboa at 7:39 PM on November 2, 2010


It's interesting to see how many people have voted against their own self-interests. This is where the Democratic party has (once again) failed miserably - they still think being the "nice guy" will get the girl at the end. Sorry, you get to marry the chick after she's teabagged by the Republican party but didn't tell you she's already pregnant.
posted by Old'n'Busted at 7:40 PM on November 2, 2010 [2 favorites]


What I find scary is that Sarah Palin actually bragged that she doesn't follow any political philosophers, but believes in "American Exceptionalism."

Anti-intellectualism is a hallmark of bullies and fascists since time immemorial.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 7:42 PM on November 2, 2010 [5 favorites]


At least there's been one vital victory today: Sharia law has been banned from Oklahoma. Whew. That was a big concern.
posted by lullaby at 7:43 PM on November 2, 2010


I hear the Code of Hammurabi is also right out.
posted by vorfeed at 7:44 PM on November 2, 2010 [4 favorites]


It will make the $4,000,000,000 spent this year look like chump changd.

No doubt. But unclear who will spend all that money. I read an article today that said, to my surprise, that Democratic organizations outspent Republican campaigns in this campaign.
posted by bearwife at 7:44 PM on November 2, 2010


It's interesting to see how many people have voted against their own self-interests.

See: Southern strategy.
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 7:45 PM on November 2, 2010 [1 favorite]


This is where the Democratic party has (once again) failed miserably - they still think being the "nice guy" will get the girl at the end.

On the other hand, the only Democrat that wasn't the "nice guy" (Alan Grayson) got crushed tonight.

It's clear whatever rules apply to Republicans don't apply to Democrats. I think the real rule is: We will always, regardless of our stances on the issues, vote Republican, until they fuck up so badly that we have no choice but to vote Democrat.
posted by dirigibleman at 7:45 PM on November 2, 2010


Is Pelosi really going to resign?

I read that speculation for the first time today. Didn't make sense.
posted by Joe Beese at 7:45 PM on November 2, 2010


Sorry, you get to marry the chick after she's teabagged by the Republican party but didn't tell you she's already pregnant.

I don't think you know where babies come from.
posted by shakespeherian at 7:48 PM on November 2, 2010 [2 favorites]


regardless of our stances on the issues

Usually wide.
posted by Old'n'Busted at 7:48 PM on November 2, 2010 [1 favorite]


that sucks about Feingold - sorry for all you Wisconsonites, sorry for us all

xbonesgt, AP is calling Patrick over Baker for Gov
posted by madamjujujive at 7:49 PM on November 2, 2010


I don't think you know where babies come from.

I don't think you got the joke.
posted by Old'n'Busted at 7:49 PM on November 2, 2010


Is Pelosi really going to resign?

wouldn't put twenty dollars on it.
posted by localhuman at 7:49 PM on November 2, 2010


But then again, I don't know what things cost in town anymore.
posted by localhuman at 7:50 PM on November 2, 2010 [1 favorite]


Once again a majority of my fellow citizens are proving the old adage: we're getting the government we so richly deserve.

America is completely fucked. Time to become an expat.
posted by Despondent_Monkey at 7:51 PM on November 2, 2010 [1 favorite]


Democratic organizations outspent Republican campaigns in this campaign

Yea, I saw that too - http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/02/us/politics/02donate.html - but it was only for the house race, not the rest.
posted by Old'n'Busted at 7:51 PM on November 2, 2010


Might as well start preparing for the worst.
posted by FormlessOne at 7:51 PM on November 2, 2010


Sorry, you get to marry the chick after she's teabagged by the Republican party but didn't tell you she's already pregnant.

I don't think you know where babies come from.


Where, yes. How, less so.
posted by condour75 at 7:53 PM on November 2, 2010


By the people, of the people:
Despite record election achievements by African-Americans in the House, the United States Senate will not have an African-American in its ranks.

All three black Senate candidates, Kendrick Meek (D-FL), Alvin Greene (D-SC) and Mike Thurmond (D-GA) are projected to lose tonight. The only incumbent black senator, Roland Burris (Ill.-D), is retiring.
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 7:55 PM on November 2, 2010


Sestak down by 15,000 with 92% counted.

Markos: "Things are degenerating"
posted by Joe Beese at 7:57 PM on November 2, 2010


Man, I'm upset about Feingold. (But I'm glad I gave him over $500.)

Feingold, a true fiscal conservative, a real upholder of the Constitution, unseated by a teabagger who made his fortune off government set-asides. Just shows you how clueless, how careless American voters are.
posted by orthogonality at 7:59 PM on November 2, 2010 [31 favorites]


It looks like Alex Sink will lose to a "small government" Republican who bilked the Federal government out of a billion dollars through Medicare fraud.
posted by dirigibleman at 8:01 PM on November 2, 2010 [2 favorites]


>AP is calling Patrick over Baker for Gov

yeah, saw that a little after I posted. Thank god. The night was good, as far as I can tell, though I wish question 1 had gone down.
posted by xbonesgt at 8:01 PM on November 2, 2010


man, that PA race is going to drag painfully for a while. And what's up with that fake ballot thing? Could that make a difference (i.e., somehow invalidate a Toomey win)?
posted by angrycat at 8:03 PM on November 2, 2010


Out here in the Pacific, I'm hoping we can deliver you all a little good news. Inouye is a shoe in and I have high hopes for Hanabusa and Abercrombie.
posted by Joey Michaels at 8:04 PM on November 2, 2010


Brown wins easily!
posted by Joe Beese at 8:05 PM on November 2, 2010


The future is was Cao
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 8:05 PM on November 2, 2010


madamjujujive wrote: "OK voters approve measure allowing an opt-out of health care reform bill."

And we re-elected the drunkard Congressman and elected a complete nutcase Governor. I can only imagine how bad our next legislative session will be without Governor Henry to veto the super-crazy shit being pooped out of our statehouse.
posted by wierdo at 8:07 PM on November 2, 2010 [1 favorite]


On not-preview, the Sharia Law thing here in OK is pretty fucking stupid. I guess prenups written in countries that use or recognize Sharia Law will no longer be valid here. Idiots.
posted by wierdo at 8:08 PM on November 2, 2010


Oh joy. Awfully convenient revolving door politics in Indiana. Not my fault, I've not been registered there for two years.
posted by KirkJobSluder at 8:11 PM on November 2, 2010


Missouri's anti-puppy-mill proposition has failed. Because, hey! There's not enough shitty news tonight.
posted by dirigibleman at 8:11 PM on November 2, 2010 [3 favorites]


Also good to know that Doak is going to win as Insurance Commissioner. The one who thinks that a pro-life position has anything to do with said job.
posted by wierdo at 8:11 PM on November 2, 2010 [2 favorites]


Just save me from Governor Bill Brady. That's all I'm asking here.
posted by enn at 8:13 PM on November 2, 2010 [1 favorite]


jesus christ, what a dour fucking night. I'm going to take a deep breath, a strong shot, and go to sleep. Goodnight everyone, we'll be fine in the long run, but we're all sorry sacks of shit tonight.
posted by Think_Long at 8:15 PM on November 2, 2010 [3 favorites]


I'm giving up for the night. I hate not knowing who my next senator is but PA might not be decided for a while and I'm tired and discouraged. Blah.
posted by octothorpe at 8:18 PM on November 2, 2010


8:15 pm Pacific and the California gov web servers have choked.
posted by mistersquid at 8:19 PM on November 2, 2010 [1 favorite]


MSNBC: Rhode Island can keep its Plantations.
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 8:20 PM on November 2, 2010 [2 favorites]


Maybe a little poem can lift some spirits:
I dreamed I saw Joe Hill last night,
alive as you and me.
Says I "But Joe, you're ten years dead"
"I never died" said he,
"I never died" said he.

"The Copper Bosses killed you Joe,
they shot you Joe" says I.
"Takes more than guns to kill a man"
Says Joe "I didn't die"
Says Joe "I didn't die"

"In Salt Lake City, Joe," says I,
Him standing by my bed,
"They framed you on a murder charge,"
Says Joe, "But I ain't dead,"
Says Joe, "But I ain't dead."

And standing there as big as life
and smiling with his eyes.
Says Joe "What they can never kill
went on to organize,
went on to organize"

From San Diego up to Maine,
in every mine and mill,
Where working men defend their rights,
it's there you'll find Joe Hill,
it's there you'll find Joe Hill!

I dreamed I saw Joe Hill last night,
alive as you and me.
Says I "But Joe, you're ten years dead"
"I never died" said he,
"I never died" said he.
posted by orthogonality at 8:24 PM on November 2, 2010 [8 favorites]


Early voters really seem to hate marijuana. 57-43 against Prop 19 so far.
posted by Thoughtcrime at 8:24 PM on November 2, 2010


In spite of tonight's dismal teabaggery (and is it ever dismal, I am in Pennsylvania), I will radiate the joy of a million trips down the waterslide being able to post this:


"I am governor Jerry Brown, my aura smiles and never frowns..."


Also, this is only bad if the executive lets it be bad. Bush ruled the country like a Saudi king for the last two years of his term even though the Dems had Congress. Here is where the Dems should start using the "unitary executive" theory.
posted by banal evil at 8:25 PM on November 2, 2010


That's with two percent counted, not knowing where they came from. Doesn't have to be early voters.
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 8:26 PM on November 2, 2010


goodnewsfortheinsane: "NBC: Feingold lost."

For the record, from Wikipedia:
Russ Feingold

- Feingold is perhaps best known for his work alongside Senator John McCain on the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002

- Feingold is also a well-known advocate for reductions in pork barrel spending and corporate welfare. Citizens Against Government Waste, the Concord Coalition, and Taxpayers for Common Sense, three nonpartisan organizations dedicated to those causes, have repeatedly commended him.

- Feingold, who was elected to Congress on a promise not to accept pay raises while in office, has so far returned over $70,000 in such raises to the U.S. Treasury. In addition, he is notoriously frugal in his office's spending, and sends back the money that he does not use.

- Feingold was the only senator to vote against the USA PATRIOT Act when first voted on in 2001.

- Feingold was one of 28 US senators to vote against H.J. Resolution 114, which authorized President George W. Bush to use force against Iraq in 2002.

- Feingold has long been an advocate for creating a system of universal health care in America. During his first run for the Senate, he endorsed the single-payer model, similar to that used by Canada. Once elected, he opposed the Clinton health care plan, saying that it did too much for the insurance industry and not enough for the uninsured.

- On April 4, 2006, Feingold told constituents at a listening session in Kenosha, Wisconsin, that he supported the legalization of same-sex marriage. [...] On May 18, 2006, Feingold again made news with his stance on marriage when he walked out of a meeting of the Senate Judiciary Committee shortly before a vote on a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage. After Feingold objected to both the amendment and decision of Chairman Arlen Specter (R-PA at the time) to move the meeting to an area of the Capitol Building not open to the public, Specter told Feingold, "I don't need to be lectured by you. You are no more a protector of the Constitution than am I. If you want to leave, good riddance." Feingold then replied, "I've enjoyed your lecture, too, Mr. Chairman. See ya." He then left the room and did not return.
As for the winner, Ron Johnson?
- Johnson opposed a Wisconsin bill that would have made it easier for child sex abuse victims to sue their abusers.

- Johnson has strongly opposed the Recovery Act as a candidate. He [stated], "We would have been far better off not spending any of the money and let the recovery happen as it was going to happen." [...] Johnson himself sought stimulus money in 2009 while he led a nonprofit educational organization in Oshkosh.

- Johnson has opposed increased government spending and the federal stimulus. He has supported broad reduction in federal tax rates, simplifying regulations on business, and free market health care solutions.

- Johnson has called scientists who attribute global warming to man-made causes "crazy" and has said the theory is "lunacy." He has said the source of the climate change is "sunspot activity or just something in the geologic eons of time."

- During a debate, Johnson stated that he is "disappointed that the Obama administration is launching an assault on BP" after the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. Johnson disclosed that he once owned more than $100,000 worth of stock in BP

- Johnson believes marriage should be between one man and one woman and he supports the present military policy of "don't ask, don't tell".

- He opposes abortion except in the case of incest, rape, and when the mother's life is in danger.

- He opposes research funding for embryonic stem cells. Johnson has stated he disagrees with it morally and also eliminating funding would help balance the federal budget.
So a principled, honorable, independent-minded progressive leader is replaced by a hypocritical know-nothing Tea Party businessman. An unfortunate encapsulation of the attitudes in this election.
posted by Rhaomi at 8:27 PM on November 2, 2010 [31 favorites]


Feingold might not be out for the count, the Madison, WI votes haven't been counted yet.
posted by 8dot3 at 8:27 PM on November 2, 2010


Good news everyone - Andrew Cuomo's election means that his girlfriend Sandra Lee is now de facto first lady of New York! Kwanzaa Cakes for everyone! (Hang onto your dental work!)
posted by Guy Smiley at 8:28 PM on November 2, 2010 [1 favorite]


Missouri's anti-puppy-mill proposition has failed.

What. The. Fuck.

People literally voted in favor of being cruel to puppies. I just can't fathom it.
posted by jedicus at 8:28 PM on November 2, 2010 [1 favorite]


Oh, thanks. I thought the first reports were going to be just early voters. With the Secratary of State's site down and only one local news station broadcasting OTA, it's hard to see what's going on.
posted by Thoughtcrime at 8:28 PM on November 2, 2010


Holy shit, I love Sandra Lee ironically so hard! YEAH! I'm gonna drink everything in the liquor cabinent and then decorate my tablescape with the bottles! And then I'm gonna make a cake shaped like John McCain's Head! Cause this is how you celebrate an election!
posted by mccarty.tim at 8:30 PM on November 2, 2010 [1 favorite]


Wow, the votes here in WA didn't go at all as I expected. Two measures which would have taken away the state's monopoly and price controls over liquor sales failed, income taxation on those making boatloads of money has failed, they've rejected energy efficiency funding for public schools, have voted to limit the ability of the state to borrow, and overwhelmingly passed a measure denying the right of bail to certain criminal defendents.

WTF, Washington?
posted by hippybear at 8:30 PM on November 2, 2010


Kirk and Toomey both up in squeaker races.....
posted by CunningLinguist at 8:30 PM on November 2, 2010


People literally voted in favor of being cruel to puppies. I just can't fathom it.

They had no issue abetting the murder of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis in 2004. Or millions of Vietnamese in 1968. Puppies are child's play to the American electorate.
posted by banal evil at 8:31 PM on November 2, 2010 [6 favorites]


God, five years from now someone like William Gibson's Yamazaki is going to be busy scribbling notes about the flotsam and jetsam of American culture.
posted by KokuRyu at 8:35 PM on November 2, 2010 [2 favorites]


HuffPo keeps it classy:

Christine O'Donnell Goes Down
posted by Joe Beese at 8:37 PM on November 2, 2010


Missouri's anti-puppy-mill proposition has failed. Because, hey! There's not enough shitty news tonight.

huh? The Missouri Secretary of State's Web page currently says it's 53-46 against, with something like 70% of precincts reporting. Still shitty, but it's not over yet.
posted by xbonesgt at 8:37 PM on November 2, 2010




Maybe a little poem can lift some spirits:

i think thats a little mean spirited.
posted by clavdivs at 8:41 PM on November 2, 2010


Don't mourn; organize.
posted by Astro Zombie at 8:42 PM on November 2, 2010 [10 favorites]


HuffPo keeps it classy:

FYI:


Tancredo Goes Down

Feingold Goes Down

Grayson Goes Down
posted by CunningLinguist at 8:42 PM on November 2, 2010


huh? The Missouri Secretary of State's Web page currently says it's 53-46 against, with something like 70% of precincts reporting. Still shitty, but it's not over yet.

It's swung to 49.8-50.2 against with 83%. I guess there's hope yet, but it'll be far closer than it ought even if it does pass.
posted by jedicus at 8:43 PM on November 2, 2010


Fuck. We have Toomey and we have Corbett. Fuck it. I'm going to bed.
posted by 8dot3 at 8:43 PM on November 2, 2010


Missouri's anti-puppy-mill proposition has failed.

Noooooooo. I hope this is just early voting returns.
posted by bearwife at 8:45 PM on November 2, 2010


OH GOD I CAN'T POSSIBLY LISTEN TO BOEHNER FOR TWO YEARS
posted by shakespeherian at 8:45 PM on November 2, 2010 [13 favorites]


HuffPo keeps it classy: Christine O'Donnell Goes Down

It's not as if the headline was "Ding Dong...."
posted by orthogonality at 8:45 PM on November 2, 2010 [7 favorites]


Okay, the only thing worse than Speaker Boehner is Crying Boehner.
posted by CunningLinguist at 8:46 PM on November 2, 2010 [3 favorites]


My God, Boehner is a cynical man.
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 8:46 PM on November 2, 2010


john boehner is quite drunk, no?
posted by goneill at 8:47 PM on November 2, 2010 [1 favorite]


If your Boehner cries for more than 4 hours, contact your physician.
posted by joe lisboa at 8:47 PM on November 2, 2010 [13 favorites]


Can anyone listen to him choking up at saying 'The American Dream' without rolling their eyes? How is that possible?
posted by shakespeherian at 8:48 PM on November 2, 2010 [1 favorite]


Holy crap! The man is melting down...
posted by Skygazer at 8:48 PM on November 2, 2010


So, if Grassley, Dubie and Blunt all win, and Prop 19 fails, aren't we sending a mixed message?

Looks like Moran won. Can someone please bring a "Get a brain! Moran" sign to his next rally?

Sign of our times: Boozman beats Lincoln.

(Why yes, this is the only way I can bring even a bit of levity to my household this evening; we live in Toronto, but three of us are also US citizens. The boyfriend prefers the race that's Titus-Heck.)
posted by ilana at 8:48 PM on November 2, 2010


Olbermann: "I was led to believe it would be the Democrats who would be crying."
posted by CunningLinguist at 8:49 PM on November 2, 2010


Oh dear god. Boehner's choked up and crying as he recites his hard-workin' bio and congratulates himself on the Republican victory.

In better news, NBC calls it for Boxer in CA.
posted by orthogonality at 8:49 PM on November 2, 2010 [1 favorite]


Tancredo Goes Down

Feingold Goes Down

Grayson Goes Down
posted by CunningLinguist at 9:42 PM on November 2 [+] [!]


Eponysterical
posted by Joe Beese at 8:49 PM on November 2, 2010 [1 favorite]


ya, like we listened to nancy.
posted by clavdivs at 8:51 PM on November 2, 2010


People literally voted in favor of being cruel to puppies.

That about sums up this election.

my theme song for the night: tonight the bottle let me down
posted by madamjujujive at 8:51 PM on November 2, 2010 [1 favorite]


Guardian on lozenge-pocketing Boehner:
Gosh he's getting really weepy. It's kind of sweet and then you think, this man is going to be in charge of the House of Representatives.
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 8:51 PM on November 2, 2010 [5 favorites]


How did this Ed person get a TV gig? He's so obviously a moron. You can tell the other on-air talent has no use for him. Earlier tonight, he pronounced "psyche" as "psych!"
posted by CunningLinguist at 8:54 PM on November 2, 2010


Wow I guess me not voting really fucked things up didn't it.
posted by AElfwine Evenstar at 8:54 PM on November 2, 2010 [1 favorite]


Here's my rhyming verse for the night. At least things went alright in MD... I'll still miss Kratoville...
The Fall of Rome
by W. H. Auden

(for Cyril Connolly)

The piers are pummelled by the waves;
In a lonely field the rain
Lashes an abandoned train;
Outlaws fill the mountain caves.

Fantastic grow the evening gowns;
Agents of the Fisc pursue
Absconding tax-defaulters through
The sewers of provincial towns.

Private rites of magic send
The temple prostitutes to sleep;
All the literati keep
An imaginary friend.

Cerebrotonic Cato may
Extol the Ancient Disciplines,
But the muscle-bound Marines
Mutiny for food and pay.

Caesar's double-bed is warm
As an unimportant clerk
Writes I DO NOT LIKE MY WORK
On a pink official form.

Unendowed with wealth or pity,
Little birds with scarlet legs,
Sitting on their speckled eggs,
Eye each flu-infected city.

Altogether elsewhere, vast
Herds of reindeer move across
Miles and miles of golden moss,
Silently and very fast.
posted by codacorolla at 8:54 PM on November 2, 2010 [5 favorites]


when does gridlock start?
posted by clavdivs at 8:55 PM on November 2, 2010


Am I imagining things or is this article declaring the Senate race for Boxer an hour early?
posted by mistersquid at 8:56 PM on November 2, 2010


poetry makes nothing happpen
GRIDLOCK
posted by clavdivs at 8:56 PM on November 2, 2010


So Harry Reid is sticking around? It looks that way.
posted by NortonDC at 8:56 PM on November 2, 2010


the Madison, WI votes haven't been counted yet.

Any small glimmer of hope I guess, but what the fuck Wisconsin? And established progressive with years of credibility against a millionaire tea bagger? This should have been a shut out! Isn't living here bad enough already? I guess it's a good thing the "lighting ourselves on fire while being beaten by a threshing machine" didn't make the state ballot, because clearly we are stupid enough to have given it a good chance of passing.

I'm really hating this fucking state right now.
posted by quin at 8:59 PM on November 2, 2010 [7 favorites]


I grew up in California and I can tell you all that it's kind of a weird place. Tons of people in California smoke weed, but nobody wants it legalized. Everybody has a gay friend, but nobody wants them to get married. Everybody hates Taxes but everybody loves government programs.

California's main problem -- a very non-partisan problem, I think -- is that the electorate is very disconnected from reality.
posted by Avenger at 9:00 PM on November 2, 2010 [11 favorites]


Man, 2012 better be an awesome election. With legalized gambling, and legalized prostitution.
posted by mccarty.tim at 9:01 PM on November 2, 2010


'Come to our well-run desert
Where anguish arrives by cable,
And the deadly sins
May be bought in tins
With instructions on the label.'


-Auden, Flight into Egypt
posted by clavdivs at 9:01 PM on November 2, 2010


Yeah, Harry Reid, a man with a deficit of spine and a surfeit of luck.
posted by orthogonality at 9:01 PM on November 2, 2010


Man, why can't Harry Reid give Pelosi his seat?
posted by mccarty.tim at 9:02 PM on November 2, 2010


[The puppy mill prop] swung to 49.8-50.2 against with 83%. I guess there's hope yet, but it'll be far closer than it ought even if it does pass.

OK, I read on Gawker that it had failed and saw the thing on Ballotpedia and assumed that was the final tally. So we may not have a country where among everything else, we support kicking puppies. Yay?

I really need to stop reading Gawker.
posted by dirigibleman at 9:03 PM on November 2, 2010


Farewell, Feingold. You were the conscience of the Senate.
posted by Iridic at 9:03 PM on November 2, 2010 [3 favorites]


Man, 2012 better be an awesome election. With legalized gambling, and legalized prostitution.

Move to Nevada. It pretty much rocks.

Yeah, Harry Reid, a man with a deficit of spine and a surfeit of luck.

Uhh...? The alternative was Angle. Get real.
posted by clearly at 9:03 PM on November 2, 2010 [1 favorite]


cerebrotonic? Cato?
Old stuffy goat liked shagging and bad clothes.
posted by clavdivs at 9:04 PM on November 2, 2010


I'm sick and tired of seeing the constant Harry Reid bashing around these parts. Not every move he's made was commendable, but he's a shrewd politician and he truly fights for the Democrats. You think he has no spine and should've been "tougher" etc., only because you know nothing about the kind of maneuvering that's necessary to get anything accomplished in the Senate stuffed with uniform GOP opposition and various blue dogs. He's a decent man, even though totally lacking in charisma.
posted by VikingSword at 9:05 PM on November 2, 2010 [14 favorites]


And nobody quite seemed to understand my veiled Bender reference...
posted by mccarty.tim at 9:05 PM on November 2, 2010


Wow, the votes here in WA didn't go at all as I expected. Two measures which would have taken away the state's monopoly and price controls over liquor sales failed, income taxation on those making boatloads of money has failed, they've rejected energy efficiency funding for public schools, have voted to limit the ability of the state to borrow, and overwhelmingly passed a measure denying the right of bail to certain criminal defendents.


Fucks sake...

Hey, idiots who are all pissy and urged people not to vote because Obama didn't give you a unicorn: Fuck you.
posted by Artw at 9:06 PM on November 2, 2010 [15 favorites]


Looks like Sestak lost by 70k votes.
posted by CunningLinguist at 9:08 PM on November 2, 2010


Uhh...? The alternative was Angle. Get real.

Yeah, that was the surfeit of luck.
posted by orthogonality at 9:09 PM on November 2, 2010 [3 favorites]


Apparently, psycho man Paladino extended the gracious offer of lending his bat to Cuomo to take to Albany to clean the state and said something like "you can either use it or have it used against you" - and then said we haven't heard the last of him yet.

Good on dodging that bullet, NY.
posted by madamjujujive at 9:10 PM on November 2, 2010 [3 favorites]


Hey, idiots who are all pissy and urged people not to vote because Obama didn't give you a unicorn: Fuck you.

Name one such person, please.
posted by enn at 9:12 PM on November 2, 2010 [1 favorite]


I could name one person, but that would summon him to this thread.
posted by Astro Zombie at 9:13 PM on November 2, 2010 [3 favorites]


enn: Joe Beese ;)
posted by wierdo at 9:13 PM on November 2, 2010


enn: Joe Beese ;)

NO, YOU FOOL! You've summoned him! You've--
posted by vorfeed at 9:14 PM on November 2, 2010


Hey, idiots who are all pissy and urged people not to vote because Obama didn't give you a unicorn: Fuck you.

I was one of those who felt ire for Obama. It's not that he didn't give me a unicorn, it's that he didn't even try to give me the compromise of my compromise on healthcare. The public option wasn't a unicorn, it was doable, but he refused to try for it. He wanted to make nice-nice with teabag nation while forsaking those of us who did something to get him elected.

And, feeling like a cuckolded spouse, I stood by my man at the ballot box, because a group of bourgeois quasi-Keynsians are better than the fucking Klan.
posted by banal evil at 9:14 PM on November 2, 2010 [8 favorites]


(it's a joke, of course, actually I rather like Joe)
posted by vorfeed at 9:14 PM on November 2, 2010 [1 favorite]


Paladino extended the gracious offer of lending his bat to Cuomo to take to Albany to clean the state and said something like "you can either use it or have it used against you"

You know, I bet Cuomo said that to Paladino about his horse porn. And then Paladino went and did both.
posted by one more dead town's last parade at 9:15 PM on November 2, 2010


The silver lining to tonight's cloud is that a large percentage of the Blue Dogs in the House appear to have been defeated. Perhaps this will serve as a lesson to Democrats who represent more marginal districts that they don't have to act like Republicans in everything but name.



Wait, who am I kidding?
posted by Bromius at 9:16 PM on November 2, 2010 [3 favorites]


Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary! Ahhhhhhhhgh!
posted by KirkJobSluder at 9:19 PM on November 2, 2010 [1 favorite]


Bedtime for me. Seems best to go out on the poetry theme:

"November" by J.C. Bloem (1887-1966)

Het regent en het is november;
Weer keert het najaar en belaagt
Het hart, dat droef, maar steeds gewender,
Zijn heimelijke pijnen draagt.

En in de kamer, waar gelaten
Het daaglijks leven wordt verricht,
Schijnt uit de troosteloze straten
Een ongekleurd namiddaglicht.

De jaren gaan zoals zij gingen,
Er is allengs geen onderscheid
Meer tussen dove erinneringen
En wat geleefd wordt en verbeid.

Verloren zijn de prille wegen
Om te ontkomen aan de tijd;
Altijd november, altijd regen,
Altijd dit lege hart, altijd.


November (quick translation mine)

It is raining and it is November;
Autumn returns and preys upon the heart
That sadly but ever more accustomedly,
Bears its furtive pains.

And in the room, where the chores
Of daily life are resignedly carried out,
Shines from the desolate streets
A colourless light of dusk.

The years go by just as they went,
There is inchmeal littler distinction
Between deaf memories
And what is being lived and awaited.

Lost are the nascent ways
To escape from time;
Always November, always rain,
Always this empty heart, always.

-------

Good night and good luck, America.
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 9:19 PM on November 2, 2010 [13 favorites]


Strickland loses in OH? Sestak about to lose in PA?
posted by joe lisboa at 9:19 PM on November 2, 2010


There's some weirdly Nixonian look or body language about Pat Toomey. Like Nixon crossed with Skeletor.
posted by orthogonality at 9:21 PM on November 2, 2010 [1 favorite]


Michigan 5th went to Kildee.
that indicates a strong support/loyalty amongst dems in poverty stricken areas. close race though.
posted by clavdivs at 9:21 PM on November 2, 2010


Yeah, that was the surfeit of luck.

You're right. Nevadans should have ousted the Senate majority leader. Luck had nothing to do with it.
posted by clearly at 9:22 PM on November 2, 2010


Good gracious, the Missouri Secretary of State page indicates the puppy mill measure is behind by less than 200 votes.
posted by bearwife at 9:22 PM on November 2, 2010


No sir, I don't like this.
posted by mazola at 9:23 PM on November 2, 2010


Hey, idiots who are all pissy...because Obama didn't give you a unicorn

How utterly dismissive of people's legitimate concerns. You and your ilk deserve your ass being handed to you tonight, seriously. Good luck in 2012. I'm done with you.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 9:24 PM on November 2, 2010 [5 favorites]


bearwife: "Hickenlooper (D) has won governorship in Colorado"

We just call that "Stimulus Spending" in these here parts.
posted by symbioid at 9:25 PM on November 2, 2010


I'm just sad the Rent Is Too Damn High guy won't be my next governor.
posted by CunningLinguist at 9:26 PM on November 2, 2010 [1 favorite]


Harry Reid is searingly incompetent. I was actively rooting against him. He refuses to enforce party discipline. If there's anything this election should teach you, it's that party discipline wins elections. As long as he's in charge of the Senate Dems, we will continue to lose. He should resign from the Senate leadership, shut the fuck up, and spend the next six years as the kind of reliable vote for the Democrats he was unable to deliver when it was his job to get everybody to vote the same goddamned way.
posted by vibrotronica at 9:27 PM on November 2, 2010 [6 favorites]


Umm. no? Let's try that again:

I don't think it's going to look the same in 2012

It will make the $4,000,000,000 spent this year look like chump changd.
posted by Joe Beese at 9:35 PM on November 2 [1 favorite +] [!] [quote]


"Wee just call that stimulus spending in these here parts" (I decided on Captain Morgans, BTW, not Svedka)
posted by symbioid at 9:27 PM on November 2, 2010


You and your ilk deserve your ass being handed to you tonight, seriously.

Yes. Because you don't like being dismissed, America deserves to get fucked.
posted by Astro Zombie at 9:27 PM on November 2, 2010 [2 favorites]


Enjoy Sarah and/or Mitt.
posted by CunningLinguist at 9:28 PM on November 2, 2010


This Empire, it strikes back?
posted by hackly_fracture at 9:29 PM on November 2, 2010 [2 favorites]


How utterly dismissive of people's legitimate concerns.

He specifically said he was angry at those who encouraged others not to vote. I think that's a pretty shitty thing to encourage others to do.
posted by shakespeherian at 9:29 PM on November 2, 2010 [1 favorite]


I'm not sure, but I'm guessing the MO puppy mill vote isn't necessarily that people want puppy mills as much as they don't want the government telling them they can't shoot a deer (it's a slippery slope argument... "if we let them shut those down, they'll be after my buck next year"). Just a guess, though. Still pretty stupid if it doesn't pass.
posted by sleepy pete at 9:31 PM on November 2, 2010


(I decided on Captain Morgans, BTW, not Svedka)

Thus helping keep Svekda from being the #1 vodka until 2033.
posted by hippybear at 9:31 PM on November 2, 2010 [1 favorite]


Man, I'm glad I don't live in Pennsylvania any more.

Of course, depending on what happens with the Senate race here in Washington, I might not be terribly happy come tomorrow morning.
posted by Lulu's Pink Converse at 9:32 PM on November 2, 2010


The only encouraging not to vote I saw came from Republicans.

Guys, Progressives didn't lose the Democrats the elections. There simply aren't enough of them. Democrats and "Independents" who voted Republican did.
posted by dirigibleman at 9:33 PM on November 2, 2010 [8 favorites]


Because you don't like being dismissed, America deserves to get fucked.

If you think you can successfully get elected to office by constantly insulting and lying to people who would otherwise vote for you, enjoy your favorites.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 9:33 PM on November 2, 2010 [6 favorites]


How utterly dismissive of people's legitimate concerns. You and your ilk deserve your ass being handed to you tonight, seriously. Good luck in 2012. I'm done with you.

To be honest I don't think it would be in any way possible for people who feel like you to campaign harder for defeat.
posted by Artw at 9:35 PM on November 2, 2010 [2 favorites]


OK, symbioid, now that I'm tracking, very funny.

The same mixed results here in WA so far. Patty Murray is polling ahead of Dino Rossi to retain (D) Senate seat, and I'll stick my neck out and predicts she'll keep the seat, while the Congressional House seats that were in play are going R.

hippybear, just want to make a tiny correction: the bail measure doesn't provide for automatic bail denial: it would authorize courts to deny bail for offenses punishable by the possibility of life in prison, on clear and convincing evidence of a propensity for violence that would likely endanger persons.

posted by bearwife at 9:37 PM on November 2, 2010 [1 favorite]


Harry Reid wins. Sharron Angle loses.
posted by joe lisboa at 9:37 PM on November 2, 2010 [1 favorite]


Fox is calling it for Reid. I could not be happier than to see that horrific woman lose.
posted by madamjujujive at 9:37 PM on November 2, 2010 [1 favorite]


If there's anything this election should teach you, it's that party discipline wins elections.

Let me emphasize vibrotronica's point. No matter what, the party holding the White House loses seats in the first midterm election.

But Americans like winners, not whiners. And with Democratic president and majorities in both houses, the Dems still spent an entire fucking year agonizing and Hamletting and cutting stunk-to-high-heaven backroom deals over the health care reform bill.

Looking like opportunists or incompetents or both, when they should have shoved HRC through and then turned their attention to making sure that no one could walk down any street in the US without seeing tangible evidence -- road building, school building, bridge building evidence -- of stimulus money going to Main Street not Wall Street.

But Harry Reid couldn't or wouldn't kick the ass, twist the arms, get the peckers in his pocket, required to show America that the Democratic Party was on the side of the working man. He should have proverbially shoved Blanche Lincoln in a wood-chipper. It's not like her vote matters anymore.

And Harry's won, but only because he got lucky enough to get a opponent who spouted stupidities when she wasn't literally running form reporters.
posted by orthogonality at 9:38 PM on November 2, 2010 [24 favorites]


To be honest I don't think it would be in any way possible for people who feel like you to campaign harder for defeat.

"It just must be those nefarious bloggers that did us in! Obviously our conduct, policies, and tactics are beyond reproach and could not conceivably have factored."
posted by enn at 9:38 PM on November 2, 2010 [3 favorites]


If you think you can successfully get elected to office by constantly insulting and lying to people who would otherwise vote for you, enjoy your favorites.

Is that your description of Feingold? Or who?
posted by Astro Zombie at 9:39 PM on November 2, 2010 [1 favorite]




There's some weirdly Nixonian look or body language about Pat Toomey. Like Nixon crossed with Skeletor.

thank you for giving me a laugh over that freak show
posted by angrycat at 9:40 PM on November 2, 2010 [1 favorite]


SUEDE-DENIM SECRET POLICE!1!!!
posted by joe lisboa at 9:42 PM on November 2, 2010 [5 favorites]




If you think you can successfully get elected to office by constantly insulting and lying to people who would otherwise vote for you, enjoy your favorites.

Ooh how many favorites does Rahm have?
posted by shakespeherian at 9:43 PM on November 2, 2010


they should have shoved HRC through

Shoved her through what, now?
posted by ook at 9:47 PM on November 2, 2010 [7 favorites]


That MO election page is really dumb. Why is it refreshing the whole page and not just the Flash thingies?
posted by dirigibleman at 9:47 PM on November 2, 2010


Why no news out of Alaska? (Except Sarah Palin's obnoxious internet postings.) Didn't polls close there at 8:30 pm?

Also, GO puppies GO in Missouri.
posted by bearwife at 9:48 PM on November 2, 2010


I kid because I drink. I drink because, well, read teh fucking thread
posted by ook at 9:48 PM on November 2, 2010 [2 favorites]


Guys, Progressives didn't lose the Democrats the elections. There simply aren't enough of them. Democrats and "Independents" who voted Republican did.

Yep. Most of the races I'm looking at are complete blow-outs. I also suspect we might be seeing the return of conservatives who sat out in 2008. There was a fair bit of noise on the right that Bush was a failure and McCain/Palin were bad candidates.
posted by KirkJobSluder at 9:50 PM on November 2, 2010


I don't buy it when the Tea Party claims that this election is a referendum of Obama's failures, and I sure am not going to believe it when lefties claim it. The opposition party gaining seats two years after a presidential election? An energized segment of the population swinging hard right during a depression? These are not dazzling critiques of Obama's failure to lead; they're cliches.
posted by Astro Zombie at 9:51 PM on November 2, 2010 [10 favorites]


Why no news out of Alaska? (Except Sarah Palin's obnoxious internet postings.) Didn't polls close there at 8:30 pm?

I think they're waiting on the Aleutians yet.
posted by 6550 at 9:52 PM on November 2, 2010


joe lisboa: "SUEDE-DENIM SECRET POLICE!1!!"

So... Jerry Brown is governor????
posted by symbioid at 9:55 PM on November 2, 2010 [1 favorite]


I think we need to look at the crosstabs, but it looks to me like the Obama rallies in last days of the campaigns (e.g, for Perriello in VA) did NOT bring out the youth vote or the minority vote, and may have even backfired by energizing the teabaggers. This doesn't reflect well on Obama's leadership, or auger well for his prospects in 2012.
posted by orthogonality at 9:55 PM on November 2, 2010 [1 favorite]


AZ, absolutely. I've been watching politics for decades now (makes me feel gray and grizzled) and ruling party losing seats at the midterm is an old story. I'm perplexed at some of the total idiots who won or retained office (Jan Brewer? Really?) but that's also par for the political course. Obama is in my view a strong and able President with mediocre party support in Congress, and I think 2012 won't look like this. Especially after the Republicans spend 2 years, as they are certain to do, saying nothing but no.
posted by bearwife at 9:56 PM on November 2, 2010 [1 favorite]


CNN is now projecting No on California's Prop. 19, with 20% of precincts reporting. It's down about 330,000 votes.

This is why we can't have nice things...
posted by vorfeed at 9:56 PM on November 2, 2010


In other news, stock in Twinkies just plummeted.
posted by Astro Zombie at 9:57 PM on November 2, 2010 [2 favorites]


And OK, ABC says Alaska polls close 1 am EST. I.e. right about now.
posted by bearwife at 9:59 PM on November 2, 2010


Tonight has convinced me that there is no such thing as the youth vote. If the youth won't even come out to vote for frickin' legal marijuana, they're just not going to vote for anything ever.
posted by ook at 9:59 PM on November 2, 2010 [12 favorites]


How can we harness the puppy vote?
posted by box at 9:59 PM on November 2, 2010


There's a particular sting in the fact that the Dems lost Feingold and Grayson, but beyond that, these results were to be expected. The loss of the House, and by enormous margins, was a a foregone conclusion; the real question was whether the GOP wave would be so strong that it would carry the Senate as well.
posted by darth_tedious at 10:00 PM on November 2, 2010 [1 favorite]


How can we harness the puppy vote?

Squeaky toy referendum.
posted by dirigibleman at 10:00 PM on November 2, 2010 [4 favorites]


I mean what can we possibly come up with that's better than marijuana, adorable puppies?

OH WAIT
posted by ook at 10:03 PM on November 2, 2010


It might be nice to send an e-mail to thank Feingold for his service.

If it is this bitter a pill for me, it must really suck to be him.
posted by madamjujujive at 10:04 PM on November 2, 2010 [7 favorites]


Is that your description of Feingold? Or who?

Leaving the obvious strawman at the door, Senator Feingold is in no way, shape or form representative of the Democratic Party, certainly not since Obama was elected, and he certainly did not lose because his own stance on various issues was too closely aligned with that of the Democratic Party.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 10:04 PM on November 2, 2010 [2 favorites]


OK, Alaska results are showing up at Anchorage Daily News site. A squeaker but Murkowski is in the lead. Which makes me glad as Palin will gnash her mama grizzly teeth, and sad because I think McAdams is a surprisingly charming and cool guy who would win in a different year.
posted by bearwife at 10:05 PM on November 2, 2010


"Which" O'Donnell won the mainstream media's attention. I'll bet that counts as success: the media is more powerful than government anyway, and hella more profitable in a hurry. Palin is a sudden multimillionaire. Got her voice heard by everyone, and got well paid to do it. Fuck, yeah!

Until we redevelop a truthful, fact-based news and knowledge media, we are hooped. The clowns are doubtful drive this clown car.
posted by five fresh fish at 10:06 PM on November 2, 2010 [1 favorite]


Leaving the obvious strawman at the door, Senator Feingold is in no way, shape or form representative of the Democratic Party, certainly not since Obama was elected,

All right, so who? Who lost tonight that deserved it because they have relentlessly lied to and insulted their potential voters? If we deserve a Tea Party in Congress, I want to know precisely who lost for their misbehavior.
posted by Astro Zombie at 10:08 PM on November 2, 2010


one happy note: jackass Tancredo lost. Yay.
posted by madamjujujive at 10:09 PM on November 2, 2010 [6 favorites]



If Murkowski is declared the winner, get ready for months of lawsuits.


Maybe, but the end result would be foregone. And the delayed arrival of another R vote in the Senate would not make me cry bitter tears.
posted by bearwife at 10:09 PM on November 2, 2010


Looks like Rush Holt has hung on in NJ. He was my Congressman when I lived near Princeton, and a really good egg. He also holds a doctorate in physics, which is a good thing in a Congress that needs more science in it. I'm very pleased the Republican tide didn't wash him out.

On the downside, they finally got Chet Edwards here in Texas, three elections after they gerrymandered him into a Republican district. Bleah.
posted by immlass at 10:09 PM on November 2, 2010


121 of 438 precincts reporting in Alaska - there's plenty of time for things to change there.
posted by dd42 at 10:10 PM on November 2, 2010


CNN is now projecting No on California's Prop. 19

Oh well, it looks like I'm back to the good and legal habit of injecting 151 into my veins, because if a drug is legal everyone will do it to the most extreme degree.
posted by banal evil at 10:10 PM on November 2, 2010


S/doubtful/gonna/
posted by five fresh fish at 10:11 PM on November 2, 2010


Who lost tonight that deserved it because they have relentlessly lied to and insulted their potential voters?

I don't know? Why don't you ask them? I'm not really interested in defending your strawman, honestly.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 10:12 PM on November 2, 2010


C'mon folks. Wait for the smoke to clear before firing salvos of recrimination. Personally, I don't think this is the rout that it was supposed to be, I have felt for a while now that the country is shifting demographically away from the GOP, and I still feel that holds. and I'm also half wondering if this might not be a good thing in terms of Obama's re-election prospects.

This is all very much in progress so no need to begin pointing fingers just yet.
posted by Skygazer at 10:15 PM on November 2, 2010 [1 favorite]


I can't believe Scott Summers was running for Illinois treasurer and he lost. C'mon, guys! He'll shoot you with his laser beam eyes!
posted by shakespeherian at 10:16 PM on November 2, 2010 [1 favorite]


Then I have misunderstood your point. Please restate it, because it sounded to me like you were saying we deserve Democratic losses because somebody has lied to and insulted voters for years. Do you mean the one person in this thread who made the Obama unicorn comment?

Of course, if you don't want to explain yourself, I won't push you. But when something bad happens, and I am told I, and millions others, deserve it, I like to know why.
posted by Astro Zombie at 10:16 PM on November 2, 2010


Tonight has convinced me that there is no such thing as the youth vote. If the youth won't even come out to vote for frickin' legal marijuana, they're just not going to vote for anything ever.

"The youth" is a moving target. A majority of everyone between 18 and 40 said Yes on CNN's exit poll -- give it ten or twenty years, and see what happens as those people move into the 40-60 age bracket, and as their kids fill the bracket they've left behind.

I've been involved in legalization activism since 1992 or so, and if you told me back then that California would be voting on full legalization in 2010 I'd have laughed in your face. This is a disappointing defeat, but the times they are a-changin'... Prop 19 is just one more step on the way.
posted by vorfeed at 10:19 PM on November 2, 2010 [3 favorites]


I don't buy it when the Tea Party claims that this election is a referendum of Obama's failures, and I sure am not going to believe it when lefties claim it.

The whole thing of the last election and this one is just the timing of the economic collapse playing itself out. In 08, the markets collapsed actually after the nominating conventions, ushering in Obama pretty easily instead of with a hard fight and sweeping in a bunch of Democrats who would not normally have won in some conservative states/districts.

But, with the collapse when it was and as deep as it turned out, it was obvious that the economy would not be doing well in 2010. Which would normally lead to a somewhat bigger-than-usual midterm loss, but in this case it was exacerbated by the Democrats having an abnormally large number of precarious seats to lose.

You don't need anything more than that to explain a big Republican wave this year.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 10:22 PM on November 2, 2010 [5 favorites]


if you don't want to explain yourself

I'm tired of the pee-poo-rainbow-unicorn-style bullying on Metafilter by those who keep blaming left-leaning voters for the Democratic Party losing moderate voters. Feingold or whoever has nothing to do with your awful campaign tactic of punching hippies to save Democrats.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 10:24 PM on November 2, 2010 [5 favorites]


CunningLinguist: "HuffPo keeps it classy:

FYI:
Feingold Goes Down

Grayson Goes Down"

Are you *trying* to murder me by alcohol poisoning????? Grayson? Feingold already depressed me enough, but Grayson? GRAYSON?
posted by symbioid at 10:25 PM on November 2, 2010


fff: "Until we redevelop a truthful, fact-based news and knowledge media, we are hooped."

Well, the info is out there, people just have to work for it. So what we need is truth and facts that people don't need to work so hard for. Erm. Difficult proposition, especially these days. :\

Also, something like Prop 19 will pop up in almost every election from now on, which is good. Unfortunately, most likely so will things like Props 23 and 26, since those interested in passing them have vast piles of money.
posted by zoogleplex at 10:25 PM on November 2, 2010


If we deserve a Tea Party in Congress, I want to know precisely who lost for their misbehavior.

Most of the people who voted today can barely read, forget being able to write a two sentence passage explaining why they voted the way they did.

This is America. People vote based upon hatred and fear. This year hatred and fear of blacks, latinos, gays, women, intellectuals and the poor trumped hatred and fear of the rich.

America deserves a Tea Party because the semi-literate always think that their level of political understanding, which is based upon two minutes of shootin' the shit with their semi-literate buddies, is superior to that of those of us who spend hours daily considering what the best course for the country should be. Americans compensate for their disgraceful ignorance with braggadocio. Those who think this way have an equal vote to those who pay more attention, and there are more of them then there are or us.
posted by banal evil at 10:26 PM on November 2, 2010 [5 favorites]


At the end of the day the real effect of Prop 19 on the ballot may be the election of Jerry Brown and possibly keep Boxer in the senate. Boxer is too close to call right now, but it's so tight that the Prop 19 "uniquely motivated" voters should certainly cover the gap by several times if she does win.

You're going to see a massive left-wing GOTV (in both man-power and money) in California on 2012, as there will probably be both gay marriage and cannabis on the ballot.

FUNFACT: It is now officially proven that Northern California is cooler than Southern California.
posted by amuseDetachment at 10:27 PM on November 2, 2010


I think BP has a point. (And I'm speaking as a true independent and former R who votes D because I can't stand what the Rs have made of themselves.) Also, please let's not fight. OK, I'm not a D, but I think the non-R side of the spectrum could stand to skip the ritual internal bloodletting.
posted by bearwife at 10:27 PM on November 2, 2010


Three of the judges who voted against the anti-marriage law in Iowa look like they're going to lose their seats. This is the first time that has ever happened in Iowa history. You can guess what that means for the inevitable amendment to the state constitution.
posted by dirigibleman at 10:28 PM on November 2, 2010


orthogonality wrote: "turned their attention to making sure that no one could walk down any street in the US without seeing tangible evidence -- road building, school building, bridge building evidence -- of stimulus money going to Main Street not Wall Street."

Ironically, here in Oklahoma, I can't walk down the street without seeing evidence of ARRA. They're constructing on every fucking road at once. It's ridiculous.
posted by wierdo at 10:28 PM on November 2, 2010 [1 favorite]


see what happens as those people move into the 40-60 age bracket, and as their kids fill the bracket they've left behind.

Oh, certainly. It's just that I'm getting tired of people pinning their hopes on "the youth vote" (or blaming politicians for failing to successfully court it). T'aint no such thing. If you have to wait until they're 40-60, that's not the youth vote anymore, that's just folks.
posted by ook at 10:29 PM on November 2, 2010 [1 favorite]


I'm also half wondering if this might not be a good thing in terms of Obama's re-election prospects.

It is much worse then that, with a Republican majority in the house, you might get to see another impeachment.
posted by clavdivs at 10:32 PM on November 2, 2010 [2 favorites]


Why is "punching hippies" such a popular phrase on MetaFilter? Fuck.

Find a better way to express yourself.
posted by hippybear at 10:34 PM on November 2, 2010 [3 favorites]


Ooh, hey, I called it, a month before the 2008 election:
Obama will do something like, oh, give these people affordable and effective health care, and they will whip themselves up into a frenzy thinking that it is all part of his secret master plan to implement Sharia law in order to satisfy the commands that are being beamed directly into his head by his communist Nazi Jewish Muslim atheist reptilian humanoid homosexual overlords from the Union of Soviet Socialist Trilateral Bilderberg Commisions.
posted by Flunkie at 10:35 PM on November 2, 2010 [17 favorites]


The good news is I think the anti-puppy kicking proposition is going to pass.

Also, I think I finally got rid of the streaks on my window (the secret? Microfiber).
posted by dirigibleman at 10:35 PM on November 2, 2010 [1 favorite]


It is much worse then that, with a Republican majority in the house, you might get to see another impeachment.

Oh, as surely as the sun might rise tomorrow.

In any event, impeachment by the House is virtually guaranteed. And conviction by the Senate is virtually impossible; the vote threshold is 67.

The really ugly thing coming is a government shutdown, which they're already talking about.
posted by gerryblog at 10:36 PM on November 2, 2010


'Cuz picking up your ball and going home, that sure gets things done. *eyeroll*
posted by zoogleplex at 10:37 PM on November 2, 2010


Also, I think I finally got rid of the streaks on my window (the secret? Microfiber).

I find that using newspaper works really well for this. Maybe there are properties in common between microfiber and newsprint, but I've sworn by using newspaper for washing windows in my house and car for years, and it always works great.
posted by hippybear at 10:38 PM on November 2, 2010


OK, i'm calling in political hangover tomorrow - fuck em. they want repubs? they can have my hangover callin. fuck em
fuck them all to hell.
consider it a strike.
but like the good little slave i am, i will dutfiully go to work with a ragin headache, because, i'm honest like that.
fuckers.
posted by symbioid at 10:39 PM on November 2, 2010


Hu Jintao and Xi Jinping have to be sitting back and laughing their asses off right now.

What a pathetic country this has become.
posted by Despondent_Monkey at 10:41 PM on November 2, 2010 [2 favorites]


It is much worse then that, with a Republican majority in the house, you might get to see another impeachment.
posted by clavdivs at 2:32 PM on November 3 [+] [!]

So what? It'd be the same as Clinton's impeachment, in that there's a lot of noise, a vote, and then it dies in the Senate and Obama stays president. The Republicans couldn't impeach Clinton with a majority in the Senate. I don't think they'll have the senators to do it in 2011 or 2012. And I want to believe there are enough Republican members of the House that'd believe trying for impeachment would be a extraordinary waste of time and wouldn't go along with it.

I want to believe that.
posted by gc at 10:43 PM on November 2, 2010


On post, what gerryblog said.
posted by gc at 10:43 PM on November 2, 2010


Looks like puppies win! Yay, at least some good news.
posted by Malor at 10:46 PM on November 2, 2010


Extraordinary wastes of time will be what they want.
posted by Artw at 10:46 PM on November 2, 2010 [1 favorite]


"OK, i'm calling in political hangover tomorrow - fuck em. they want repubs? they can have my hangover callin. fuck em
fuck them all to hell.
consider it a strike.
but like the good little slave i am, i will dutfiully go to work with a ragin headache, because, i'm honest like that.
fuckers."

posted by symbioid at 4:39 PM on November 3

This is why in Australia we have elections on Saturday. Hangovers *(and voter turnout, for that matter) aren't a problem when you decide the future of your democracy on a weekend.
posted by Effigy2000 at 10:47 PM on November 2, 2010 [1 favorite]


Looks like puppies win! Yay, at least some good news.
posted by Malor at 2:46 PM on November 3 [+] [!]

Thank god. It hurts being from Missouri sometimes. I'm glad we're not the Puppy Kicker State. Being home to Ashcroft was bad enough.
posted by gc at 10:47 PM on November 2, 2010 [1 favorite]


Oh, as surely as the sun might rise tomorrow.
is that what Clinton said.
In any event, impeachment by the House is virtually guaranteed
you said it, not me.
posted by clavdivs at 10:47 PM on November 2, 2010


The only thing that has been keeping me from homework was the puppies, yay for the puppies!

Sadly, Missouri's Proposition A passed. Which wouldn't have been such a bad thing except that it effectively doesn't let any cities pass an earnings tax and makes KC and St. Louis City defend their earnings tax every five years. If you look at the map on the Secretary of State's website it's also amusing how everyone BUT KC and St. Louis City voted for it.
posted by lizarrd at 10:53 PM on November 2, 2010


It's interesting to keep an eye on Palin tracker which updates the fate of her endorsements. And it looks like a few of her pet picks that are going down aren't even updated on the map yet - Miller & Tancredo. So many of her key picks haven't fared too well.

Josh Marshall makes the point that if Sharron Angle and Christine O'Donnell hadn't won their primaries, the dems might have lost the senate tonight.
posted by madamjujujive at 10:54 PM on November 2, 2010 [1 favorite]


I just finished a grueling 16 hour day, working as a Special Precinct Board Officer. We counted absentee ballots all day long. All these votes were Early Voting from what we call "satellite sites," portable voting sites we run in grocery stores, libraries, city halls, college dormitories and class buildings, etc. throughout the city. Conservatives and Republicans hate early voting and absentee ballot programs, they say it promotes vote fraud. Bullshit. It promotes voting among people who generally have difficulty voting, like the working poor, minorities, college students, hell, I even handed ballots to two people I know are homeless and have previously asked me for spare change while I walked in the streets downtown. If early voting favors Democrats, it is merely because the GOP has nothing to offer these people. I spent the last 5 weeks working early voting, working 70 hours a week, and 85 hours last week (I was unable to break my 2008 record of a 92 hour work week, darn it). If that favors Democrats, because I live in a heavily Democratic county, well, them's the breaks, Republicans, that's why I work on the elections in the first place. It's more effective than working for the Democratic Party.

Anyway, I also love Election Day Registration. Iowa implemented it in 2008. I was a Precinct Chairman on Election Day 2008, the first time we used it. The Republicans ran a huge voter caging operation in my precinct. Dozens of people came in with valid registration cards but were inactivated on the voting rolls. I re-registered ~200 people who had been caged, about 20% of the entire precinct's votes. It was exhausting. The GOP saw the early statistics, and thought my precinct was running a huge voter fraud, reregistering everyone they could find, even if they lacked proper credentials. So they sent two pollwatchers just to watch me. They sat right beside me, left and right, less than elbow's distance away, as I helped 3 or 4 people at once, with a line out the door at times. They sat there silently for 6 hours, they are prohibited from speaking to me unless they catch me doing something wrong and challenge the eligibility of the voter I'm assisting. They finally gave up and broke protocol, and admitted they thought I was perpetrating a huge fraud, and were astonished to find I'd followed the law, to the letter. One of them even offered me a job! Ha. Then they left. I won. The voters won. The GOP lost. Suck it, Republicans!

Now after today's job, I just ask voters one favor. Please please please do not write in votes. They never count, unless there is a well coordinated campaign and you basically already know a specific write in candidate is likely to win. Do NOT write in "Refused" or "Mickey Mouse" or "Darth Vader" or "Blank" or "None of the Above" or other stupid stunts. It makes no difference to anyone, nobody ever sees your write in except a poll worker, who writes it down in a booklet that nobody ever looks at again. All it does is make poll workers stay extra hours recording stupid idiotic votes, when they should be at home sleeping after working 16 hours, 4 of which were spent recording stupid write-in votes written in by idiots. You are wasting massive amounts of taxpayer money to record useless votes. If you must waste taxpayers money in some misguided protest, do something more direct, like setting fire to the Police Station.
posted by charlie don't surf at 10:55 PM on November 2, 2010 [85 favorites]


Hu Jintao and Xi Jinping have to be sitting back and laughing their asses off right now.

The perverse beauty of the American system is that the plutarchy never need worry about the bullet. The question in American general elections is whether to allow the rich to be insanely rich, or just very rich. Allowing the masses to have a say in this enough to quell dissent.

The Chinese oligarchs have high anxiety and regularly censor the press because their bourgeoisie desires the pittance of having the mediocre say that the American middle class has. The bourgeoisie is, historically, the most revolutionary class, and the Chinese are only feeding their dissent by empowering them economically while disenfranchising them politically.
posted by banal evil at 10:57 PM on November 2, 2010 [1 favorite]


charlie dont surf!
that is democracy.
posted by clavdivs at 11:01 PM on November 2, 2010 [1 favorite]


What I find scary is that Sarah Palin actually bragged that she doesn't follow any political philosophers, but believes in "American Exceptionalism." That's like bragging you love the USSR propaganda so much that you're their Number 1 Useful Idiot.

A thuggish Palin administration would lead to a theocorporate wealth-raping of the nation that will leave it as crippled as the USSR.

"Which" O'Donnell was political reality television. Hilarious when The Daily Show does it. Not so funny when it's sold as real politics.

The news media needs to be punished for this. Start demanding that your environment be tuned to something better. MSABCNNBC may not be great, but at least they're better.

I think its obvious that there needs to be an increase in astute local political thinking. There is no way Which should have made it out of smallsville. Her name should never have been more than local.

One should probably write to three news channels to tell them that you don't want to see Which O'Donnell-class political tomfoolery again. Hold them accountable.
posted by five fresh fish at 11:02 PM on November 2, 2010


WA ... overwhelmingly passed a measure denying the right of bail to certain criminal defendents.

ESHJR-4220: Concerning denying bail for certain criminal offenses

"Bail may be denied for offenses punishable by the possibility of life in prison upon a showing by clear and convincing evidence of a propensity for violence that creates a substantial likelihood of danger to the community or any persons, subject to such limitations as shall be determined by the legislature."

Washington judges already have the ability to deny bail to defendants who are charged with a capital offense or a first-degree murder charge. 4220 expands the authority to crimes with a sentence of life in prison eg third strike felons.

There were a couple WTF results here today but you can't honestly be shocked the Maurice Clemmons Initiative passed, can you?
posted by The Hamms Bear at 11:02 PM on November 2, 2010


I always do early voting because I missed a key house race due to major surgery. That, and the lines are short.
posted by KirkJobSluder at 11:03 PM on November 2, 2010


OK, but seriously now Americans. Explain to me why a good many of your fellow voters would be pissed off at a guy who brought your health system so much closer to being fair and equitable than it has been since Nixon.

Living in Australia, where we have Universal Health care, watching SiCKO made me think that anything has to be better than what you guys used to have. From what I could tell, the system Obama brought in wasn't perfect but was way better than what you had. I would have thought even if he had done nothing else, that one change alone should have bought him and the Dems a free pass in the mid-terms.

I guess what I'm saying is, this outcome blows my mind and beggars belief.
posted by Effigy2000 at 11:04 PM on November 2, 2010 [6 favorites]


Effigy2000: we honestly don't actually know yet how the new system is going to work. Many of us suspect that the backroom dealing involved has set it up so the insurers can boost rates drastically, which won't help us much given that (as I understand it) we'll be legally forced to buy health insurance. If it's anything like our car insurance, we're probably gonna get screwed.
posted by zoogleplex at 11:06 PM on November 2, 2010 [1 favorite]


The Minnesota governor race has become a nailbiter.
posted by triggerfinger at 11:07 PM on November 2, 2010


Effigy2000

In Oz, you had one of the most just and progressive PMs in history in Gough Whitlam. He came to power after a long period of the left being out of power. He was removed unjustly by the governor general, yet when it came to a general election the people of Australia put Malcolm Fraser in in his place.

It made no sense.

In America today it's sort of like that.

People are voting against what is just or reasonable.
posted by banal evil at 11:13 PM on November 2, 2010 [1 favorite]


OK, but seriously now Americans. Explain to me why a good many of your fellow voters would be pissed off at a guy who brought your health system so much closer to being fair and equitable than it has been since Nixon.

Heh. You think any of the people talking so passionately about that legislation has any clue what it actually does or even cares?
posted by Artw at 11:14 PM on November 2, 2010 [2 favorites]


Colorado's "fetal personhood" Amendment 62 failed.
posted by cybercoitus interruptus at 11:15 PM on November 2, 2010 [8 favorites]


Well, tonight sucked, so here's some baby ducks in a bathtub!
posted by dirigibleman at 11:17 PM on November 2, 2010 [3 favorites]


It seems worth noting that, according to TalkingPointsMemo, Reid salvaged his seat by intervening in the GOP primary; his team's opposition research managed to take out a bigger threat, Sue Lownden, and anoint Angle.

Also, it seems that the votes received by Green Party candidates in the Illinois and Colorado Senate races, had they gone to the Dem candidate, would have changed the outcome of those races; they did not, and those two Senate seats now seem to be GOP pick-ups.
posted by darth_tedious at 11:22 PM on November 2, 2010 [2 favorites]


Effigy2000: It's a cultural mythology. Most of Americans over the age of 40 grew with a ton of media propaganda about how Soviet economics results long lines for things of horrible quality that must be shared with others. This is combined with homogenization and suppression of everything fun. So there's a knee-jerk reaction with to anything that can be interpreted as socialism. It's a slippery slope folk belief that if we have a national health care system eventually we'll become a nightmare vision of Soviet life.

It also doesn't help that conservative pundits lie through their teeth about health care in Canada and the UK. So you have elderly people who honestly believe that they'd have to wait for months or years to get things like joint-replacement surgery, or would be vulnerable to "death panels."
posted by KirkJobSluder at 11:25 PM on November 2, 2010 [4 favorites]


A thuggish Palin administration would lead to a theocorporate wealth-raping of the nation that will leave it as crippled as the USSR.

That is so not true! Russia has huge natural gas reserves!
posted by Kid Charlemagne at 11:29 PM on November 2, 2010


That is so not true! Russia has huge natural gas reserves!

Ouch, touché.
posted by zoogleplex at 11:30 PM on November 2, 2010


Woo, Prop 23 demolished. Eff you, out-of-state oil companies. How's it feel to lose millions for a change?
posted by zoogleplex at 11:32 PM on November 2, 2010 [3 favorites]


I wouldn't count Colorado out so quickly - many of the highly Democratic urban counties, including Boulder and Denver, haven't reported large numbers of their votes yet.
posted by dd42 at 11:34 PM on November 2, 2010


Morbid thought. Which "Democratic" senators are most likely to sell their soul to create a majority Republican caucus?
posted by KirkJobSluder at 11:38 PM on November 2, 2010 [2 favorites]


Lieberman's ears are burning...
posted by Rhaomi at 11:39 PM on November 2, 2010 [1 favorite]


Are these elections more comfortable and entertaining from the outside? As although I like all the funny soundbites, this one's kind of making my tummy churn.

I probably say this every time one of these comes along, but you guys know you can have a functioning democracy without having to vote on things like Head Garbage Man and Is Being Cruel To Puppies Really All That Bad, right? I got freaked out in last week's civic election because, after choosing one mayoral candidate out of two and a councilor of seven, I was faced with picking three out of four school trustees (I abstained, as I don't care about people's children.) That was, like, 5 boxes that needed to be filled in, max. Your guys' ballots are like standardized testing crossed with a Voight-Kampff exam.

Speaking as a Canadian, American elections indicate whether we should expect some sweet, sweet lovemakin' for the next little while, or bouts of rough fucking with intermittent attention paid to the safe word. Either way we get screwed, but it's always nicer to be able to respect one's self in the morning and be offered a ride home.
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 11:41 PM on November 2, 2010 [8 favorites]


Woo, Prop 23 demolished. Eff you, out-of-state oil companies. How's it feel to lose millions for a change?

Ordinary people lose millions. Those millions will be paid at the gas pump for a bunch of feel-good global warming crap.
posted by Yakuman at 11:44 PM on November 2, 2010


Feel good warming crap? You haven't lived in LA for the last 15 years and seen the air get cleaner for most of it... and then start getting worse last couple years. We'll be paying a lot more at the gas pump no matter what, and we know it.
posted by zoogleplex at 11:57 PM on November 2, 2010 [4 favorites]


Morbid thought. Which "Democratic" senators are most likely to sell their soul to create a majority Republican caucus?

now your thinking ahead, I like that.
:)
posted by clavdivs at 12:00 AM on November 3, 2010


8:15 pm Pacific and the California gov web servers have choked.

Heh. I've been alternating between frustration and schadenfreude over this all night.

You see, the CA Secretary of State's office offered me an interview a few months ago when they were looking for someone to help make sure the election results site was a high availability data smorgasbord. Mysteriously, I got a call back two days later, saying my interview was cancelled and they'd found someone else, someone apparently so awesome they couldn't be bothered to go through with all the interviews they'd scheduled.

But not apparently so awesome that they were actually the right person for the job.

SoS staff: if you're reading this, I'm still interested, but not tonight, thanks.
posted by weston at 12:02 AM on November 3, 2010 [11 favorites]


Alvy Ampersand: "Are these elections more comfortable and entertaining from the outside? As although I like all the funny soundbites, this one's kind of making my tummy churn.


Speaking as a Canadian, American elections indicate whether we should expect some sweet, sweet lovemakin' for the next little while, or bouts of rough fucking with intermittent attention paid to the safe word. Either way we get screwed, but it's always nicer to be able to respect one's self in the morning and be offered a ride home
"

Based on the fact you guys got Harper and Toronto's recent Mayoral upset... I think you guys might quite like a bout of rough-fucking with intermittent attention played to the safe word, eh?

Also? Let me tell you about my mother...
posted by symbioid at 12:04 AM on November 3, 2010 [2 favorites]


Yakuman: Sorry, California is home to Tesla Motors and countless other green energy companies. The 3rd generation Tesla will be aimed towards the average new car buyer. With decreasing battery costs (by an order of magnitude for the past several years and projected to continue for a while), the higher prices will force consumers into green energy as a superior economic good. The higher volume will result in net lower prices for everyone in the long run with volume.
posted by amuseDetachment at 12:06 AM on November 3, 2010 [1 favorite]


WTF?! How can Prop 19 be projected to lose? How could the people of California vote to continue persecuting their friends and neighbours, sons and daughters? I thought it was always clearly in (although I am only an occasional observer of US politics). Who the hell is this majority that is voting to oppress the large minority?
posted by Joe Chip at 12:34 AM on November 3, 2010


The Minnesota governor's race has become a nailbiter.


*bites nails until out of nails - looks for something else to bite*
posted by louche mustachio at 12:37 AM on November 3, 2010


A quote from an analyst from KABC7 Los Angeles on why prop 19 was passed, "The voting came down to the old people vs the young.......and the geezers won." I thought that pretty much summed up the whole midterm election across the nation.
posted by Plug1 at 12:38 AM on November 3, 2010 [1 favorite]


*correction* why prop 19 wasn't passed. I guess I'm too high to correct myself.
posted by Plug1 at 12:43 AM on November 3, 2010


Jerry Brown is now the governor of California? What am I time travelling? Am I insane? Please explain. Anyone?
posted by jokeefe at 1:04 AM on November 3, 2010


For all of you non-Missourians who are flabbergasted by the anti-'anti-puppy-kicking-bill' voters, "slippery slope" propaganda bullshit from the likes of the Missouri Farm Family Agricultural Alliance or the Missouri Farm Bureau may be to blame.

Here are some highlights (emphasis mine):
The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), an extremist animal rights organization based in Washington, DC, has put language on the November 2 ballot that has broad implications for Missouri pet owners and breeders, livestock producers and sportsmen. While Proposition B proposes to implement a number of unnecessary rules and regulations for Missouri dog breeders, this is only the tip of the iceberg. - Missouri Farm Bureau

Larry Miller, president of the Southeast Missouri Cattlemen's Association, agrees with Cape Girardeau County Farm Bureau president Steffens. He said, "Down the road it's going to affect everyone in the United States. They want to abolish all livestock production in the United States. They want to do away with hunting, killing animals for food, fishing. What are we going to eat -- soybeans and corn?" - KOMU TV via Ballotopedia.org

As you can see, these organizations are trying to make people believe that regulations on puppy mills now will lead to future restrictions and regulations on farm livestock. Evidently, there are voters who believe that this is already taking place. I've personally heard people say that the current Prop B proposal includes strict restrictions on farm animals that would put small farmers out of business. It absolutely does not. I actually read the damn thing after I heard the farm animal rumor. Agribusiness is huge in Missouri; if there actually were a bill or proposition that severely limited ag production, politicians would be falling all over themselves to oppose it.

Puppy mills are a big problem here. I voted for Prop B and I'm glad it passed, but to be honest, it's a bit impotent. It's almost identical to the Animal Care Facility Act of 1992; the biggest difference is that it includes a clause about the number of dogs a breeder can own. That's good in theory, but that puts restrictions on breeders who actually were adhering to the ACFA. The truly problematic breeders are those who have facilities that are in violation of the ACFA. Obvious point, of course, but if these individuals are already disregarding regulations that have been in effect for almost 20 years, what's going to make them suddenly straighten up and fly right?
posted by chara at 1:33 AM on November 3, 2010 [1 favorite]


it looks to me like the Obama rallies in last days of the campaigns (e.g, for Perriello in VA) did NOT bring out the youth vote

Well let me tell a little bit about that. I'm 30, which probably disqualifies me from the "youth vote", but only just. I live in San Francisco and have a fairly high income, although I'm not rich. In 2008, Obama enjoyed phenomenal support among my peers. Compared to some of my friends, I felt like I didn't do enough to support his campaign. Even though I did some phone banking and donated the legal maximum, I know I wasn't helping as much as a lot of other people I knew. I honestly felt kind of shitty for not volunteering for the on-the-ground Nevada GOTV effort. No shit—the cool kids were flying out to Nevada on the weekends to knock on doors.

So why were upper middle class 20-somethings in San Francisco flying to Nevada to help elect Obama? The biggest motivation, by far, was to defeat the Republicans and overturn the horrible things they had done to our country: interminable wars, erosion of civil liberties, domestic spying, extraordinary rendition, and fucking torture.

Obama was seen as the guy who would end all that. He was a professor of constitutional law. He of all people would know that it was wrong to hold children in military prisons, or conduct massive spying operations against Americans. No former civil rights attorney would allow the NSA to operate Room 641A, right?

No, as it turns out, that was not right. As it happens, our favorite community organizer is cool with sending hunter-seekers to kill American citizens. WTF, Obama? We thought Obama would be the one who would roll back the immoral excesses of the Bush administration. Clearly that is not the case.

Equally disappointing was the behavior of the Democratic party as a whole. It's hard to express how disheartening it was to hear Nancy Pelosi, my Representative, declare that "impeachment is off the table". All the Democrats ever talk about is bipartisanship. Fuck bipartisanship. I don't want to work with the Republicans, I want to defeat them! I want to kick them in the balls until they pass out, and then split their throats while they're laying on the floor. I want to kill the Republican party for a generation, not 2 years.

But Obama is not that kind of President, and the Democrats aren't that kind of party. They've made it clear they don't want to fight the Republicans, they want to cooperate with them. And that means I can't support the Democrats. I know a lot of people on Metafilter are extremely contemptuous of that position. Many, many people argue that I must support the Democrats because the Republicans are worse. But that kind of compromised calculus is for middle-aged people with 2.5 kids and a mortgage, not young starry-eyed idealists.

America needs its idealists. America needs people to say "I will never support a President that engages in targeted killings of Americans". We need people who refuse to compromise on fundamental principles like the Bill of Rights, habeas corpus, and the Geneva Conventions. When Democratic supporters attack young voters for being idealistic, they are in effect fighting to silence and abandon of those ideals. And if this ever succeeds—if students and young people give up on progressive ideals—then we will have lost something far more important than control of the House. We will have forgotten what we are fighting for.
posted by ryanrs at 2:03 AM on November 3, 2010 [36 favorites]


Looks like the Blue Dog Democrats were nearly wiped out. Holy crap.

That shouldn't stop a lot of blame being directed at the "professional Left", however, 'cause there's nothing like the conservative Democratic caucus being cut in half to make the establishment media (and the Party's own leadership) demand that the entire Democratic party follow the road to disaster that the Blue Dogs followed....
posted by jhandey at 2:06 AM on November 3, 2010 [6 favorites]


Once upon a time, there was a village. As is often the case, some villagers were richer, happier, healthier or luckier than others, but for the most part, everyone lived a good life.

Then, one day, the aqueduct that provided water to the village exploded. A lot of people didn't quite understand why, and since the underlying causes of the explosion were very complex and multi-faceted, who could blame them? Even if people couldn't see why the explosion had happened, they quickly realized its consequences. Many farms couldn't afford to cart in water, and a famine was triggered. Many people had to leave their homes, either because they were underwater, or in order to move closer to another aqueduct. Even people who weren't directly affected became very worried, since food had become very expensive, and there were fears that more aqueducts would burst and the village would be thrown into even more dire straits.

Finally, a plumber from the village came forth with a bold idea. He had a plan for repairing the sections of the aqueduct that were still intact, and creating stronger pipe infrastructure to prevent a new disaster. The people were moved and inspired by the plan, imagining the day when their woes would be over, imagining a society as strong as--or stronger than--the day before the aqueduct burst. They agreed to give the man and the other workers in his plumbing shop money to work on the aqueduct, as well as the trust that the plumbers would do a good job with the complicated system.

But the repairs done by the plumbing shop were slow. It turned out that many of the plumbers in the plumbing shop did not like one another, or did not agree how best to fix the pipes. Many of the repairs took longer than the villagers had expected, and even as sections got repaired, some of the repaired pipes were leaky, or had low pressures, or wouldn't heat up right. The villagers became very impatient. They felt let down, because even the ones who still had faith in the plumbers had found that their high hopes had not been reached.

A rival plumbing shop began to speak to the villagers, asking them if they'd be willing to let them take over the pipe repairs, and many of the frustrated villagers began to entertain the idea. One day, a group of the rival plumbers came to the door of one of the farmers. The farmer asked them, "How do you plan to fix the aqueduct?"

Their leader responded, "We are going to rip out all of the repairs made by the other plumbers."

The farmer nodded, because even though the new repairs had allowed her to avoid starving to death, she was still barely scraping by. "And then what are you going to do?"

The lead plumber just blinked. "Surely you're not happy with the job they've done?"

The farmer shook her head. "No, I think a lot of their repairs fell short of what they promised."

The leader looked satisfied. "Good! Then--"

"But," said the farmer, "I want to know what you'll do."

The lead plumber looked at the farmer as though she hadn't understood what he'd said. "We. Are. Going. To. Reverse. Their. Repairs." He said, slowly, as though to a small child.

The farmer decided to vote Democrat.
-----


I wish that there was a viable, left-wing party in this country. I have started wishing that there was a viable center-right party in this country (sometimes, when thinking of the Tea Party's existence gets too depressing, I fantasize that the shouted-down centrists/moderates/sane people in the Republican party would just leave and form a party of people who may disagree with Democrats, but who are at least operating from the same set of facts.

Like you, ryanrs, I'm disappointed with some of the Democrats' broken promises and missed chances. Like you, I don't think they deserve to be completely off the hook for them; even though the Republicans went out of their way to be obstructionist, I do think there are times when the Democrats could have and should have pushed back harder. And no, I don't think that it's right to shove progressives away, or shame them for being unrealistic.

But I also know that minimizing the power of the Republican party, as it exists now, is nothing less than a matter of survival.
posted by kagredon at 2:22 AM on November 3, 2010 [21 favorites]


The farmer decided to vote Democrat. throw the bums out because the rival company has a socialist labor union and they want to fluoridate the water and their future cost overruns are scarier than all the currently flooded houses and aqueducts are job killers and can you believe all this water that's still everywhere amirite and also I heard that they use sharia hammers.
posted by Rhaomi at 2:43 AM on November 3, 2010 [9 favorites]


Many, many people argue that I must support the Democrats because the Republicans are worse. But that kind of compromised calculus is for middle-aged people with 2.5 kids and a mortgage, not young starry-eyed idealists.

I swear to god Dick Cheney must have had flashed the entire country with one of those Men In Black memory eraser pens on the way out of office. It's not a hypothetical alternative. We have seen the results of the Republican agenda, and they horrible.

I wish it was different, but we live in a country where Sarah Palin is considered a viable presidential candidate and Dennis Kucinich is not. It's like playing poker against someone who's declared that 2's, 3's, drink coasters, and his drivers license are wild. Your strategy should not be really hoping to draw that flush you need so badly. Your strategy is to get that guy off the table.
posted by billyfleetwood at 2:54 AM on November 3, 2010 [46 favorites]


America needs its idealists. America needs people to say "I will never support a President that engages in targeted killings of Americans". We need people who refuse to compromise on fundamental principles like the Bill of Rights, habeas corpus, and the Geneva Conventions.

I wish there was a "+10 favorites" button. I'd bang on it several times for that comment.
posted by Malor at 2:54 AM on November 3, 2010 [1 favorite]


Man, 2012 better be an awesome election. With legalized gambling, and legalized prostitution.

I'm going to hold my own election, with blackjack! And hookers! In fact, forget the election and the blackjack.
posted by Mr. Bad Example at 3:05 AM on November 3, 2010 [9 favorites]


Thank you, Mr. Bad Example. That was exactly what I was aiming for!
posted by mccarty.tim at 3:23 AM on November 3, 2010


Good news after all! I refuse to believe this was a typo!
posted by mccarty.tim at 3:41 AM on November 3, 2010 [3 favorites]


Right to hunt sticky buds?
posted by Jacqueline at 4:06 AM on November 3, 2010 [1 favorite]


My husband and I were going to vote NOTA (None of the Above) in the Reid/Angle race, but a last-minute robocall from Howard Lederer got us to reluctantly vote for Reid to reward his recent position change on legalizing online poker.
posted by Jacqueline at 4:07 AM on November 3, 2010


(even though the stinky poop head didn't friend me back on Facebook.)
posted by Jacqueline at 4:19 AM on November 3, 2010


Everybody please wake up and come talk politics some more. I have insomnia. :(
posted by Jacqueline at 4:34 AM on November 3, 2010 [1 favorite]


Good news everyone! Panda birth! And I think the zoo paid for the hospital stay via socialist medicine instead of the panda paying via HMO!

This makes up for the election, I wish!
posted by mccarty.tim at 4:36 AM on November 3, 2010


California you suck
posted by moorooka at 4:46 AM on November 3, 2010 [1 favorite]


Kevin Drum points out that The Tea Party probably cost the Republicans the senate due to the lack of non-crazy candidates. Cold comfort, I realize but it's something.
posted by octothorpe at 4:49 AM on November 3, 2010


1. Jesus christ, I go to sleep and wake up to this:
99% of precincts reporting
Quinn (D) 1,694,196 46.5%
Brady (R) 1,685,847 46.2%
Brady hasn't conceded, is demanding recount, etc. Somebody fucking call this thing already.

2. It looks like Scott Lee Cohen might have taken protest votes from Brady and saved Quinn's ass. Holy shit.

3. Now it's the morning and I probably shouldn't drink any more bourbon. Damn it.
posted by enn at 4:57 AM on November 3, 2010 [1 favorite]


I will be singing California Uber Alles all day.

Locally, my neighbor the republican beat the former town mayor for state senate. That the defeated and embarrassed mayor even ran showed how incompetent the local dems are.

10% of the country is unemployed, right? Enough to swing most elections. How did that block vote?
posted by These Premises Are Alarmed at 5:00 AM on November 3, 2010


Morning metafilter. /yawns.

I just had the most terrible dream -- let's turn on NPR

AH FUCK IT WASN'T A DREAM
posted by angrycat at 5:06 AM on November 3, 2010 [5 favorites]


I just finished a grueling 16 hour day, working as a Special Precinct Board Officer.

Charlie, thank you from the bottom of my heart. I need little glimmers of hope that we the people still actually have something to do with the process.
posted by Devils Rancher at 5:21 AM on November 3, 2010


OK voters approve measure allowing an opt-out of health care reform bill.
posted by madamjujujive


So did Arizona. And, AZ voted to end all affirmative action policies in the state.
posted by Saxon Kane at 5:21 AM on November 3, 2010


Automatic recount for Governor in Minnesota.


Let me take just a moment to collect my thoughts, and then blow them out the back of my head with a pistol.
posted by Astro Zombie at 5:25 AM on November 3, 2010


Florida Governor ship down to <1% difference, or 50,000 votes out of 2 million and change. Oh, Florida (wipes face), you never cease to be exciting with your razor thin margins. President Bush? What?
posted by cavalier at 5:28 AM on November 3, 2010 [1 favorite]


Jesus christ, I go to sleep and wake up to this:

This is the first thing I looked at this morning, too. Brady scares the piss out of me.
posted by shakespeherian at 5:32 AM on November 3, 2010


Anyone projecting a White House for Certain win in 2012: It's a midterm election, for god's sake.

I have a conservative co-worker who (although we are Canadian) is crowing this morning about how the news this morning is a clear indicator that Obama will be a one-term president, thank GOD.

I haven't the heart to tell her that the American electorate doesn't often turn a party out of the White House after only four years. The fluky Jimmy Carter aside, the last time that the presidency changed parties after only four years was after one-termer Benjamin Harrison in, what, 1892?
posted by ricochet biscuit at 5:38 AM on November 3, 2010


George Bush Sr. was a 1-term president too.
posted by Jacqueline at 5:42 AM on November 3, 2010


Oh nevermind, you're talking about parties' hold on the WH, not individual terms. Sorry.
posted by Jacqueline at 5:46 AM on November 3, 2010


Hard to imagine a better outcome for the GOP. Sanity seems to have prevailed as the crazier candidates (Angle, O'Donnell, Miller, Paladino) lost. This will make it difficult for President Obama to argue that the electorate was voting out of pure anger and emotion. Rubio's victory was pretty sweet, as was Mark Kirk's in Illinois.

Rand Paul is about the nuttiest one to have won, and I guess it will be good to at least see how he performs in the Senate.
posted by BobbyVan at 5:54 AM on November 3, 2010


Honestly, it's hard not to think of the voting public as being largely stupid.
posted by nomadicink at 5:56 AM on November 3, 2010 [4 favorites]


I just finished a grueling 16 hour day, working as a Special Precinct Board Officer.

Are the people who work at the polls usually so partisan? Or is the logic that you pick one person from each side so its fair?
posted by smackfu at 6:00 AM on November 3, 2010


Automatic recount for Governor in Minnesota.


Let me take just a moment to collect my thoughts, and then blow them out the back of my head with a pistol.


Ditto. I have no fucking clue how this happened. Was it my imagination, or did the MN DFL bail on Dayton?
posted by Think_Long at 6:07 AM on November 3, 2010


Sanity seems to have prevailed as the crazier candidates (Angle, O'Donnell, Miller, Paladino) lost.

I've heard the opinion that having super-bizarre candidates out there to suck up the attention made candidates who would normally be too far right for statewide office (Toomey for example, or Ron Johnson) seem moderate and legit in comparison. Not sure how much weight to give that, but I've heard it expressed.
posted by gimonca at 6:08 AM on November 3, 2010 [1 favorite]


If it hadn't been for the beating, I'd have been glad Rand Paul won. That Aqua Buddha ad was repugnant.

As it is, I'm interested to see what he does. I'd like to see him work with Jim Webb on prison reform, for example. I think he could do some good things.
posted by empath at 6:16 AM on November 3, 2010


Was it my imagination, or did the MN DFL bail on Dayton?

The real question is why did the DFL let its solid grip on the Minnesota legislature get away. Somebody at DFL HQ is going to be asked some tough, tough, tough questions.

If you want a seminar in stupidity, MN-8 decided (just barely) to get rid of Jim Oberstar, who has tons of seniority and funnels jobs and money to Duluth and the northeast. Voting Oberstar out of office means that Minnesotans will lose jobs, simple as that. Oberstar's replacement is a dumb ideological hack who will accomplish nothing, and who will have to kowtow to teabaggers.

Weakness in the 8th district is why the MN governor race is as close as it is. Dayton was leading all night by as much as 7%, votes from St Louis county (Duluth, etc.) were slow coming in. The assumption was that votes from Oberstar's district would come in and seal the race for Dayton. Instead, Emmer gained ground in the 8th and almost closed the gap.

This isn't Franken/Coleman again, Dayton's still up by a good 10,000 votes or so, and ought to come through this okay. It will still be profoundly annoying to live in Minnesota for the next month or so as the Republican noise machine tries to subvert the process.
posted by gimonca at 6:26 AM on November 3, 2010 [4 favorites]


billyfleetwood:

It's actually worse than the mind wiping device.. If the polls are to be believed, a decent majority of voters remember what the Republicans did and blame them for the state of the economy, and aren't blaming Obama. And yet they elected them anyways. If it were the typical American amnesia regarding politics, then I could almost understand the vote, but for once, the American people remember. Makes no sense at all.

Regarding Palin, she's a viable candidate only to the media, who also treated O'Donnell as if she were viable. At this point, Palin probably couldn't even carry her own, rather red, state. But you're right. By the standards of the media, someone with the prospects of Kucinich should be treated equally with someone who has the prospects of Palin or O'Donnell, and this will never be the case.
posted by honestcoyote at 6:27 AM on November 3, 2010 [1 favorite]


Yowza, just checked the results of the AZ election this morning. It looks like the exact opposite of how my husband and I voted. Going into next year we're looking at a $51 million deficit for core services, instead of raising the sales tax half a percent. It's too early to call it, but it looks like we get to keep Gabrielle Giffords. Take that, you weird hateful state!
posted by lizjohn at 6:33 AM on November 3, 2010


Hey, idiots who are all pissy and urged people not to vote because Obama didn't give you a unicorn: Fuck you.

Hey, soreheads who are all pissy because their party sucks so hard that it got its ass kicked by a group as unpopular as the Republicans: Try looking in a mirror instead of looking for a hippie to punch.
posted by Joe Beese at 6:37 AM on November 3, 2010 [5 favorites]


The real question is why did the DFL let its solid grip on the Minnesota legislature get away. Somebody at DFL HQ is going to be asked some tough, tough, tough questions.

A few words about Minnesota: Jessie Ventura. Michelle Bachmann.

At some point, Minnesota let its solid grip on reality get away.
posted by leftcoastbob at 6:38 AM on November 3, 2010


Everytime I see Sestack I read Sleestak. Looks like the Lizard people are still taking part in electoral shenanigans.
posted by longbaugh at 6:39 AM on November 3, 2010 [3 favorites]


A few more points about Minnesota: Keith Ellison, Al Franken, Amy Kobuchar.
posted by Astro Zombie at 6:39 AM on November 3, 2010 [2 favorites]


Well, dang. Mom conceded last night around 11.
posted by MrMoonPie at 6:39 AM on November 3, 2010


At some point, Minnesota let its solid grip on reality get away.

I feared this would happen after Prince released Around the World in a Day.
posted by Joe Beese at 6:44 AM on November 3, 2010 [5 favorites]


Note: All conceding moms need a hug.
posted by nomadicink at 6:45 AM on November 3, 2010 [6 favorites]


I'm afraid things are pretty bleak here in NC. I lost my Democratic Congressman, Bob Etheridge, and Republicans have taken control of the state General Assembly for the first time in 100 years. What really frosts my cookies is the "Christian Family for McCain" on the corner, the house with 20 lawn signs and the 2 year old poster in the window "Get your hands off my Healthcare" had everything go their way. Fuckers.
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 6:48 AM on November 3, 2010 [1 favorite]


Normally, after an outcome like this, I'd say The Daily Show was the big winner, but after that rally on Saturday I'm not sure what to think.
posted by mazola at 6:49 AM on November 3, 2010


had everything go their way. Fuckers

Heh, they were the ones saying the same thing 2 years ago.
posted by smackfu at 6:50 AM on November 3, 2010


Actually, two years ago they were saying "KENYAN SOCIALISM DEATH PANELS BABY MURDERERS."
posted by Astro Zombie at 6:54 AM on November 3, 2010


I wish there was a "+10 favorites" button. I'd bang on it several times for that comment.

While we're wishing, how about that in the voting booth?
posted by condour75 at 6:54 AM on November 3, 2010


smackfu: Are the people who work at the polls usually so partisan?

I actually called our secretary of state's office to ask about volunteering at the polls here in CT. The way it was explained to me was there are two workers from each party (in most towns) per polling station. It's a party appointment and a paid position. The guy at SoS even made me feel a little bad that these people might 'depend' on that small amount of income.

They gave me the names of the town party coordinators, but I didn't really want to work as a partisan, and I'm not a member of a political party. All I wanted to do was hang with the old ladies and cross names off a list.
posted by These Premises Are Alarmed at 6:54 AM on November 3, 2010


Heh, they were the ones saying the same thing 2 years ago.

Yeah, I know. What convinced me to take the Obama sticker off my car about a year after the election was my constant irritation at their McCain lawn sign. I thought, "Boy, they are not going to let go," and then realized that I was probably just as enraging to them in my smug superiority.
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 6:55 AM on November 3, 2010


Meanwhile in other more important news, all of the school levies save for one (in the rich folk's township) failed to pass in my area. Who needs the Republicans coming in to dismantle our infrastructure when the voting public is more than willing to do it themselves?
posted by charred husk at 6:56 AM on November 3, 2010


Become the change you seek.

Adopt a shelter dog. While high.
posted by Joe Beese at 6:57 AM on November 3, 2010 [7 favorites]


By the standards of the media, someone with the prospects of Kucinich should be treated equally with someone who has the prospects of Palin or O'Donnell, and this will never be the case.

Singer's documentary Spin needs to be more widely seen. Singer uses raw footage of news footage transmitted by satellite to show how the mass media bent the 1992 election. We have Bush delivering a half-dozen takes of an interview response. We have compare/contrast footage of Clinton given substantial lighting and makeup prep while a frustrated Agran gets a lone cameraman. In spite of polling with Harkin and Brown, Agran gets dropped from coverage of early primaries. The most notorious segment is Larry King's backroom banter with Bill Clinton about Turner's interest in the election. So yes, the news media, not just FOX News, is dirty to the bone when it comes to American electoral politics.
posted by KirkJobSluder at 6:59 AM on November 3, 2010 [6 favorites]


Ever since about two months after 9/11, my country has been crazy in one way or another, with brief periods of sanity and levelheadedness When the bad shit gets too much I turn off the news and listen to music instead. I highly recommend it for one's sanity. I guess this is a note for younger voters. I remember how gut-punched I felt in '94.
posted by angrycat at 7:01 AM on November 3, 2010 [1 favorite]


You know what I'm really looking forward to? The gloating.
posted by Astro Zombie at 7:03 AM on November 3, 2010 [2 favorites]


Sorry America, Florida shat the bed again. Right down to the counties.
posted by toodleydoodley at 7:04 AM on November 3, 2010


Also in Connecticut, the Secretary of State says we might not have a winner in the Governor race for 'weeks'. Voting in Bridgeport (CT's largest and poorest city) had to be extended two hours because they ran out of ballots, I'm sure the photocopied ballots they ended up using will be contested.
posted by These Premises Are Alarmed at 7:04 AM on November 3, 2010


All I wanted to do was hang with the old ladies and cross names off a list.

Aww, that's a bummer. I was thinking the same thing, I could take a day off and do my civic duty. I thought the elderly just did it because they didn't have jobs... it's a bit depressing if it is their job.
posted by smackfu at 7:08 AM on November 3, 2010


Singer's documentary Spin needs to be more widely seen.

You don't even mention the best part... Larry King and Bush I discussing Halcion.
posted by drezdn at 7:09 AM on November 3, 2010


This isn't Franken/Coleman again, Dayton's still up by a good 10,000 votes or so, and ought to come through this okay. It will still be profoundly annoying to live in Minnesota for the next month or so as the Republican noise machine tries to subvert the process.

Good to know, but it's still really fucking embarrassing.
posted by Think_Long at 7:19 AM on November 3, 2010


Ugh, I woke up and read the Statesman's coverage of the statewide elections on my RSS feed. Just reading the headlines was enough to make me want to pull my head under the covers and hibernate until 2020, which is when we'll get our next shot at redistricting. The Republicans own the statehouse (which means they get to run redistricting again), Warren fucking Chisum's probably the next Speaker of the House, it was a rout for Democratic judicial candidates statewide, and we couldn't even do anything about the fucking SBOE.

When Rick Perry runs for President, all y'all vote AGAINST him, ok?
posted by immlass at 7:20 AM on November 3, 2010


When Rick Perry runs for President, all y'all vote AGAINST him, ok?

I can very easily agree to this.
posted by sonika at 7:21 AM on November 3, 2010 [2 favorites]


You know what I'm looking forward to? Having to sit through business luncheons with hardcore right-winger clients, sitting on my hands and listening to them literally talk about how great it would be to kill all the liberals and watching on in silent horror as all the state government business gets doled out exclusively to Republican friendly companies like it did before Alex Sink was elected CFO and the relatively moderate Crist contributed to a short-term softening on the hardcore Republican political control in Florida. If Scott does finally cinch the election (he's already declared himself the winner though officially it's still too close to call), we're completely screwed in Florida. The last thing we need in our already corruption-prone state right now is a corrupt carpetbagging billionaire in charge. I've got very little hope left for Florida. And I'm not looking forward to the next decade at all.

It's unbelievable to me that voters in my state actually let themselves be conned into voting for "change" by electing the most extreme faction of the same political party that's been in control of every level of Florida government for over a decade now.

Unbelievable.
posted by saulgoodman at 7:25 AM on November 3, 2010 [10 favorites]


So we've got a new governor in Georgia: a guy who quit the US House of Representatives before he could be brought up on ethics charges and who has significant personal financial problems (including $2.1 in failed business debt). Governor Deal will be blessed with a Republican lieutenant governor and a Republican majority in the statehouse.

He's still better than the guy he's replacing. We might get Sunday liquor sales finally, and he's showed some interest in legalizing casino gambling (a stance he backed off from on the campaign trail, but it's assumed he did that for votes).

Sorry, Ohio, but Boehner's my monster under the bed for the next few years. I'm terrified for health care.
posted by catlet at 7:30 AM on November 3, 2010


On the plus side, we can finally sell our GoldLine coins now that the government is in good hands.
posted by mccarty.tim at 7:30 AM on November 3, 2010 [7 favorites]


Hey, soreheads who are all pissy because their party sucks so hard that it got its ass kicked by a group as unpopular as the Republicans: Try looking in a mirror instead of looking for a hippie to punch.

It's maybe just some crazy notion I dreamed up in a fever, but don't you have to live in this country too?
posted by shakespeherian at 7:30 AM on November 3, 2010 [2 favorites]


Saul! We're in the same state! Give me a hug, you tough lug, I had no idea we were in the same peninsula!

Edit: FFS, Sink just conceded. God damn it.
posted by cavalier at 7:42 AM on November 3, 2010


Yeah, just heard the news about the Scott win. Damn. I feel like I've failed my son.
posted by saulgoodman at 7:48 AM on November 3, 2010


cavalier, saul, I want a hug too.

(Way to give up, Sink.)
posted by cmyk at 7:50 AM on November 3, 2010


And we're off with the circular firing squad. Evan Bayh blames gays, progressives, and health care reform.
posted by KirkJobSluder at 7:53 AM on November 3, 2010


DenverPost calls Bennet the winner in Colorado's senate race.
posted by madamjujujive at 7:53 AM on November 3, 2010


...oops, here's the link: Bennet wins in Senate race.
posted by madamjujujive at 7:55 AM on November 3, 2010


There is little hope for major legislation of any kind moving through Congress. Further fiscal stimulus is out of the question. Instead, Obama is more likely to spend the next two years fighting off attempts by House Republicans to roll back the achievements, such as they are, of his first two terms. The grim truth is that, outside of anything Bernanke's Federal Reserve decides to do, the window for effective economic policy-making is closed, for now.

But symbolically, Obama can still set a tone. His actions in the next few weeks will tell us much. He has yet to appoint a replacement for Larry Summers as Director of the National Economic Council. If, as some have predicted, he ends up picking a CEO for the job as part of an effort to prove himself more Wall Street-friendly, he will send a clear signal that the "anti-business" jibes have taken their toll. If, as hinted late last week, he abandons his effort to allow the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans to expire, the move will mark another obvious retreat. And if he suddenly restyles himself as a fiscal conservative, aiming to bring government spending under control, he will have declared outright surrender.


We won't have long to wait. The Catfood Commission is scheduled to release its report on December 1.
posted by Joe Beese at 8:02 AM on November 3, 2010


Well, this certainly validates the Democrats "centrist" strategy of moving the party to the right. At least the Blue Dogs got put down.

Looking forward to at least a decade of deflationary recession.
posted by warbaby at 8:15 AM on November 3, 2010


Do you still roll on DailyKos, Joe, or are we your only political stomping ground? Just wondering about resources.
posted by cavalier at 8:15 AM on November 3, 2010


I can't decide whether I should start ranting "Is it fixed yet?" today at the people who completely swept into power in my state last night, or if I should hold off til tomorrow. I mean, they will have had a whole 24 hours to right the ship of state, amirite? Maybe I'll give them until next Monday.
posted by beelzbubba at 8:19 AM on November 3, 2010 [3 favorites]


Parable time!

Mr. A, Mr. D and Mr. R are at a party. Mr. A is standing next to Mr. D and is having an okay time, but is a little bored. Mr. D seems like a pretty good guy, but you can tell he isn't exactly trying his hardest to have an interesting conversation with Mr. A. Mr. R is standing nearby and keeps yelling at Mr. A "Mr. D is so boring! And he ate the last of the appetizers. And he's flirting with your wife!" Mr. A thinks Mr. R has a point and goes over to stand next to Mr. R. Mr. R then proceeds to yell "Look over there Mr. A, a bird!" and kicks Mr. A right in his balls as hard as he can. Then Mr. R says "Look Mr. A, a bat!" and kicks him in the balls again, then "Look a condor!" and kicks him a third time. The whole time Mr. D is saying "You know Mr. A, Mr. R may be acting in a way that is not in your best interest" and trying to mitigate the damages Mr. R is doing with his repeated kicks to Mr. A's balls. Pulling off Mr. R's steel toe boot at the last minute, preventing Mr. R from kicking as hard as he possibly could, that kind of thing. Finally, despite all the distractions, Mr. A starts to feel a little pain and walks over to Mr. D. Mr. D says "For some reason it appears you have some severe injuries to your groin Mr. A. We need to fix that." Mr. A says "By God you're right Mr. D. In fact my balls hurt incredibly bad. Make my balls not hurt Mr. D!" Mr. D goes to put an ice pack on Mr. A, but Mr. R knocks the ice out of his hands and Mr. D can only put a wet rag on there. Mr. D goes and gets Mr. A some prescription painkillers but Mr. R throws them away and Mr. D can only give Mr. A aspirin. Meanwhile Mr. A is really feeling the pain now. His balls are killing him and Mr. D is only giving him these half measures. And the whole time Mr. R is yelling "Mr. D isn't doing anything to help your hurt balls! And he just stole your wallet! And he's sleeping with your wife!" Mr. A is imploring Mr. D to make his balls not hurt, but now Mr. D is probing around to find out how much damage was done and talking about the need for painful surgery while Mr. A isn't worried about his long term health, he just wants his balls to stop hurting. Mr. R tells Mr. A that all he needs is to walk it off and for Mr. D to stop probing at him and he'll feel all better so finally Mr. A walks quickly away from Mr. D. The next thing he hears is "Look Mr. A, a gryphon!" and thinks he sees Mr. R making a kind of kicking motion out of the corner of his eye . . .
posted by ND¢ at 8:19 AM on November 3, 2010 [17 favorites]


I don't get it.
posted by shakespeherian at 8:25 AM on November 3, 2010 [1 favorite]


Evan Bayh blames gays, progressives, and health care reform.

Calling this a "circular firing squad" implies that GLBT Americans are adequately represented. When a Democratic Senator calls gays zealots, maybe it's time for the Democratic Party to admit that it doesn't represent liberals or the left-wing anymore.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 8:25 AM on November 3, 2010 [5 favorites]


If Scott does finally cinch the election (he's already declared himself the winner though officially it's still too close to call), we're completely screwed in Florida.

Go down to your county courthouse and Baker-act the SOB.
posted by Devils Rancher at 8:26 AM on November 3, 2010 [1 favorite]


Do you still roll on DailyKos, Joe, or are we your only political stomping ground?

"Joe Beese" got bounced from DK quite a while ago for the kind of... impassioned Obama criticism for which I'm so beloved here. As did several of his successors. My most recent incarnation is hanging in there while he tries to behave himself.
posted by Joe Beese at 8:28 AM on November 3, 2010


Rand Paul is about the nuttiest one to have won, and I guess it will be good to at least see how he performs in the Senate.

It will be entertaining. The Senate is not the House, which is where the populists usually end up. He will have to trim back his insanity or get schooled quickly.
posted by krinklyfig at 8:33 AM on November 3, 2010


That does it. After missing the rally to restore sanity, and this disappointment, I'm going to host a satellite rally held at a slightly different time coordinate at The College of New Jersey. I will make food, signs, games and other funness, and we'll commandeer a student longue. And we shall party in ways the college republicans can only dream of (meaning, we civilly watch a torrented copy of the rally, while eating a bunch of stuff I cooked, and take photos of it).
posted by mccarty.tim at 8:34 AM on November 3, 2010


As much as I loathe your "ObamaBomb" comments, i.e., in threads that might not need them, Joe, I can't help but be tickled by your writeup of your time over there. You've just got that... something.
posted by cavalier at 8:37 AM on November 3, 2010


He will have to trim back his insanity or get schooled quickly.

I have no doubt that Senator Paul will find a way to work with his senior colleagues. The Tea Party talk was strictly for the rubes.
posted by Joe Beese at 8:41 AM on November 3, 2010


Congratulations Joe Beese! You're a winner!

If I didn't have a family to think about, I would right this instant resign my job and just start walking, with no particular destination in mind. I'm that utterly crushed by this election. You "activists" (meaning, not real activists but credulous pretenders and Greenwald-ites) don't seem to understand is that there are actual people whose lives are immediately impacted by your incredibly reckless and unsophisticated political calculations. I wasn't kidding before about the sorry state of politics and business in Florida. I lived as a consultant through the Bush years and saw personally and up close how vindictive, petty, corrupt and nasty the Republican right in Florida is. I'll be lucky if I don't lose my job in the near future. Congratulations! You've done your part to help elect the class bullies and guarantee that nothing at all will get done for the next two years (which of course you'll still blame on the few actual reformers left).

Dammit.
posted by saulgoodman at 8:42 AM on November 3, 2010 [4 favorites]


We restored our (R) seat to a (D) out here in Hawaii. In fact, we restored virtually all of our major (R) seats to (D) seats. You're welcome.
posted by Joey Michaels at 8:43 AM on November 3, 2010 [1 favorite]


Well, we're boned.
posted by entropicamericana at 8:44 AM on November 3, 2010 [1 favorite]


Congratulations, again, Joe Beese: Your life's ambition of taking down Obama just got a huge boost.

The GOP plan to investigate Obama.
posted by saulgoodman at 8:46 AM on November 3, 2010


I don't see why this election result is at all surprising or disappointing. The economy sucks, the Democrats had 2 good elections in a row and were probably punching above their weightclass. It's a midterm election. There was approximately 0 chance that the Democrats were going to hold the House, no matter who was running or what the issues were, barring some kind of 9/11 level event.

The end result of this change in government is going to be approximately nothing, since the Democrats could barely get shit done as it was. With us holding the Senate, the republicans aren't going to be able to enact or repeal anything.
posted by empath at 8:49 AM on November 3, 2010 [8 favorites]


More good news, Joe:

Republicans to Challenge Obama on Spending

The freedom train is already rolling. Just wait! We'll have legal pot and gay marriage in no time, now that the Tea Party's in charge won't we? And if we don't, I'm sure you'll be first in line to point out the failures.
posted by saulgoodman at 8:50 AM on November 3, 2010


Empath: Like I said, you probably don't have to face this shit in real life day in, day out. In my line of work, I often do. That's why the result is so disappointing to me. Because the consequences aren't at all abstract or theoretical to me personally. I literally have to deal with these assholes in my daily life, and knowing what that was like before, when the Republican party was in their first decade of political ascendancy, I'm in no hurry to get back to business.
posted by saulgoodman at 8:52 AM on November 3, 2010


More good news, Joe:

Stop hounding Joe Beese and making this thread about him. He's been good in here. Don't bring in baggage from other threads.
posted by shakespeherian at 8:54 AM on November 3, 2010 [23 favorites]


It's a blip. The economy will be rolling by 2012 and Obama will win in a walk.
posted by empath at 8:54 AM on November 3, 2010


Calling this a "circular firing squad" implies that GLBT Americans are adequately represented. When a Democratic Senator calls gays zealots, maybe it's time for the Democratic Party to admit that it doesn't represent liberals or the left-wing anymore.

Yeah, I'm struggling to understand what he's talking about here. DADT failed to get past cloture. ENDA is languishing in committee and was developed under Bush's term. The Matthew Shepard Act also was developed under Bush and reintroduced in 2009. DOMA repeal was stalled in the house in favor of court-system challenges.
posted by KirkJobSluder at 8:55 AM on November 3, 2010 [1 favorite]


The GOP plan to investigate Obama.

For what, Presidenting While Black?
posted by cmyk at 8:56 AM on November 3, 2010 [14 favorites]


Fine.

Good news, America! The supreme court justices who voted to legalize same sex marriage in Iowa got the boot, too, in the latest wave of "voting for change." I feel so much freer now.
posted by saulgoodman at 8:57 AM on November 3, 2010


For what, Presidenting While Black?

Basically -- Acorn, SEIU, Black Panthers, etc....
posted by empath at 8:58 AM on November 3, 2010



The GOP plan to investigate Obama.

surly, the sun will rise.
posted by clavdivs at 8:58 AM on November 3, 2010 [1 favorite]


For what, Presidenting While Black?

Hidden-camera investigative footage of Obama giving advice to an undercover Republican operative dressed in a pimp suit.
posted by KirkJobSluder at 8:59 AM on November 3, 2010 [3 favorites]


If anything comes of this, I hope it's some clear messaging and leadership from the Oval Office. I.e., as obviously cooperation will be needed to get stuff through House, let's have a leader making statements as opposed to hoping the public/congress critters will just "do the right thing" on their own. School's in session, B.O., get in there like you have a pair.

/blindpartisanship
/lookingatyou,gibbs
posted by cavalier at 9:04 AM on November 3, 2010 [1 favorite]


Stop hounding Joe Beese and making this thread about him.

Very seriously, this. Thank you.
posted by jessamyn at 9:10 AM on November 3, 2010 [1 favorite]


A setback, not a defeat....
posted by triggerfinger at 9:15 AM on November 3, 2010


Congratulations Joe Beese! ... You've done your part to help elect the class bullies and guarantee that nothing at all will get done for the next two years (which of course you'll still blame on the few actual reformers left).

Much as I'd like to take credit for suppressing decisive margins of battleground voters with the rhetorical power of my fiery Internet ranting, I suspect that your party's failure to reduce the double-digit unemployment rate had more to do with it.

If working out on me helps dull your pain today, I'm willing to provide that service to a brother MeFite. But you really should understand that "Clap louder" will not be any more viable an electoral strategy in 2012 than it is now.
posted by Joe Beese at 9:18 AM on November 3, 2010 [10 favorites]


I suspect that your party's failure to reduce the double-digit unemployment rate had more to do with it.

I suspect you're right, although casting it as the failure of one party is like casting winter as being the failure of spring. There's just no way to make the sort of changes people wanted in the time allotted. Our economy almost collapsed.
posted by Astro Zombie at 9:20 AM on November 3, 2010 [4 favorites]


If anything comes of this, I hope it's some clear messaging and leadership from the Oval Office.

How in the world is that possible when the media and the Republican leadership have already made it clear that regardless of reality, they are going to insist that this entire election was a referendum on Obama's far too liberal agenda?

In what universe, is it even remotely possible for the Oval office to push more aggressively in any direction (progressive or otherwise) when the main thing the Republicans and the press are talking about is that this election sends a clear message that it's time to limit Obama's unchecked pursuit of the liberal agenda?

Besides, for weeks if not months ahead of the election, Boehner has been making statements indicating that if the Republicans took the house, he would force a complete shutdown of the legislative process and that he viewed his top priority as making sure Obama became a one-term president?

We've got at least two years ahead of, at best, random parts being removed from the engine of governance--at least two years of the head mechanics telling us over and over again that the only way to get our car running and back on the road again is to make the engine smaller, put less fuel in the tank, and take out the spark plugs. I don't know. It's bleak.
posted by saulgoodman at 9:21 AM on November 3, 2010


and watch the real stock market drop as well....

I thought electing republicans was supposed to solve all our economic problems?
posted by caddis at 9:22 AM on November 3, 2010


But you really should understand that "Clap louder" will not be any more viable an electoral strategy in 2012 than it is now.

That's great, but I'm not a political strategist. I'm just a dude, and not even registered with one of the major parties, so giving me advice about electoral strategies doesn't make a whole lot of sense.
posted by saulgoodman at 9:23 AM on November 3, 2010


Watching the election results roll out, only one question comes to my mind:

Americans, why do you hate Anmerica so much?
posted by five fresh fish at 9:24 AM on November 3, 2010 [1 favorite]


I'm just a dude, and not even registered with one of the major parties...

Well, there you go. We have two things in common.
posted by Joe Beese at 9:32 AM on November 3, 2010


Hey, soreheads who are all pissy because their party sucks so hard that it got its ass kicked by a group as unpopular as the Republicans: Try looking in a mirror instead of looking for a hippie to punch.

What a fine admonition from someone whose rhetoric is so overtly baited and fulminating with pugilism itself that you're lucky if someone hasn't taken the idea literally while you're around.

There is some truth in what you're saying, but no apparent knowledge of the unavoidable truth that this goes both ways. If you don't have a caucus, it's because there was a failure to work with other people on the merits of your ideas. Maybe that's their failure. Or maybe it's a failure of your ideas. Or maybe it's your failure. I'm ready to face that idea. Are you?

It's maybe just some crazy notion I dreamed up in a fever, but don't you have to live in this country too?

Past a certain point, you don't really have to worry about any policy subtleties, political issues, or sausage-making, or the sufferings or successes of actual people. You can live in a separate country of your own conscience, where the highest value isn't whether or not any actual improvements happen or disasters are averted but whether or not you feel good. Particularly if you're of the class where you're just insulated enough from the consequences that you can afford for this to be a game of ideals instead of practicalities.
posted by namespan at 9:32 AM on November 3, 2010 [2 favorites]


Americans, why do you hate America so much?

We could ask the same about why you hate Toronto. Oh, you're not from Toronto? Well I'm not from Kentucky.
posted by jessamyn at 9:33 AM on November 3, 2010 [5 favorites]


Hey, kids? Can we not just start passive aggressively calling each other names in this thread? Take it to Memail or, like, a brewpub or something.
posted by shakespeherian at 9:37 AM on November 3, 2010


I hate Toronto because they sided against us in the war of 1812.

Yeah, I can hold a grudge.
posted by Astro Zombie at 9:43 AM on November 3, 2010 [5 favorites]


Americans, why do you hate Anmerica so much?

Canadians, why do you love Stephen Harper so much?
posted by nomadicink at 9:49 AM on November 3, 2010 [3 favorites]


zoogleplex wrote: "Many of us suspect that the backroom dealing involved has set it up so the insurers can boost rates drastically, which won't help us much given that (as I understand it) we'll be legally forced to buy health insurance. If it's anything like our car insurance, we're probably gonna get screwed."

Not unless they can miraculously get around the loss ratio requirements.
posted by wierdo at 9:54 AM on November 3, 2010


My apologies. Lord knows only an America that loves itself would elect these goons.
posted by five fresh fish at 9:57 AM on November 3, 2010 [1 favorite]



The San Francisco Examiner has a marvelous front page today.
posted by CunningLinguist at 9:57 AM on November 3, 2010 [3 favorites]


Well, unfortunately, the health insurance exchange system the recently passed health care reform legislations sets up puts most of the power for establishing the regulatory environment for Health Insurance Providers under the control of the state government (the new insurance exchanges will be under state-level control).

In Florida, that means that a once-disgraced HMO CEO whose former company essentially pleaded no-contest to the largest ever Medicare fraud scam in the nation's history is now in charge of implementing the health care reform in Florida. My suspicion is his friends and colleagues are going to do pretty well over the next four years; health care consumers in Florida, not so much.

If you can stomach it, you might want to research who Rick Scott's cronies closest business associates are and invest heavily in their companies. You'll be raking in the big bucks before you know it.
posted by saulgoodman at 10:02 AM on November 3, 2010 [2 favorites]


It's not all bad news for GLBT Americans! Openly gay mayor of Providence David Cicilline was elected to the House! I'm not sure what exactly his positions are on...um... anything... but hey! He's openly gay and in Congress!
posted by sonika at 10:03 AM on November 3, 2010


The San Francisco Examiner has a marvelous front page today.

Holy shit, $20 free play at Twin Pine!
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 10:06 AM on November 3, 2010 [3 favorites]


Hey, look on the bright side, you out of $140 million dollars today?

Right, I'll accept your silence as an enthusiastic "Hells no!!" so then I'd say no matter what your beef with whatever who whatsit, at least you're not as utterlyand properly borked as Meg Whitman.
posted by Skygazer at 10:09 AM on November 3, 2010 [1 favorite]


jokeefe: Jerry Brown is now the governor of California? What am I time travelling? Am I insane? Please explain. Anyone?

Jerry Brown had support from Hispanics, women, and his role as an "insider's outsider", experienced yet not with big money, as he won despite being completely out-spent in terms of campaign promotions. Fun fact: Meg Whitman didn't register to vote until 2002, and apparently hasn't voted for a president, ever.
posted by filthy light thief at 10:17 AM on November 3, 2010 [1 favorite]


Not unless they can miraculously get around the loss ratio requirements.

Weirdo, the cynic in me asks, "and what giant industry hasn't been able to totally game the system and ignore regulations and rip everyone off in the last decade? Viz the housing debt debacle, Gulf oil spill, etc."

The hopeful me hopes that others know more about this healthcare reform and can assure me that we aren't going to get ripped off with higher premiums, but is still skeptical until we actually see the thing in action.

Meanwhile, all you non-Republicans in here, get your whining and moaning done today and then put it behind you and get to effing work tomorrow, as best you can, at turning this mess around. The giant shit-eating grins on people like Joe Beese can be wiped away fast if the House majority faces a pack of snarling angry wolves instead of startled milling sheep for the next 2 years.

If you're just gonna whine, they'll never stop gloating.
posted by zoogleplex at 10:18 AM on November 3, 2010


In a sea of dismal news, I'm proud of California, my state. I almost lost hope with the passage of H8, and seeing prop 19 go down yesterday was painful. But. Looking out at our great country, I must say, we here on the Left Coast, seem to have stopped the madness. We're the bulwark of sanity. Straight Demo ticket - Brown, Boxer and many down ticket races. We did this, despite being hugely outspent, despite record outside money spent against Demos, despite energized Repubs - we prevailed. We can say, truly, we are a blue state. Now back to work to finish the rest of the agenda (gay rights foremost among them).
posted by VikingSword at 10:18 AM on November 3, 2010 [2 favorites]


My apologies. Lord knows only an America that loves itself would elect these goons.

Prime Minister Stephen Minister is the current leader of the Conservative Party, which sits to the right of the Canadian political spectrum and received 37.6% of the popular vote in the most recent federal election, which happened to be lowest voter turnout in Canadian electoral history.

So really, you need to work on Canadian political problems rather than trolling across the border. But since you're here, it would be great if you could money, thanks
posted by nomadicink at 10:22 AM on November 3, 2010 [1 favorite]


Right, I'll accept your silence as an enthusiastic "Hells no!!" so then I'd say no matter what your beef with whatever who whatsit, at least you're not as utterlyand properly borked as Meg Whitman.

Just remember that those rich white women are subsidizing your TV, radio, and mail service.
posted by smackfu at 10:23 AM on November 3, 2010


Mod note: folks - making this thread about any one user is against the rules, please do not do it, please go to metatalk or MeMail if you feel you need to do it.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 10:27 AM on November 3, 2010 [2 favorites]


I know a significant amount of the turnaround is cyclical, and some is people unsatisfied with the current government. I have to wonder, though, if distancing themselves from Obama cost any Democrats seats.
posted by graventy at 10:38 AM on November 3, 2010


I imagine Meg Whitman sitting there dazed, saying to herself "but... But... I spent the most money! How could I have lost? The most money..."

Of course, she'd be down $140 mil even if she'd won. Governor salary wouldn't pay it back, and she can't pocket future campaign contributions.
posted by zoogleplex at 10:40 AM on November 3, 2010


zoogleplex wrote: "Weirdo, the cynic in me asks, "and what giant industry hasn't been able to totally game the system and ignore regulations and rip everyone off in the last decade? Viz the housing debt debacle, Gulf oil spill, etc.""

It's a pretty clear regulation. Of course, if the executive branch chooses not to enforce it, no amount of regulation will help.
posted by wierdo at 10:42 AM on November 3, 2010


It's a pretty clear regulation. Of course, if the executive branch chooses not to enforce it, no amount of regulation will help.

Not enforcing existing regulations is what led to both the present economic mess and the Gulf spill, so I'm sure you'll understand my position.
posted by zoogleplex at 10:45 AM on November 3, 2010 [1 favorite]


It wasn't only the lack of enforcement, though. The lifting of regulation in many areas also helped our recent messes along. But yes, I can completely understand the cynical view here, it's justified after Bush's gutting of every regulatory agency, and I doubt Obama has been able to change the culture in those agencies in a significant way.
posted by wierdo at 10:53 AM on November 3, 2010


It's a blip. The economy will be rolling by 2012 and Obama will win in a walk.

Do people really believe this? The economy part, I mean?

The best- best we can hope for at this point is that the economy "rolls" the way gas prices "rolled" in 2005 or so- that we just fucking get used to it.


Well, if you squint at California through a very optimistic lens, there's one big ray of hope. With the rejection of Prop 23 (the best news on a lousy night) and Jerry Brown in the state house, California will likely drive even harder at building a viable, large-scale clean-energy economy. There may very well thus be, by 2012, a very robust growth model in the country's most populous state to point at as Obama runs for re-election on the vision of industrial renewal he so eloquently painted on Earth Day 2009 in Newton, Iowa, in front of a shuttered Maytag factory reopened to make wind turbine blades.

This, of course, presupposes a pretty big shift in strategic thinking on the part of the DNC and the Obama administration. Which is why you can only see it through that rosy lens.
posted by gompa at 10:56 AM on November 3, 2010 [4 favorites]


Shrum calls it a bad night for the Tea Party, a good night for the establishment GOP.

"The Tea Party radicals were supported by all the weight and noise of talk radio and Fox News. They were supported by an alternative power structure within the GOP: The fundraising power of South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint's Senate Conservatives Fund. Their defeat raises important questions about the whole Tea Party project. It also weakens the alternative power structure in the GOP and strengthens the power of party's formal leaders against its informal ones."
posted by CunningLinguist at 11:01 AM on November 3, 2010


Past a certain point, you don't really have to worry about any policy subtleties, political issues, or sausage-making, or the sufferings or successes of actual people. You can live in a separate country of your own conscience, where the highest value isn't whether or not any actual improvements happen or disasters are averted but whether or not you feel good. Particularly if you're of the class where you're just insulated enough from the consequences that you can afford for this to be a game of ideals instead of practicalities.

I'm getting rather tired of the narrative that leftist Democratic voters cost the Democratic party the election because we dared to to do our jobs as citizens and ask that that the Democratic politicians help actual people by implementing planks of the Democratic party platform.

The teabaggers may be generally dumb as a box of rocks, but they at least understand that citizen activism is a part of that sausage-making process.
posted by KirkJobSluder at 11:03 AM on November 3, 2010 [8 favorites]


I should spell that out more clearly for the tl;dr crowd.

This part of Obama's Earth Day '09 speech:
Now, the choice we face is not between saving our environment and saving our economy. The choice we face is between prosperity and decline. We can remain the world's leading importer of oil, or we can become the world's leading exporter of clean energy. We can allow climate change to wreak unnatural havoc across the landscape, or we can create jobs working to prevent its worst effects. We can hand over the jobs of the 21st century to our competitors, or we can confront what countries in Europe and Asia have already recognized as both a challenge and an opportunity: The nation that leads the world in creating new energy sources will be the nation that leads the 21st-century global economy.

America can be that nation. America must be that nation. And while we seek new forms of fuel to power our homes and cars and businesses, we will rely on the same ingenuity -- the same American spirit -- that has always been a part of our American story.
That right there, to my mind and based on many years on the cleantech/climate beat as a journalist, is your durable winning strategy, Dems. If this is your core message, undiluted, repeated on every stump and from every spinning analyst from MSNBC to the local action news, you might be able to finally break all the way through.

Jobs, growth, renewal, building a better country - heartland, bread-and-butter, kitchen-table stuff. Cap and trade is a byzantine Wall Street thing, and it's so hard to grasp at soundbite scale that it can be spun any way your opponents want. What's more, if you look at the world's leading cleantech economies - Germany, Denmark, China, Japan, the state of California and the Canadian province of Ontario - not one of them built its foundations on cap and trade.
posted by gompa at 11:04 AM on November 3, 2010 [3 favorites]


8% unemployment in two years. If we're lucky. We're fucked.

No, if the complete meltdown that could have happened, if it weren't for the actions by Bush and Obama, happened we'd be fucked. But averting a catastrophic economic failure doesn't get you much with this electorate.
posted by nightwood at 11:04 AM on November 3, 2010


This has got to be the best headline for a candidate who still ran after the scandal broke.

IL makes me proud.
posted by stormpooper at 11:04 AM on November 3, 2010


gimonca: "Sanity seems to have prevailed as the crazier candidates (Angle, O'Donnell, Miller, Paladino) lost.

I've heard the opinion that having super-bizarre candidates out there to suck up the attention made candidates who would normally be too far right for statewide office (Toomey for example, or Ron Johnson) seem moderate and legit in comparison. Not sure how much weight to give that, but I've heard it expressed.
"

That's basically the argument put forth by Ward Churchill w/r/t political extremist violence. The idea that pacifism in and of itself wins the battle is a myth created by well-meaning but deluded hippies. I am not making a claim of agreement with this statement, but I think it poses a good question: Are people more willing to bargain with MLK, when they know that there's the Black Panthers out there? Are they more willing to work with Gandhi when they know that there are much more extreme and violent nationalists in India? I don't know. But it's an interesting concept.
posted by symbioid at 11:10 AM on November 3, 2010 [1 favorite]


It's a pretty clear regulation. Of course, if the executive branch chooses not to enforce it, no amount of regulation will help.

Except that, in large part, the enforcement has to be supported at the state level--Federal oversight will only be so good as the state-level coordination and implementation. So it's not even up to the Federal executive to make health care regulations have teeth or not. Please understand: I've worked with state governmental entities for nearly a decade and am not just talking out of my ass on this point. I've seen state government balk at enforcing Federal regulations and work to thwart them. It happens, for political and practical reasons alike.

Sure, HHS ultimately has rule-making authority on health care now--but enforcement will depend on the state level implementation of the insurance exchanges. If those parties running the state level government are out to scuttle or sidestep the intent or form of Federal rules, they have plenty of ways to make that happen. Everyone out there seems to underestimate how complicated governing a nation as large and complicated as the US actually is when they're forming their knee-jerk judgments about this or that political problem.

The reason the Republicans always seem so much more successful at pushing their agenda is because it's literally an agenda based on making the government less functional. The challenge is making government functional, not crippling it. Crippling it is easy. It's easy to look successful when your goal is not to accomplish anything through policy but to limit what can be done or even attempted through policy in the first place.
posted by saulgoodman at 11:20 AM on November 3, 2010 [5 favorites]


As Jamison Foser notes, they are essentially saying that the "rosy" scenario for Obama will be that the economy stays at the worst level it has ever been since the Great Depression for longer than any other periods since that time, combined.

8% unemployment in two years. If we're lucky. We're fucked.


Was he asleep during the first term of Reagan's presidency?
posted by empath at 11:25 AM on November 3, 2010


One thing I have learned about the economy is that it is never as good as you hope and never as bad as you fear.
posted by empath at 11:26 AM on November 3, 2010 [1 favorite]


Just one data point here: I work for a debt buyer. We buy defaulted unsecured consumer debt and judgments on unsecured debt from all the major banks. Our industry's PAC was active this cycle and is celebrating this outcome as a victory against the previous "anti-business" Congress. The useful idiots really pulled through for us this time.
posted by [citation needed] at 11:32 AM on November 3, 2010 [1 favorite]


That's not what you said. You said it'll be at the worst level it's been, and that's not the case. It's a long recession, but it's not the deepest.
posted by empath at 11:33 AM on November 3, 2010


You don't pay $140 Million for an election unless you expect to get something worth at least that much in return. It gives one pause.

One wonders if there's any silver lining for Whitman in this. I guess she's at least in a lower tax bracket now.
posted by Joey Michaels at 12:04 PM on November 3, 2010


Singer's documentary Spin needs to be more widely seen

Brian Springer

download here
posted by morganw at 12:05 PM on November 3, 2010 [4 favorites]


For what it's worth, we survived eight years of Bush, we'll survive this. The results of last night's election suck, but its not like either party is going to be in a position to move the country towards socialism and/or fascism. In fact, the inability of either party to work effectively with the other simply ensure that we continue to be a plutocracy.

So, in brief, the corporate overlords win again, but they always win.
posted by Joey Michaels at 12:34 PM on November 3, 2010 [3 favorites]


the unemployment rate will have been at 8.0 or higher for 46 consecutive months. That’s more than the total number of months the unemployment rate was that high from 1948-2008."

And that's the official number, which is most likely 7-8 percentage points lower than the real number. I got laid off 10/08, collected unemployment for a year trying ti find a new job, then said screw it and went freelance. So they're not counting me and a whole lot of other people like me. I saw somewhere that the statistics show that more people are going off unemployment; since jobs are still being lost I imagine that's because the max UI payments were for 99 weeks, and 99 weeks ago or so was autumn 2008.

In addition, while I'm doing fine with freelance, I'm not spending very much money that I don't need to spend, so my economic contribution is about half what it was before everything belly-flopped. Again I'm not alone in this. These trends are serious systemic problems that will take time to work out.

I do agree with empath that it's not as bad as it looks, but we are still in a tough place. It's going to take a lot of work to dig out of it, and it won't take many blunders to make it a lot worse.
posted by zoogleplex at 12:50 PM on November 3, 2010 [1 favorite]


For what it's worth, we survived eight years of Bush, we'll survive this.

I like optimism, but this species of it troubles me. There were Bad Things that resulted from the '94 elections. There were Bad Things that resulted from the Bush administration. Those who died in Katrina because the federal response was shoddy, to say nothing of the dead in Iraq, certainly didn't survive Bush.
posted by angrycat at 12:57 PM on November 3, 2010 [10 favorites]


Murray continues to hold razor thin lead - with luck, she could make it #53 in the senate, which would provide insurance should we have defection from Nelson or Lieberman.
posted by madamjujujive at 1:00 PM on November 3, 2010 [4 favorites]


How Obama lost his voice, and how he can get it back, by Marshall Ganz, the guy who design Obama's organizing strategy in '08

I don't blame Obama personally for last night's bloodbath, but I think this op-ed is spot-on. It seems obvious after this election that his administration (and all the Dems, for that matter) need to figure out how to more effectively advocate for their policies if they want 2012 to look any better.
posted by pikachulolita at 1:20 PM on November 3, 2010 [4 favorites]


How Obama lost his voice, and how he can get it back...

I just want to see him feasting on the heart of McConnell, Cantor and Boehner, is that too much to ask for?
posted by nomadicink at 1:30 PM on November 3, 2010 [3 favorites]


Well, most voters would apparently like to see that go the other way around, with guys like Joe "You Lie!" Wilson leading the charge to pluck out Obama's heart, so good luck with that.
posted by saulgoodman at 1:38 PM on November 3, 2010


You can always safely double the government's unemployment numbers to get them into the reality ballpark.
posted by five fresh fish at 1:45 PM on November 3, 2010 [2 favorites]


You don't pay $140 Million for an election unless you expect to get something worth at least that much in return. It gives one pause.
To some extent, it's a way of changing power-classes. You can be rich and you can lose your money, but if you become a senator or a governor or even a member of congress you've achieved access to certain halls of power that take REALLY insane levels of purely monetary success.

Put charitably, some people want to start REALLY making a difference. Put uncharitably, some people get tired of buying individual votes and decide to go all-in.
posted by verb at 1:56 PM on November 3, 2010 [1 favorite]


empath: "One thing I have learned about the economy is that it is never as good as you hope and never as bad as you fear."

That seems like a very nice position to take when you have a job and a secure foundation to say it from.
posted by symbioid at 2:37 PM on November 3, 2010 [1 favorite]


But averting a catastrophic economic failure doesn't get you much with this electorate.

We didn't avert shit, we just delayed it and made it a lot worse. All we did was spend trillions of dollars to tell the economy to keep doing the same crap that got us in trouble in the first place. So now we're in an even bigger hole, both in terms of the huge amounts of liability we've taken on with bailouts and buyouts, and in terms of the economy continuing down the same destructive path of ever-increasing debt issuance.

Obama didn't solve anything. Neither did Bush. All they did was temporarily hide the problems, at absolutely staggering cost, leaving them to fester. Obama's minor regulation changes just mean that the next blowout will look superficially different than the last one.

The fundamental problem remains excessive systemic debt and risk. Transferring that debt to the government's books was the worst possible choice we could have made. We avoided short-term crisis, in exchange for long-term catastrophe, because we are still issuing new debt at insane rates. It's a little like transferring your credit card debt to your mortgage, and then running the credit cards back up again.

Don't even vaguely pretend what happened was a good thing.

The Tea Party is wrongheaded about a lot of stuff, and they should have been up in arms in 2004, if not sooner. What Obama has done is chump change compared to the damage that Bush inflicted. But they are, nonetheless, right to be so pissed about our fiscal position. They're pointing their fingers, mostly, at the wrong parties, but they're absolutely correct that we're in deep, deep shit.
posted by Malor at 3:16 PM on November 3, 2010 [3 favorites]


It seems obvious after this election that his administration (and all the Dems, for that matter) need to figure out how to more effectively advocate for their policies if they want 2012 to look any better.

It would be even better if they had policies that were substantively, rather than cosmetically, different from the Republican ones that preceded them.
posted by Malor at 3:18 PM on November 3, 2010 [2 favorites]


Stu Kreisman: A Letter From a Progressive to President Obama
posted by zarq at 3:33 PM on November 3, 2010




Stu Kreisman: A Letter From a Progressive to President Obama

tl;dr - "I didn't quite get what I wanted so I made sure I got less of it. Ha! That shows you! PS now you have less leverage make more stuff happen or we'll withdraw support even more!"

So, the unicorn song basically. It's a popular tune.
posted by Artw at 3:44 PM on November 3, 2010 [2 favorites]


Artw, your schtick is getting really tiresome.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 4:05 PM on November 3, 2010


Prediction: An assault on reproductive rights

Just like how we've been OMG ONE JUSTICE AWAY from Roe v. Wade being overturned since, what, 1974?

The Republicans like chipping away at the edges of abortion, because it makes them look like they're doing something about the "Modern Holocaust" that a lot of fundies think is going on. But they don't want to get rid of abortion, because they know damn well that a lot of women would get angered up if they felt like their particular uteri were being occupied.

"Prediction: A verbal assault on reproductive rights that doesn't have any substantive effect on 310.6 million people" is much, much more likely.
posted by Etrigan at 4:10 PM on November 3, 2010 [1 favorite]


Artw: tl;dr - "I didn't quite get what I wanted so I made sure I got less of it. Ha! That shows you! PS now you have less leverage make more stuff happen or we'll withdraw support even more!"

Um, why are you attacking a Democratic voter who delivered Democratic votes and supported a Democratic president against the hateful rhetoric of the Tea Party? What is that getting for you? Are you in someone's pocket here? Or just naturally dishonest, stupid, and potentially evil?
posted by KirkJobSluder at 4:17 PM on November 3, 2010


In his press conference today, Obama mentioned trying to find common ground and do work, and that there would be time for politicking later. That's worrisome, because because there's always time for politicking, always. If you wait until later, you wind up getting your ass handed to you in some way.
posted by nomadicink at 4:26 PM on November 3, 2010


Um, why are you attacking a Democratic voter who delivered Democratic votes and supported a Democratic president against the hateful rhetoric of the Tea Party?

He didn't get what he wanted - support from the Democratic base - so he's making sure he gets less of it.
posted by Joe Beese at 4:30 PM on November 3, 2010


"Ladies and Gentleman..."...
posted by clavdivs at 4:58 PM on November 3, 2010


The Democratic base has generally delivered support, in the form of votes, dollars, a constant eye on the Teabaggers, and advocacy of party platform planks. I suspect the "support" asked for here has more to do with kissing ass in certain online discussions that don't really matter than anything remotely significant.
posted by KirkJobSluder at 5:19 PM on November 3, 2010


I suspect the "support" asked for here has more to do with kissing ass in certain online discussions that don't really matter than anything remotely significant.

Speaking for myself, no. It just seems like unrealistic expectations are made by some Democrats and when things don't happen soon enough or an in manner they want, then much personal blaming of Obama ensues. This seems wrong, IMO, because as powerful as Obama is, there is a system and there are rules, which some Democrats seem either not know or care about.

I don't expect you kiss ass, just hope people are realistic and look on the brighter side of things.

Except gay rights, for the most part. Not having the full rights of an American has got to be fucking irritating and if any group has a reason to be complaining about the lack of progress, it's definitely the gays and homosexuals.
posted by nomadicink at 6:10 PM on November 3, 2010


I don't expect you kiss ass, just hope people are realistic and look on the brighter side of things.


Kameny's attic makes up a living memorial to those paranoid early years of the Cold War, when "gay" meant "happy" and you called a homosexual a homosexual if you had manners, or "a moral risk" or "an undesirable" or "a sexual misfit" if you didn't. It was a time when the question "Are you now or have you ever been a member of the Communist Party?" could be followed or preceded by: "Information has come to the attention of the Civil Service Commission that you are a homosexual. What comment do you care to make?"

Today, I can watch Gigi, go to a club, have dinner, perhaps a show and not HAVE THE GOVERNMENT PUT ME ON A LIST.
posted by clavdivs at 6:40 PM on November 3, 2010 [1 favorite]


Um, why are you attacking a Democratic voter who delivered Democratic votes and supported a Democratic president against the hateful rhetoric of the Tea Party? What is that getting for you? Are you in someone's pocket here? Or just naturally dishonest, stupid, and potentially evil?

Per Kreisman: "I enthusiastically canvassed for you in '08, registered voters, manned phone banks and contributed money. However, this election cycle I did none of the above and refused to contribute money to the DCCC."

Some funny idea of 'support' you've got there.
posted by anigbrowl at 6:49 PM on November 3, 2010 [1 favorite]


The Democratic base has generally delivered support,

No.

In exit polls, four out of ten voters said they supported the Tea Party agenda.

This means that a lot of base voters didn't show up.

Some of that can be laid at the feet of the Obama administration, but the rest can go right back on the heads of people who think that the Tea Party supporters are bat shit insane but made the decision not to fight for what they believed in.

I think that one fundamental problem with the American electorate is its self-indulgence. One registered Democrat who voted Republican told the NYT that it couldn't get any worse, or words to that effect.

It's not stupidity; it's not ignorance. It's self-indulgence. Just as those who support the Tea Party agenda are self indulgent, believing that their wish to have their Leave it to Beaver world trumps compassion and oh, facts. And the Democrats -- those who didn't vote because they had better things to do -- are self-indulgent. Just as the ones who say it is all Obama's fault are self-indulgent, because this alternate reality they've created strips them of their responsibility to be good citizens.
posted by angrycat at 6:56 PM on November 3, 2010 [5 favorites]


It could be argued that heavy losses now were exactly what Obama needed to galvanise Democrat support in time for the next presidential election. Complacency this time was a problem, but complacency next time would be fatal.
posted by dickasso at 7:10 PM on November 3, 2010 [3 favorites]


nomadicink: Speaking for myself, no. It just seems like unrealistic expectations are made by some Democrats and when things don't happen soon enough or an in manner they want, then much personal blaming of Obama ensues. This seems wrong, IMO, because as powerful as Obama is, there is a system and there are rules, which some Democrats seem either not know or care about.

I don't see that there's unrealistic expectations here, except from the people who keep saying there's a miracle of political jujitsu happening behind the scenes and Obama will deliver the kind of legislation we want like Santa on Christmas morning if we just stay silent and wish. There's a very realistic expectation that getting these reforms is going to require a bit of help from the voters. If indeed Obama, the Democratic Party Platform, and progressives are all generally in agreement about what kinds of reforms are needed, then there should be no conflict in pointing out that they are needed. Citizen lobbying for legislation is a part of the sausage-making of getting things done.

anigbrowl: Some funny idea of 'support' you've got there.

Voting isn't support? Exposing the lies of teabaggers isn't support? Are you really willing to say that everyone who didn't man phone banks this year is an enemy of the President and supporter of the Republicans?
posted by KirkJobSluder at 7:11 PM on November 3, 2010 [1 favorite]


angrycat: In exit polls, four out of ten voters said they supported the Tea Party agenda.

This means that a lot of base voters didn't show up.


This is embarrassingly stupid. You can't use a study about one population to make statements about another population. This means, you can't use exit polls to make a claim about non-voters. It just doesn't work.

I think that one fundamental problem with the American electorate is its self-indulgence. One registered Democrat who voted Republican told the NYT that it couldn't get any worse, or words to that effect.

Yes, and the NYT also ran a lot of interviews with PUMAs on the eve of the 2008 Democratic primary. The number of people who actually defected and raised money for McCain wasn't even a statistical blip. The nice thing about being a journalist is that it's not that hard to get an interview with a random person who will say exactly what you want for them to.

It's not stupidity; it's not ignorance. It's self-indulgence. Just as those who support the Tea Party agenda are self indulgent, believing that their wish to have their Leave it to Beaver world trumps compassion and oh, facts. And the Democrats -- those who didn't vote because they had better things to do -- are self-indulgent. Just as the ones who say it is all Obama's fault are self-indulgent, because this alternate reality they've created strips them of their responsibility to be good citizens.

That's fine. Yell at non-voters (although I suspect you'll find a lot more lukewarm moderates than politically active progressives.) Better yet, yell at the people who voted for Republicans. Yelling at Democratic voters because their purity of purpose doesn't match your high standards doesn't make a lick of sense.
posted by KirkJobSluder at 7:26 PM on November 3, 2010 [2 favorites]


This is embarrassingly stupid. You can't use a study about one population to make statements about another population. This means, you can't use exit polls to make a claim about non-voters. It just doesn't work.


Why?
(btw, it was the NYT, not myself, that extrapolated that analysis from the exit polling)
posted by angrycat at 7:38 PM on November 3, 2010


Yelling at Democratic voters because their purity of purpose doesn't match your high standards doesn't make a lick of sense.

I am sincerely confused by this. Is this what you think I am doing?
posted by angrycat at 7:40 PM on November 3, 2010


In fact, exit poll results closely map to Gallop Surveys of political identification from last year. 21% of Americans identified as liberal. 20% of voters identified as liberal. So exit polls don't support the claim that liberals stayed home in mass numbers and were under-represented at the ballot box.
posted by KirkJobSluder at 7:43 PM on November 3, 2010 [2 favorites]


Are you really willing to say that everyone who didn't man phone banks this year is an enemy of the President and supporter of the Republicans

No, I don't go in for hyperbole.
posted by anigbrowl at 7:59 PM on November 3, 2010


So exit polls don't support the claim that liberals stayed home in mass numbers and were under-represented at the ballot box.

I didn't say 'mass numbers,' but okay, let's go with it. What's your explanation for the loss of the House of Representatives?
posted by angrycat at 8:08 PM on November 3, 2010


We didn't avert shit, we just delayed it and made it a lot worse.

malor, i hope you understand that it's very unlikely that anyone will ever get elected proposing the kind of solutions you espouse, don't you? - even if - especially if - you're 100% right?

people would rather vote for pleasant lies than unpleasant truths
posted by pyramid termite at 8:45 PM on November 3, 2010


but here's the important news - denver says "no" to alien commission

84 to 16 % - see? - the american people aren't TOTALLY stupid
posted by pyramid termite at 8:49 PM on November 3, 2010


The house is the branch of government that introduces new legislation. It's where the legislative initiative begins. Republicans now have the legislative initiative, and they literally don't plan to do anything--haven't even bothered to suggest doing anything--other than to make Bush's tax cuts permanent and randomly cut spending.

The body that more or less drives the legislative process is now in the hands of politicians who got elected proclaiming as loudly as possible that they do not believe the government should be in the business of using its policy-making powers to attempt to solve any of problems, since all we really need to turn things around are are tax cuts and the government doing less (although one gets the distinct sense from recent history that they don't mind one bit if government gets in the business of solving certain moral problems, like curbing our immoral impulses to take brain dead people off life support systems after several years have elapsed--even if that requires passing special laws singling out each and every individual case to do it).
posted by saulgoodman at 9:05 PM on November 3, 2010 [1 favorite]


800
posted by clavdivs at 9:14 PM on November 3, 2010


My prediction for their immediate legislative agenda? They'll try to force the Dems to extend all the Bush era tax cuts that are set to expire, insisting that those for the wealthiest be extended as well, and they'll use the threat of letting all the tax cuts lapse--even those for the middle class--if the administration won't play ball.

They can do this simply by not passing a bill extending the tax cuts for the middle class, and there's no way to stop them. And they will pull the trigger, if they have to. It won't be an empty threat. They'll do it even though they know doing so will create a financial hardship for many Americans and will further delay full economic recovery. In fact, they'll do it because of those things, knowing all the while they can count on us frustrated voters two years down the road to send those sorry Dems yet another message by putting the party that deliberately engineered our misery right back into the Oval office.

I know it's a long way out yet to be predicting the near future in such detail, but once it happens, remember I called it: and somebody owes me a beer.
posted by saulgoodman at 9:23 PM on November 3, 2010 [2 favorites]


saulgoodman, only budget bills must originate in the House.

Article 1, Section 7: "All bills for raising revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives."
posted by NortonDC at 9:30 PM on November 3, 2010


Why?

It's a basic issue of study design. You can't make inferences about populations that are not included in your sample. If I interview a hundred dairy farmers, I can't make claims about police officers. If I sample cats, I can't talk about dogs, rabbits, or domestic birds. Since exit polls interview voters they can't say much of anything about non-voters.

My quick and dirty Chi-Square on American adults (Gallup) vs. American voters (CNN) comes out with about a 50% chance that differences are due to random sampling error. So there's no support there for the claims that liberals got pissed and stayed home in numbers that affected the election.

Looking at the 2008 CNN Exit Poll aggregates for House Races provide a good idea for what happened. Democrats got 61% of moderates in 2008 and 55% in 2010. Democrats got 23% of conservatives in 2008 and 14% in 2010. On top of that, conservatives increased mostly at the expense of moderates. These losses hurt because because self-identified moderates and conservatives outnumber liberals 4:1.

Changes for liberals are statistical noise. Maybe there's less of us and more commitment. It's well within error.

The myth that Democrats lost liberals is likely a perceptual bias because we're in a tiny sandbox with a handful of extremely vocal non-voting progressives. But I find the evidence that non-voting progressives have done more than just spark a weekly flamewar series to be extremely weak. And I'm struggling to be generous on that point.

I am sincerely confused by this. Is this what you think I am doing?

Pretty much, yes.
posted by KirkJobSluder at 9:32 PM on November 3, 2010 [4 favorites]


Sure, non-revenue bills don't have to originate in the house, but they usually do by tradition. The senate's not inclined to take on any major legislative issues on its own, being the upper chamber, and primarily the deliberative body of the legislature. And ultimately, the Senate can't pass legislation without a matching house bill. So in practical terms, the Dems have no real legislative initiative left and have to kowtow to the Republicans. And I seriously doubt the Republicans are going to be proceeding in a spirit of rapprochement now when they have absolutely no incentive to.
posted by saulgoodman at 9:46 PM on November 3, 2010 [1 favorite]


who won?
posted by uncanny hengeman at 9:50 PM on November 3, 2010


I apologize for being too tired to parse your comments KrkJoeSluder. But let me ask you this: Do you really this this country has gone so off the rails that 40% of the registered public support the Tea Party?

Because day-um, if that's true, I want to plan my expatriation, stat.
posted by angrycat at 9:52 PM on November 3, 2010


angrycat: I apologize for being too tired to parse your comments KrkJoeSluder. But let me ask you this: Do you really this this country has gone so off the rails that 40% of the registered public support the Tea Party?

Well, here again. Exit polls are about people who show up to vote. So that can be misleading.

I'm skeptical on this figure because I don't see a source or original question and I'm also seeing that only 1/5 considered their vote an act of support. So I'm not going to put too much stock into it.
posted by KirkJobSluder at 10:08 PM on November 3, 2010


They can do this simply by not passing a bill extending the tax cuts for the middle class, and there's no way to stop them.

at which point they can be accused of raising taxes - and if the dems won't accuse them - and they might not have the guts to do so - you know damned well the tea partiers will

you think they're angry now? - they're going to be crazier than a boar in a peach orchard if this happens

frankly, i think for the good of the country, the dems are going to have to give in - there's no telling what the results of the outrage will be if they don't - and both parties will suffer from it

the gridlock games have got to stop before people start seeing the government as totally ineffective and unlistening

i'm willing to pay more taxes for a substantial improvement in government services and a change in priorities - hint - no more policeman of the world - but if i have to pay more for the same shit i'm getting now, to hell with them
posted by pyramid termite at 11:00 PM on November 3, 2010


pyramid termite: "at which point they can be accused of raising taxes - and if the dems won't accuse them - and they might not have the guts to do so - you know damned well the tea partiers will

you think they're angry now? - they're going to be crazier than a boar in a peach orchard if this happens
"

I'm confused. You make it sound like the Tea Partiers have actual principles based on logical reality that they will not immediately abandon the instant it becomes convenient for their political power structure of choice.
posted by Rhaomi at 11:22 PM on November 3, 2010 [4 favorites]


rhaomi, they don't want their taxes raised - no principles involved - they will be livid and ready to blame all involved
posted by pyramid termite at 11:35 PM on November 3, 2010


pyramid termite: "rhaomi, they don't want their taxes raised - no principles involved - they will be livid and ready to blame all involved"

The vast majority of them got tax cuts last year and didn't notice/care. And even if a standoff leads to all of Bush's cuts expiring in a way that can't be ignored, never underestimate the capacity of the electorate to misattribute blame.
posted by Rhaomi at 12:08 AM on November 4, 2010 [5 favorites]


KirkJobSluder- This is embarrassingly stupid. You can't use a study about one population to make statements about another population. This means, you can't use exit polls to make a claim about non-voters. It just doesn't work.

In some cases, you can. If half the cows in your county are white and half are black, but one day at the slaughterhouse, 90% of the cows you see are white, you can indeed conclude that a great number of black cows were not at the slaughterhouse.

You didn't go around measuring them at pasture, but you knew what the distribution looked like before today. The discrepancy between the prior and the observed makes you think "something weird is going down".
posted by a snickering nuthatch at 3:44 AM on November 4, 2010


So in practical terms, the Dems have no real legislative initiative left and have to kowtow to the Republicans.

So, this election changed nothing?
posted by nightwood at 4:45 AM on November 4, 2010 [4 favorites]


saulgoodman, the Senate can and does pass legislation without a corresponding House bill. The Senate can't enact legislation without a corresponding House bill.
posted by NortonDC at 5:29 AM on November 4, 2010


Jpfed: In some cases, you can. If half the cows in your country...

Which you can't get from exit polls because voting cows are not representative of cows in the country. Nor can you use use questions of "support" for the Tea Party to figure out how many white cows you have. It's counting white cows by counting the number of pink ear tags you see. It doesn't make sense.

You didn't go around measuring them at pasture, but you knew what the distribution looked like before today. The discrepancy between the prior and the observed makes you think "something weird is going down".

Certainly. But the distribution of liberals (white cows) didn't change, either compared to the country or previous days at the slaughterhouse:
2004: 21%
2006: 20%
2008: 22%
2009: 21% (national survey)
2010: 20%

If there is something weird going down with white cows. It's not at the slaughterhouse. The weirdness is the number of brown (moderate) and black (conservative) cows wearing pink tags.
posted by KirkJobSluder at 5:31 AM on November 4, 2010 [1 favorite]


I'm not sure why this debate is even relevant. Either people didn't show up or they voted for the crazies to the extent that a good number of crazy people are now in the house and senate.

What matters now is how we can survive two years of paralyzed government with two wars and the deepest economic downturn since the Great Depression
posted by angrycat at 7:02 AM on November 4, 2010 [1 favorite]


(Or a war and whatever we call our involvement in Iraq now)
posted by angrycat at 7:03 AM on November 4, 2010


If half the cows in your county are white and half are black, but one day at the slaughterhouse, 90% of the cows you see are white, you can indeed conclude that a great number of black cows were not at the slaughterhouse.

You didn't go around measuring them at pasture, but you knew what the distribution looked like before today. The discrepancy between the prior and the observed makes you think "something weird is going down".


You assume that political ideology is an immutable characteristic, like the color of a cow's hide. What if the cows were all red or blue... and many of the blue cows said, "this 'blue' thing isn't working very well. I want to try being red for a while.'"
posted by BobbyVan at 7:44 AM on November 4, 2010


angrycat: I'm not sure why this debate is even relevant.

Because you continually make irresponsible claims that are not supported by evidence that the election was lost by "self-indulgent" liberals.

What matters now is how we can survive two years of paralyzed government with two wars and the deepest economic downturn since the Great Depression

Yes, and how are you doing that by blaming Democratic voters here?
posted by KirkJobSluder at 7:54 AM on November 4, 2010


BobbyVan: You assume that political ideology is an immutable characteristic, like the color of a cow's hide. What if the cows were all red or blue... and many of the blue cows said, "this 'blue' thing isn't working very well. I want to try being red for a while.'"

Possibly, but again, the biggest changes between 2008 and 2010 were in the middle with self-identified independents swinging their vote to the right.
posted by KirkJobSluder at 8:03 AM on November 4, 2010


Possibly, but again, the biggest changes between 2008 and 2010 were in the middle with self-identified independents swinging their vote to the right.

Kirk, I totally agree. It's a big, complex, dynamic system... and people are free to change their minds, as well as stay home.
posted by BobbyVan at 8:27 AM on November 4, 2010




Either people didn't show up or they voted for the crazies

Halloween is over.
posted by clavdivs at 9:51 AM on November 4, 2010


So...

Expatriation it is.

Where to guys and gals? New Zealand or Canada? Perhaps one of the Scandinavian countries?
posted by PROD_TPSL at 11:48 AM on November 4, 2010 [2 favorites]


On the "bright" side, my state is going to get to spend millions of dollars defending our ballot box idiocy in court! The "no sharia law, no siree" amendment, the "papers, please" amendment, and the "you're in 'murkah, son, so you damn well better speak the english!" amendments are all being challenged.
posted by wierdo at 11:56 AM on November 4, 2010


Yes, and how are you doing that by blaming Democratic voters here?

Any Democrat who didn't vote or voted for the extremists is responsible.

If you fall into one of those two camps than yes, I am talking about you.

If you don't, then I am not.

There is no argument here.
posted by angrycat at 12:05 PM on November 4, 2010


saulgoodman, the Senate can and does pass legislation without a corresponding House bill. The Senate can't enact legislation without a corresponding House bill.

Good clarification! Got sloppy with my language there, but of course you're correct.
posted by saulgoodman at 12:28 PM on November 4, 2010




"Any Democrat who didn't vote or voted for the extremists is responsible."

So.... would you say you're either with us or against us? Would you say you find our lack of faith.... disturbing? Because that's sure how you've been coming off in these recurring arguments.

I'm not a member of the Democratic party and I fervently wish that you'd stop assuming that everybody here is. Your tone consistently sounds to me as if you think you're lecturing a convention hall full of party faithful, rather than a diverse discussion board of free-willed humans beholden to no particular party. (I did vote for all of my wonderful Oregon Democrats this year, just so that you don't start holding me personally responsible for the people Oklahoma elected this year or something.) I would add that your insistence that belonging to a party means that they are automatically entitled to your vote is more likely to make people leave the party, not join it.

Listen, I know that you are incredibly frustrated by the current political climate in the US, but I really want you to know that some people (including myself) find it indescribably irritating and alienating to be harangued by you or anyone else about what they do or do not owe the Democratic party.

Nobody owes any party their vote, and anybody who says otherwise is simply trying to build a political machine, not practicing good faith argument and persuasion. If you have an argument, make it. If people don't accept your argument, you don't get to just call them a bad person. That is arguing in bad faith. Besides, past that point you aren't really convincing anybody anyway - or at least I've never seen it happen in these interminable arguments.
posted by pikachulolita at 1:58 PM on November 4, 2010 [2 favorites]


Would you say you find our lack of faith.... disturbing? Because that's sure how you've been coming off in these recurring arguments.


I don't give a fuck about your faith. People who didn't vote or voted for extremists were bad citizens, because they allowed themselves to be manipulated by forces that are dangerous to the Republic.

You sound like a child who has done something wrong and is upset that mom and dad are angry.

Real harms follow from these elections. I don't care if you believe in whatever, but if you misuse your power to vote, you've hurt your country.
posted by angrycat at 2:06 PM on November 4, 2010


Besides, past that point you aren't really convincing anybody anyway - or at least I've never seen it happen in these interminable arguments.

When people in these threads say things like, "How bad could it be?" or "We survived eight years of Bush," I have to shake my head and yell. Because these statements are inherently ignorant and these beliefs are dangerous.

If it bothers you that I am all Cassandra over here, you can make the choice to not read my fucking comments.
posted by angrycat at 2:09 PM on November 4, 2010


Would you say you find our lack of faith.... disturbing?

{Grand Mofff Tarkin loosens his collar}
posted by clavdivs at 2:17 PM on November 4, 2010 [2 favorites]


I specifically said that I fulfilled all of your personal criteria of voting for all the "right" people, so I don't know why you come straight out of the gate with the personal attacks about my voting behavior. I'm saying you have been coming off to me, at least, as though you believe you are the Unimpeachably Right about everything, and that everyone here who disagrees with you is simply a Bad Democrat (even when they aren't even Dems at all), and I'm simply asking you to offer some arguments rather than the whole sound & fury thing you seem to be rolling with in your responses to me.

When people in these threads say things like, "How bad could it be?" or "We survived eight years of Bush," I have to shake my head and yell. Because these statements are inherently ignorant and these beliefs are dangerous.

Is that intended to be a direct response to the part of my comment that you quoted? When did I say anything even remotely resembling that? For that matter, when did anybody in this thread say anything like that? PS: Joe Beese or AE saying it 20 threads ago doesn't count.

This is what is driving me crazy (and it's not just you doing this, so please don't take it personally): the straw man arguments against these mythical recalcitrant Dems are not rooted in any factual basis, especially the repeated assertions that their supposed paucity of action was the direct source of harm in this election. KirkJobSluder raised a good argument about why your 40%/Tea Party exit poll argument is unsupported, and why he believes that the exit polls show barely any drop-off in liberal voters from 2008. Do you have an alternative analysis of those numbers to offer? Would you share your evidence-based argument for why you think that these sullen, uncooperative Dems are the direct cause of the Republican victory on Tuesday?
posted by pikachulolita at 2:33 PM on November 4, 2010 [1 favorite]


‘Enthusiasm Gap’ Was Largest in Presidential Swing States
Exit polls were conducted in 26 states (mostly, where there were competitive Senate contests). The largest enthusiasm gap came in New Hampshire. There, Tuesday night’s voters claimed to have voted for John McCain by a 4-point margin, when in fact Barack Obama won the state by 10 points. That’s a 14-point enthusiasm gap.

The next largest enthusiasm gap came in Indiana; the electorate there shifted from having favored Mr. Obama by 1 point in 2008 to Mr. McCain by 10 points: an 11-point gap.

The enthusiasm gap was 10 points in Nevada, and 9 points in Iowa. It was 8 points in Ohio, Wisconsin, Missouri and Illinois.

[...]

What we’re probably seeing, then, is the “hangover” from the Mr. Obama’s turnout efforts in 2008. In states like Ohio and New Hampshire and Indiana, where Democrats registered tons of new voters and made sure that all of them got to the polls, a lot of them didn’t participate this time around.
posted by Rhaomi at 2:56 PM on November 4, 2010


pikachulolita wrote: "Nobody owes any party their vote"

That statement is absolutely correct but completely misses the point. You don't owe any particular party your vote. You owe your fellow citizens the courtesy of helping to keep complete nutcases out of power. On that, I have failed in nearly every election since I moved to Oklahoma, but still I bang my head against the wall because I'll be goddamned if I'm going to let the Democrats being a centrist to center-right party on the whole keep me from doing what I can to prevent even worse damage.

I can live with what the Democrats do. I may not like it, but it's tolerable in the vast majority of cases. I cannot live with what the Republicans are doing and what the Tea Party's backers want. I would much rather be disappointed than fucked up the ass with no lube.

So yeah, I blame everybody who is responsible for withholding the lube for doing so, regardless of their politics. You don't get a free pass just because your ideal candidate doesn't exist, no matter how much I may agree.

That said, blaming the supposed "liberals who refused to vote" bloc is pretty silly. I seriously doubt it would have made a difference. What might have is getting more '08 Obama voters to the polls. That's not likely in an off-year election, though.
posted by wierdo at 3:06 PM on November 4, 2010


Would you share your evidence-based argument for why you think that these sullen, uncooperative Dems are the direct cause of the Republican victory on Tuesday?

Things here are real real bad in PA, with the loss of a governor seat and a senate seat to Corbett and Toomey, so I apologize if my sound and fury regarding my home situation is bleeding into broader statements.

This whole thing started with my reference to a NYT piece that stated that 40% of voters in exit polls supported the Tea Party agenda (whatever the fuck that is). The NYT piece then extrapolated from that analysis that there was a low liberal to moderate turnout, because, (hopefully) 40% of registered voters are not as crazy as that.

I am not good with numbers, and thus it is hard for me to compare Kirksludger's numbers with the exit polling and say, Aha! I understand what happened now. What I do is I read the NYT, and because I trust the NYT (if Judith Miller is not writing about Iraq) a great deal, I tend to accept that analysis on its face. Perhaps I am simply not smart enough to look at numbers, and then different numbers, and then more numbers, and then reach a different conclusion.

I really don't care about blame, I more care about how we're going to survive this with the passing of legislation at the fed level going to be so terribly hard to pass. That is, I don't care about blame unless and until there is a lot a push back along the lines of, "No party is entitled to my vote," which, I really don't see the relevance of this argument at all, unless it is a defensive gesture because somebody did a write in thing or didn't vote, in which case, it is an exercise in stupidity with which I have no patience.

People are going to be estranged by my anger concerning the election of Pat Toomey, a man who believes that women should be deprived of reproductive rights and that no corporate profits are going to be taxed?

I really don't know what to say to that.
posted by angrycat at 3:25 PM on November 4, 2010


I saw a poll, a week or two ago, saying something like 80% of likely voters said that if Republicans won the election, they wanted to see the parties working together even if it means compromising on some principles.

The Democrats should be plastering this all over the airwaves for the next two years, nonstop.
posted by Flunkie at 3:27 PM on November 4, 2010


The blood of JESUS against Obama
posted by angrycat at 3:51 PM on November 4, 2010


now were back to yard signs
posted by clavdivs at 5:04 PM on November 4, 2010


Is that intended to be a direct response to the part of my comment that you quoted? When did I say anything even remotely resembling that? For that matter, when did anybody in this thread say anything like that?

You, as far as I know, never said anything like that. Somebody actually did say, "We survived eight years of Bush" and somebody said something to the effect of, was '94 really that bad? I plead guilty to not very accurate paraphrasing of the second comment.

I would link to the comments but a) I don't know how to do it with my apple mouse (i.e., insert links) and b) I'm totally ready to give up and say, look. The election was really upsetting. 99.9% of my ire -- nay, 100%, because I don't see anybody spouting extremist views here -- was directed not at people in this thread.

Certainly not you, as you had said that you'd supported the Ds in my homeland of Oregon. As a total aside, my mom dated Kitzhaber in high school.

So I guess what I mean to say that I apologize for those moments when my rhetoric was overheated and insulting (although I do emphasize that my gen disgust at the electorate, the self-indulgent comment included, was not directed at any person in this thread)
posted by angrycat at 6:55 PM on November 4, 2010


angrycat, the polling data that KirkJobSluder linked to included exit polls from this election. About 40% of voters in exit polls described themselves as "conservatives," about the same percentage as the general population. "Conservative" is rather vague term, and obviously means different things to different people. Not everyone who describes themselves this way to pollsters regularly votes Republican. About 20% of people who identify themselves as conservative also say they lean Democratic.

About 20% of people in exit polls from this election identified themselves as liberals, also about the same as the general population.

You've repeated two false statements in this thread - that 40% of people who voted in this election were tea party supporters (a lot of "conservatives" don't consider themselves Republicans, let alone tea partiers), and that liberals didn't vote in numbers proportionate to their percentage of the population (they did). The NYT article you read may have been a bit misleading.

Obviously, it would have helped if liberals and other Democrats had gotten out and voted in numbers larger than their proportion of the population, and it would have helped if more independents and self-identified conservatives had voted for Democrats (KirkJobSluder's point), but they didn't.
posted by nangar at 7:52 PM on November 4, 2010


Can I sweep up now?, we need the gym tomorrow.
posted by clavdivs at 8:11 PM on November 4, 2010


So I guess what I mean to say that I apologize for those moments when my rhetoric was overheated and insulting ... was not directed at any person in this thread

Thank you.

Your personal attack on pikachulolita, an independent who voted for Democrats in this election, was uncalled for. If there had been more independent voters like pikachulolita in this election, the Democrats might not have lost the House.
posted by nangar at 8:11 PM on November 4, 2010


Okay, I'm not really sure what personal attack you are talking about. I'm apologizing yes, but there are limits to what I'm accepting the heat for. I certainly see no reason to attack anybody who did vote, and voted w/o the influence of the rage/fear/insane brew that is polluting the political debate.

I do think that something I said was misinterpreted, or I was lashing out at the electorate en masse and it got personalized unintentionally, or something.


You've repeated two false statements in this thread - that 40% of people who voted in this election were tea party supporters (a lot of "conservatives" don't consider themselves Republicans, let alone tea partiers), and that liberals didn't vote in numbers proportionate to their percentage of the population (they did). The NYT article you read may have been a bit misleading.


the NYT might have seen the 40% number and interpreted it as you suggest, but what I read was that four in ten voters were supporters of the Tea Party agenda. I assumed it was an exit poll. I could be wrong, they could be wrong, I don't know, really

Anyways, here's how 538 described the enthusiasm gap:

That would point toward an enthusiasm gap – which compares party affiliation to actual turnout – of 5-7 points, which is exactly what the consensus of pollsters thought it would be. (The Gallup poll, whose traditional likely voter model pointed toward an enthusiasm gap in the double digits, indeed proved to be an outlier.)

link:
http://fivethirtyeight.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/11/04/enthusiasm-gap-was-largest-in-presidential-swing-states/?partner=rss&emc=rss

So, this gets into number crunching that is above my pay grade. If you want to get into it with 538, be my guest, I'm in no position to argue, expertise wise.
posted by angrycat at 9:20 PM on November 4, 2010


angrycat...step away from the polls, look at the historical name, why they are called so and draw and opinion, re-positing questions about opinion data and human response to them seems odd even to me.
posted by clavdivs at 9:56 PM on November 4, 2010


unless your just angry
"which is...ok"

-Senator Al Franken

in which case lets go see 'Gigi'.
posted by clavdivs at 10:00 PM on November 4, 2010


According to the Edison exit polling data, 40% of 2010 voters claimed to support the Tea Party's agenda.
A sizeable number of voters (40%) said that they support the Tea Party political movement (including 21% who strongly support it). Fewer (31%) said they oppose the movement (23% strongly); another 25% said they neither support nor oppose it. Agreement with the Tea Party was considerably higher than in most pre-election polling, reflecting the greater enthusiasm of conservative voters to turn out. Tea Party supporters overwhelmingly supported Republican candidates for the House nationally, and in key Senate races such as Nevada. Those who support the Tea Party voted 87% to 11% for Republican House candidates, while those who oppose the movement voted 86% to 12% for Democratic candidates. Those who are neutral about the Tea Party divided their votes about evenly (50% Republican, 47% Democratic).
-- Pew Research
posted by wierdo at 10:02 PM on November 4, 2010 [2 favorites]


Thanks, wierdo, and sorry, angrycat!
posted by nangar at 3:03 AM on November 5, 2010


I guess I should be more explicit, angrycat. I called your 40% tea party supporters figure a "false statement." I was wrong. I apologize.

I also represented exit poll data in my comment as if they reflected no "enthusiasm gap." There was one. It was fairly small if if you look at people identifying themselves as "conservative" or "liberal," but larger if you look at reported party affiliation. (My point was that there wasn't a humongous failure of liberals to show up at the polls, but I overstated it.)
posted by nangar at 4:21 AM on November 5, 2010


no problem, I understand what you're saying, nangar
posted by angrycat at 6:37 AM on November 5, 2010


Crap, sorry for the double:

In that article I think Silver is stretching a bit by using self-reporting of voting record to document an enthusiasm gap. Many of us are completely unenthusiastic about our Democratic candidates and vote for them anyway.

But even if we take "did you vote for Obama in 2008?" as diagnostic of enthusiasm, it doesn't say anything about a the so-called unicorn block because liberals were a minority of Obama voters in 2008 (only about 1/3rd by my estimate.) Obama voters were predominantly moderate, with significant numbers of conservatives as well. And looking at the exit polls those are the groups that most obviously lost confidence in the current government.

I'll certainly agree that there is an enthusiasm gap on the left, although it doesn't appear in the exit polls because the left will consistently hold their nose and vote lesser-evil. It's likely in fundraising. Obama and Clinton's 50-state campaigns were able to outspend McCain/Palin by huge margins. McCain had only one week during the RNC when his donations exceeded Obama's. And the strategic merger of Obama and Clinton's campaign made the organization unstoppable.

And from my experience as a transplant from Indiana, the Democrats benefited from an extended campaign season that put historically red states like Indiana back in play and solidified congressional upsets from 2006.
posted by KirkJobSluder at 6:53 AM on November 5, 2010 [1 favorite]


Now after today's job, I just ask voters one favor. Please please please do not write in votes. They never count, unless there is a well coordinated campaign and you basically already know a specific write in candidate is likely to win.

DC's mayoral race was a minor exception to this rule this year. Our current mayor racked up 25% of the vote, after losing the primary and officially suspending his campaign. There wasn't much of a write-in "campaign" to speak of, and the final tally seems to have surprised everybody.

If you feel strongly for a candidate that's not on the ballot (and don't feel strongly about any of those who are), write-ins are completely appropriate.
posted by schmod at 7:58 AM on November 5, 2010


I completely agree that the primary issue driving the Democrats' poor showing in the House races was the independents flocking to the party not in power, as is usual in an off year election in a down economy. A few individual races would have been helped by the "unicorns" showing up, but by and large it wouldn't have made any difference.

What I took from it is that people will be pissed off and voting incumbents out until the economy turns around. There's a lot of anger and no focus to it. The Republicans patting themselves on the back are being just as deluded as the doom and gloom Democrats. The moderates who thrust them into power did so because they want the two parties to work together and didn't see that. Unfortunate that they didn't see that the Democrats were doing their best to attract Republican votes on their bills and Republicans were obstinately refusing, in the main, to consider Democratic proposals, but nobody ever said the majority of the American people have the time to suss out that much nuance.
posted by wierdo at 11:46 AM on November 5, 2010


Slate mag's weekly political podcast offered an interesting psychological analysis: For most people, politics is a kind of diversion, and that the party that offers the most fun will bring out the most voters. The far right is having a real good time right now, even if the 'good time' is kind of an anger festival. The left is not having any fun at all. Thus, you have the enthusiasm gap.
posted by angrycat at 3:23 PM on November 5, 2010


circus maximus
posted by clavdivs at 5:52 PM on November 5, 2010


politics is a kind of diversion

It's a significant portion of television, especially "news" television. That's entertainment, folks.
posted by five fresh fish at 10:50 PM on November 5, 2010






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