by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist
I began this blog in November of 2007 with a small piece stating my preference for President in 2008. That preference was Barack Obama, and one year to the day after that first blog posting appeared, Barack Obama was elected President of the United States. Yesterday, in a resounding affirmation of his efforts to keep America on a forward trajectory, in spite of rigid partisan obstruction from the Republicans to any form of progress, President Obama was re-elected to a second term.
The Republic survives for four more years.
The national election was not all good news of course. I live in Arizona and there was damned little good news out here. Joe Arpaio was re-elected sheriff of Maricopa County, and is now bloviating about how he will announce his 2016 candidacy for a seventh term next January. The 80-year-old windbag will leave office someday, of course, but residents here are coming to the sad conclusion that his exit from power will probably involve a toe-tag.
Democrat Richard Carmona lost the U.S. Senate contest, but speculation is already being ginned up that he will enter the governor's race in 2014. Hispanic influence grows daily in Arizona - and the wicked witch of the west will be forced to the sidelines by term limits, so someone new will be taking over as governor. Carmona, a former Arizona county sheriff and U.S. Surgeon General, would be an outstanding choice to head the Scorpion State.
The Republican majorities in both houses of the Arizona legislature were reduced through this election, so that is a bit of good news. Also, the congressional delegation (now nine members) looks like it could be a majority Democratic - but three races are very tight and there will be some recounting.
Nationally, Michele Bachmann got the bejeezus scared out of her in Minnesota, but ended up winning a squeaker. Those poor Minnesotans deserve someone with a brain and a heart who will commit to going to work every day and representing them - not some wannabe Swiss Miss.
Bachmann's victory was balanced out by the loss of Florida Republican Congressman Allen West, the retired military officer who claimed that there were eighty or so communists serving in Congress. The whiny Mr. West, a semi-regular fixture on Fox News, feels cheated and is demanding a recount. Look for him to get a paid position at Fox when his recount fails to get him back to the public trough.
Lots of women were elected yesterday, particularly to the United States Senate. Massachusetts and North Dakota both have female senators-elect who will be coming to Washington DC in January. Claire McCaskill will be going back to the Senate from Missouri. One news account that I saw today said that McCaskill had "legitimately raped" her opponent, Todd Akin.
Obamacare survives, and by 2016 so much of the country will be benefiting from its provisions that it would be damned near impossible to dismantle - though I'm sure there will still be a few elderly white men out there trying.
All in all, it was a fairly decent election.
I heard quite a bit of speculation today as to why President Obama and many Democrats did so well yesterday. Women, young people, and Hispanics, blacks, and and people of color went for the President and the party in a big way - as did the better educated old white men. Romney won the men in general, as well as older Americans and whites. His base, a.k.a. the Republican base, is old and white and is shrinking through natural attrition.
The other thing that I think made a big difference was that Republicans in several states were sensed to be actively trying to suppress the vote - through voter I.D. laws and limiting early access to the polls, and especially limiting access during times that black Americans have traditionally voted heavily. Americans saw this as not playing fair, and I think it hurt the Republicans more than it could have possibly helped them.
Lots of good outcomes. I'm pumped.
Four more years! Four more years!
Citizen Journalist
I began this blog in November of 2007 with a small piece stating my preference for President in 2008. That preference was Barack Obama, and one year to the day after that first blog posting appeared, Barack Obama was elected President of the United States. Yesterday, in a resounding affirmation of his efforts to keep America on a forward trajectory, in spite of rigid partisan obstruction from the Republicans to any form of progress, President Obama was re-elected to a second term.
The Republic survives for four more years.
The national election was not all good news of course. I live in Arizona and there was damned little good news out here. Joe Arpaio was re-elected sheriff of Maricopa County, and is now bloviating about how he will announce his 2016 candidacy for a seventh term next January. The 80-year-old windbag will leave office someday, of course, but residents here are coming to the sad conclusion that his exit from power will probably involve a toe-tag.
Democrat Richard Carmona lost the U.S. Senate contest, but speculation is already being ginned up that he will enter the governor's race in 2014. Hispanic influence grows daily in Arizona - and the wicked witch of the west will be forced to the sidelines by term limits, so someone new will be taking over as governor. Carmona, a former Arizona county sheriff and U.S. Surgeon General, would be an outstanding choice to head the Scorpion State.
The Republican majorities in both houses of the Arizona legislature were reduced through this election, so that is a bit of good news. Also, the congressional delegation (now nine members) looks like it could be a majority Democratic - but three races are very tight and there will be some recounting.
Nationally, Michele Bachmann got the bejeezus scared out of her in Minnesota, but ended up winning a squeaker. Those poor Minnesotans deserve someone with a brain and a heart who will commit to going to work every day and representing them - not some wannabe Swiss Miss.
Bachmann's victory was balanced out by the loss of Florida Republican Congressman Allen West, the retired military officer who claimed that there were eighty or so communists serving in Congress. The whiny Mr. West, a semi-regular fixture on Fox News, feels cheated and is demanding a recount. Look for him to get a paid position at Fox when his recount fails to get him back to the public trough.
Lots of women were elected yesterday, particularly to the United States Senate. Massachusetts and North Dakota both have female senators-elect who will be coming to Washington DC in January. Claire McCaskill will be going back to the Senate from Missouri. One news account that I saw today said that McCaskill had "legitimately raped" her opponent, Todd Akin.
Obamacare survives, and by 2016 so much of the country will be benefiting from its provisions that it would be damned near impossible to dismantle - though I'm sure there will still be a few elderly white men out there trying.
All in all, it was a fairly decent election.
I heard quite a bit of speculation today as to why President Obama and many Democrats did so well yesterday. Women, young people, and Hispanics, blacks, and and people of color went for the President and the party in a big way - as did the better educated old white men. Romney won the men in general, as well as older Americans and whites. His base, a.k.a. the Republican base, is old and white and is shrinking through natural attrition.
The other thing that I think made a big difference was that Republicans in several states were sensed to be actively trying to suppress the vote - through voter I.D. laws and limiting early access to the polls, and especially limiting access during times that black Americans have traditionally voted heavily. Americans saw this as not playing fair, and I think it hurt the Republicans more than it could have possibly helped them.
Lots of good outcomes. I'm pumped.
Four more years! Four more years!
1 comment:
I was shaping some old Associated Press in a Florida newsroom when the major networks called the election for Obama.
A load was lifted from my shoulders. It was a physical shifting. I took a deep breath and began to smile. For a few brief seconds, the aches and pains disappeared and I felt young again.
I'm an old man now and in all my years, I've never felt anything quite like that.
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