What say you?

We’re all in this together. So far we’ve had election day comments from Virginia, Colorado, Arizona and D.C. I know there are regular readers in Maryland, Delaware, New York, Michigan, Texas, California, Oregon, Kentucky, Indiana — oh, and New Mexico.

Reactions, predictions, feelings, fears, experiences, emotions — anyone?

Elsewhere, Josh Marshall has set up a site for Sharing Your Experiences …. Here’s one:

My polling place is at the fairgrounds in Southern Maryland, about 40 minutes from Washington, D.C. This used to be tobacco country, but is slowly being developed, or other crops are grown. We waited until 10:00 to vote, to avoid the lines. When we got there a 97-year-old Black man was being wheeled out of the polls in his wheelchair. It was the first time he had ever voted in his life. When he came outside he asked if anyone could give him an Obama button. There were none left at the Democrat’s booth so I gave him mine. He was so proud and I started crying. He looked at me and said, “why are you crying? this is a day for glory.” I am still crying.

NewMexiKen remembers going to a World Series game in Oakland 36 years ago with my friend and neighbor Daniel. Daniel was African-American. We needed to buy tickets and finally found a guy with two. He was incredulous that Daniel and I actually wanted seats together. I wonder where that man is today.

Some of The Sweeties vote

Jill, official older daughter of NewMexiKen, reports:

The bad news is that when we went to vote (with wagon, crayons, and bribe candy in tow), we walked right in and didn’t have to wait for so much as a second to either check in or get a machine.

The good news is that, when Aidan hit the “wrong answer” on the page for the Senate race, the machine actually let us back out and fix it.

Also good news, out front there were five volunteers handing out Democratic sample ballots, and only one Republican. Usually that ratio is 0:1, not 5:1. As we walked by, one of the Democrats was saying something to the Republican about how he must be cold without a jacket. The Republican responded that he was just trying to get used to the kind of austerity he would have to live under if Obama was elected. Which is a pretty funny answer (and everyone on both sides of the path laughed).

Mack hit the choice for president, Aidan for senator, Reid for the representative and all four of us hit the “Record Your Vote Now” button together.

Then we went in the hallway and I cried and they ate peanut butter cups.

[The title of this post takes poetic license. In actuality none of The Sweeties can vote. They are citizens and they are not convicted felons; they are simply too young.]

Fired up! Ready to go!

Here’s the end of Obama’s speech last night in Virginia.

Projection

I say 364 to 174. What say you?

Click map for larger version.

[Posted at 10:48 AM MST. Map added at 11:00.]

Exit Polls

Ignore them. The samples are too small and not random.

FiveThirtyEight.com gives Ten Reasons Why You Should Ignore Exit Polls.

Tuesday next after the first Monday in the month of November

… really ought to be a national holiday. Today in person (and in spirit for those of us who have already voted) as many as 140 million human beings will have a shared experience. What could be more celebratory?

God bless America.

Another thing to like about DirecTV

Beginning at 6PM MST, DirecTV will offer it’s Election Mix channel — channel 352 — with feeds from eight networks so you can switch easily to the commentator that annoys you the least.

I Didn’t Vote For Obama Today

Go read this. Take a hanky.

November 4th

Today is the birthday of a bunch of characters. Character-actors, that is.

Doris Roberts is 78. She was Raymond’s mom.

Loretta Swit is 71. She was Major Houlihan.

Art Carney was born on this date in 1918. He’s most famous for playing Ed Norton opposite Jackie Gleason’s Ralph Kramden but he won the Oscar for best actor for Harry and Tonto. Carney died in 2003.

Martin Balsam was born on this date in 1914. Balsam was also a character actor. NewMexiKen’s favorite Balsam roles: Juror #1 in 12 Angry Men, Henry Mendez in Hombre, Mr. Green in The Taking of Pelham One Two Three, and his Oscar-winning Arnold Burns (best supporting actor) in A Thousand Clowns. Balsam died in 1996.

It’s also the birthday of Walter Cronkite; he’s 92. What I wouldn’t give for a newsman of Cronkite’s integrity to be on the air these days.

The man who taught John Lennon how to play harmonica, Delbert McClinton, is 68.

The First Lady of the United States, Laura Bush, is 62 today.

The novelist Charles Frazier is 58.

Kathy Griffin is 48.

The Karate Kid, Ralph Macchio, is 47.

And Matthew McConaughey is 39, as is Diddy.

Will Rogers was born in Oologah, Oklahoma, on this date in 1879.

H.L. Mencken called him “the most dangerous writer alive.” Damon Runyan dubbed him “America’s most complete document.” And Franklin D. Roosevelt credited him with bringing his fellow Americans “back to a sense of proportion.” He was a ranch hand, rodeo rider, vaudeville performer, film star, columnist and author, radio personality, pioneer of aviation, tireless master of ceremonies, friend to presidents, and unofficial ambassador of good will under three administrations. He was Will Rogers, and during his lifetime he was the single most popular and beloved man in America.

American Masters

A little of Rogers’ “cowboy philosophy” —

• A fool and his money are soon elected.
• I bet after seeing us, George Washington would sue us for calling him “father.”
• There is no credit to being a comedian, when you have the whole government working for you. All you have to do is report the facts. I don’t even have to exaggerate.
• Everything is changing. People are taking the comedians seriously and the politicians as a joke. [Take note Jon Stewart.]
• Don’t gamble; take all your savings and buy some good stock and hold it till it goes up, then sell it. If it don’t go up, don’t buy it.
• I never met a man I didn’t like.

Abraham Lincoln and Mary Todd were married on November 4, 1842.

Why do we vote today?

In an effort to address the problem of voter fraud in presidential elections, Congress passed legislation in 1845 requiring the simultaneous selection of presidential electors in each state. Prior to the enactment of this law, states selected presidential electors on different dates. The new law stipulated that presidential electors be selected on the “Tuesday next after the first Monday in the month of November of the year in which they are to be appointed.” The 1848 election was the first presidential election in which Americans in every state voted on the same day.

In 1872, legislation was passed that moved election day for the House of Representatives to the same Tuesday in November. The act was amended to include Senate elections after the Seventeenth Amendment was enacted.

Library of Congress

It’s our 56th presidential election and the first time since 1952 that neither the sitting president nor vice president is on the ballot. We’ve only ever elected two sitting senators to be president — Harding and Kennedy.

Cleveland, Eisenhower and Reagan were each elected to their first term on November 4th.

One of what I hope will be many good lines today

I heard no one complain—politeness was breaking out all around, with that cheerfulness between strangers that is generally reserved for religious occasions and sports events. Everyone seemed to be aware that this is a historic day, and even in a state where the results are a foregone conclusion the people in the gym wanted their vote counted, believed their iota of the overall tally matters, which is the absurd and sublime essence of democracy.

George Packer

Short-timer

George W. Bush has 77 days left as President.

But by midnight tonight Bush will no longer be the most important person in Washington, D.C.

Best line of the day for election day

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, …”

Today is the day we give our consent. If you haven’t already, please vote.

The Unsung Heroes of the Republic

Tom Johnson writes a great essay about voting. He begins:

“I love election day. I love voting. I love the old people who work in the polling places, their friendly, businesslike way of going about things.”

Go read it.

Sure omen

Jill, official older daughter of NewMexiKen, reports:

Well, the Redskins lost. For the first time I actually believe Obama is going to win.

(Well, maybe for the second time – the first time being when I saw the number of people at that rally last night. Unbelievable.)

The Redsklns predictor has worked in 17 of 18 elections since the first time there was a Redskins, in 1936. Every one except 2004.

As I told Byron, that PROVES the Republicans fixed the voting machines in Ohio in 2004.

Here’s what happens

… when the candidate is late to the rally. Three of The Sweeties crash.

Photo taken tonight at Obama rally in Virginia attended by “well over 90,000″ people, most of whom stayed awake.

Nearly 100,000 people at 10:00 on a Monday night in the suburbs.

Fired Up! Ready to Go!

Hints of Comeback for Nation’s First Superhighway

Excerpt from an interesting article about the Erie Canal in today’s New York Times:

Completed in 1825, rerouted in parts and rebuilt twice since then, the Erie Canal flows 338 miles across New York State, between Waterford in the east and Tonawanda in the west. It carved out a trail for immigrants who settled the Midwest, and it cemented the position of New York City, which connects with the canal via the Hudson River, as the nation’s richest port. In 1855, at the canal’s height as a thoroughfare for goods and people, 33,241 shipments passed through the lock at Frankfort, 54 miles east of Syracuse, according to Craig Williams, history curator at the New York State Museum in Albany.

Though diminished in the late 1800s by competition from railroads, commercial shipping along the canal grew until the early 1950s, when interstate highways and the new St. Lawrence Seaway lured away most of the cargo and relegated the canal to a scenic backwater piloted by pleasure boats.

The canal still remains the most fuel-efficient way to ship goods between the East Coast and the upper Midwest. One gallon of diesel pulls one ton of cargo 59 miles by truck, 202 miles by train and 514 miles by canal barge, Ms. Mantello said. A single barge can carry 3,000 tons, enough to replace 100 trucks.

Automakers Report Grim October Sales

General Motors on Monday reported an incredible 45 percent decline in its sales from the month a year ago, and Chrysler said its sales were down 35 percent. The Ford Motor Company said it sold 30.2 percent fewer cars and trucks.

Toyota Motor said its sales were 23 percent lower, despite offering no-interest financing and large discounts on many models. Sales were down 33 percent at Nissan and 25.2 percent at Honda.

“If you adjust for population growth, this is probably the worst industry sales month in the post-World War II era…”

The New York Times

Stretching — The Truth

If you’re like most of us, you were taught the importance of warm-up exercises back in grade school, and you’ve likely continued with pretty much the same routine ever since. Science, however, has moved on. Researchers now believe that some of the more entrenched elements of many athletes’ warm-up regimens are not only a waste of time but actually bad for you. The old presumption that holding a stretch for 20 to 30 seconds — known as static stretching — primes muscles for a workout is dead wrong. It actually weakens them.

Read more, including what you should do.

Create your own Electoral Map

RealClearPolitics lets you select your own red states and blue states, then save the map and/or email it.

(Click each state to change it.)

A personal plea

This is the 11th time I have voted for President of the United States.

And I have never voted for the winning electoral votes.

Six times I have voted for the person who lost both my state’s electoral votes and the election.

Three times I voted for the person who won the election, but my state didn’t give its electoral votes to that person.

And once I voted for the person my state gave its electoral votes to, but that person didn’t win the election.

My fellow New Mexicans and Americans, help me out here. Tomorrow, please do your part to make the 11th time the charm.

Readin’ me some hysterical books

NewMexiKen mentioned the other day that I was reading Tried by War: Abraham Lincoln as Commander in Chief by James M. McPherson.

I’ve completed the book. If you are knowledgeable about the Civil War and want McPherson’s take on the juggling the commander in chief managed so well — “policy, national strategy, military strategy, operations and tactics” — it’s a good read. There are, however, better studies of Lincoln and better studies of the battles. The best single volume on the Civil War is McPherson’s Battle Cry of Freedom.

I’ve begun David Hackett Fischer’s Champlain’s Dream, a new biography of Samuel Champlain, explorer and founder of Canada. Champlain and French Canada are subjects that interest me, and Fischer is just about the best historian writing today.

Sleeping in at the morning paper

This translates for Albuquerque too (indeed, even more so).

There are now countless Southern Californians who understand L.A. — whether by osmosis or by marriage — through the prism of its Latino texture. Everyone here interfaces daily with Latinos, speaks some form of Spanish, and knows Mexican culture and cuisine. In effect, everyone in L.A. is Latino. Does your morning paper feel like it’s at all cognizant of this?

From Shades of Brown, an excellent article about the Los Angeles Times mentioned here Saturday.

November 3rd

Rapid Robert is 90 today.

Combining an overpowering fastball with a devastating curve, both of which appeared out of a deceptively high leg kick, Bob Feller dominated the American League in the 1940s. Rapid Robert led the league in wins six times and in strikeouts seven over his 18-year career. He pitched three no-hitters and still holds the major league record, along with Nolan Ryan, of 12 one-hitters.

The winningest pitcher in Cleveland Indians history, his career totals — a 266-162 record and 2,581 strikeouts — would have been considerably higher but for the almost four seasons he spent in the Navy during World War II.

As a teenager appearing in his first exhibition game against major leaguers he was so impressive that Dizzy Dean, when asked to take a photograph with the youngster, responded. “Why ask me? Ask that kid if he’ll pose with me.”

Feller’s fastball was so potent and his curve so unbalancing that he became the featured player in 1940s newsreels demonstrating that a thrown baseball could travel faster than a motorcycle and could be made to curve

ESPN Classic

Michael Dukakis is 75.

Remember the movie “To Sir, With Love”? Lulu, the red-headed singer is 60 today.

Roseanne Barr is 56 today.

Her family was Jewish, but her parents supported the family by selling crucifixes door to door. When she was three, she hit her head on the dining room table, and her face became paralyzed. Her mom called a rabbi, but Roseanne wasn’t healed. So her mom called the Mormon missionaries, and Roseanne got better. Her Jewish mom took it as a sign that Roseanne should be raised Mormon. Her dad was an atheist, and he was fine with that. Her dad loved comedy shows on television. Whenever a comedian appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show, her dad would jump up and yell, “Comedian!” and everyone in the family would rush to the TV. When she was 15, Roseanne ran out into the street and purposefully let herself get hit by a car. She was knocked unconscious, and when she came to, she was placed in a psychiatric ward. She spent eight months there, and she said that it was a very good and valuable experience.

She met a man who drove a garbage truck, and they got married and moved into a trailer. She raised three kids, and on the side she wrote comedy routines. After auditioning for six minutes, she got hired at the Comedy Store in Los Angeles. Her jokes were about being a mom and a housewife and about the incompetence of the male species. About husbands who couldn’t find their own socks, she said, “They think the uterus is a tracking device.”

And, “As a housewife, I feel that if the kids are still alive when my husband gets home from work, then hey, I’ve done my job.”

And, “The quickest way to a man’s heart is through his chest.”

And, “Women complain about PMS, but I think of it as the only time of the month when I can be myself.”

The Writer’s Almanac with Garrison Keillor

Kate Capshaw is 55. So is Dennis Miller, who will probably change back to liberal after tomorrow.

Photographer Walker Evans was born on November 3rd in 1903.

[B]orn in St. Louis, Missouri (1903), [Evans] wanted to be a writer but suffered from terrible writer’s block. He said, “I wanted so much to write that I couldn’t write a word.” He felt like a failure until one day he picked up a camera and realized that with a camera he didn’t have to create things, he could just capture them. The popular photography of the day was highly stylized, so Evans decided to go in the opposite direction, to take pictures of ordinary, unpretentious things. He said, “If the thing is there, why there it is.”

Evans photographed storefronts and signs with marquee lights, blurred views from speeding trains, old office furniture, and common tools. He took pictures of people in the New York City subways with a camera hidden in his winter coat. He especially loved photographing bedrooms: farmers’ bedrooms, bohemian bedrooms, middle-class bedrooms. He’d photograph what people had on their dressers and in their dresser drawers. In 1933, Evans was given the first one-man photographic exhibition by the new Museum of Modern Art.

In the summer of 1936, he collaborated with the journalist James Agee on a book about tenant farmers Greensboro, Alabama, called Let Us Now Praise Famous Men (1941), which included Evans’s photographs of the Burroughs family, the Fields family, and the Tingle family at work on their farms and in their homes. Those photos are among the most famous images of the Great Depression.

Walker Evans said, “Stare, pry, listen, eavesdrop. Die knowing something. You are not here long.”

The Writer’s Almanac from American Public Media (2007)

Sputnik 2 was launched 51 years ago today. On board was the first animal in space, the dog Laika.

And 62 years ago today Franklin Roosevelt beat Alfred Landon. Landon carried two states, Maine and Vermont.

How big are the states?

The 50 states that make up the United States have drastically different sizes. The largest state, Alaska, for example is about 425 times bigger than the smallest, Rhode Island. The three largest states, Alaska, Texas and California make up about 30% of the entire country!

It is also interesting to note that due to sea erosion, the states along the coasts are slowly shrinking in size with one exception – Hawaii. Due to volcanic activity, Hawaii is actually increasing in size; Kilauea Volcano has been erupting since 1983 and has added almost one square mile of new land to the state since then.

The above from the Wise Geek, which has an interesting chart.

First posted last year.