Category: Politics & Elections

Sunday stuff

Saw the Clint Eastwood movie Gran Torino last night. A very good film. Eastwood does cranky old man just as well as he did tough cop and enigmatic western hero.

The Apple App Store has Peggle on sale through today for 99¢. It’s a fun arcade game. I’ve never been much of a video game player, but do enjoy them on the iPhone/iPod. Paper Toss is another great time waster, and it’s free.

A brief squall here this morning. Thunderstorms in June? In the morning? What is this planet coming to? Looks like some 90-degree days headed our way, though. I guess I’d better fire up the cooler — haven’t needed it yet this year.

I see we’ve gotten through the switch to digital TV without people taking to the streets with torches. It’s getting more and more difficult for ANY change to come about in our society without it being turned into the apocalypse.

FiveThirtyEight projects that Obama would win 445 electoral votes if an election were held today. The projection is based on his popularity, awarding the president states where he has 50% approval or better.

Alas, as Frank Rich writes, “A sizable minority of Americans is irrationally fearful of the fast-moving generational, cultural and racial turnover Obama embodies — indeed, of the 21st century itself. That minority is now getting angrier in inverse relationship to his popularity with the vast majority of the country.”

Caroline Kennedy no whiz with words

Caroline Kennedy, you know, might need, you know, a speech coach, um, if she, you know, wants, um, to be a senator.

Um, you know?

Kennedy, who gave a flurry of media interviews on Friday and Saturday, revealed some cringing verbal tics that showed her inexperience as a speaker, experts told the Daily News.

In a 30-minute session with The News on Saturday, Kennedy punctuated her answers with “you know” more than 200 times. “Um” was fairly constant, too.

Transcripts of her interviews with other media outlets showed the same problem. She said “you know” at least 130 times to The New York Times and more than 80 times on New York 1.

When The News asked if President Bush’s tax cuts on the wealthy should be repealed immediately, Kennedy replied:

“Well, you know, that’s something, obviously, that, you know, in principle and in the campaign, you know, I think that, um, the tax cuts, you know, were expiring and needed to be repealed.”

Daily News

We’d be, you know, making fun of Sarah Palin for, you know, that answer.

Secretary of What, Part Two

“No Senator or Representative shall, during the time for which he was elected, be appointed to any civil office under the authority of the United States, which shall have been created, or the emoluments whereof shall have been increased during such time . . .” (Article I, Section 6, U.S. Constitution)

That pretty much precludes Senator Ken Salazar from serving in a cabinet post, doesn’t it? (Reports tonight say he will be Obama’s nominee for Interior.)

The time for which he was elected is from Noon, January 3, 2005 until Noon January 3, 2011.

The emoluments for cabinet positions were increased from $180,100 in 2005 to $191,300 in 2008.

I know. I know. This happened with a few nominees in the past and Congress cut the pay for the position and everybody looked the other way. BUT THAT IS NOT WHAT THE CONSTITUTION PLAINLY STATES. The emoluments have been increased!

I predict that as soon as an individual is harmed by a decision of the Salazar Interior Department they will have standing to challenge the result of the action based on his constitutional incapacity to serve. And someone will make that challenge.

(It precludes not only Senator Salazar but also Senator Clinton and any other senator elected in 2004 or 2006. It does not apply to any representatives because they’ve just been re-elected.)

The Population and the Popular Vote

Obama has received at least 68,724,397 popular votes for the Presidency. I say “at least” because they’re still counting in California and several other states, and so Obama’s total should wind up comfortably over 69 million; 70 million appears unlikely, but is not entirely out of the question.

This total represents 22.62 percent of the Census Bureau’s 2008 estimate of United States population, which was 303,824,640. That figure doesn’t sound that impressive at first glance — fewer than one in four Americans actually voted for Barack Obama — but it’s actually the second-highest percentage ever, trailing only Ronald Reagan in 1984:

Details at FiveThirtyEight.com.

This year’s realignment election of the century

NewMexiKen can remember going to a Poli Sci class the morning after LBJ’s landslide against Goldwater in 1964 and hearing the professor tell us how it was the end of the Republican Party. With that hindsight, I have found the talk about this year’s realignment and the end of the Republican Party pretty amusing.

Every Saturday’s big game has to be the biggest game ever. Every election where one party replaces the other has to be the end of the losing party.

Nate Silver has somewhat the same reaction.

The Obama states

Obama’s three best states (percentage of vote) were:

Hawaii (71.8%)
Vermont (66.8%)
Rhode Island (63.1%)

Seven other states and the District of Columbia gave Obama more than 60% of their vote. They were:

D.C. (92.9%)
New York (62.1%)
Massachusetts (62.0%)
Illinois (61.7%)
Delaware (61.3%)
California (61.1%)
Maryland (60.9%)
Connecticut (60.2%)

Of the 15 states with the most people, all but Texas (#2) and Georgia (#9) went for Obama. Interestingly enough, the other 13 most populous states have exactly half of all electoral votes.

The McCain states

McCain’s three best states (percentage of vote) were:

Oklahoma (65.6%)
Wyoming (65.2%)
Utah (62.9%)

Two of Utah’s 29 counties went for Obama. Two of Wyoming’s 23 counties went for Obama.

None of Oklahoma’s 77 counties went for Obama.

Alaska (61.5%), Idaho (61.5%) and Alabama (60.4%) were the only other states that gave McCain more than 60% of their vote.

I get email (9:34PM MST)

Kenneth —

I’m about to head to Grant Park to talk to everyone gathered there, but I wanted to write to you first.

We just made history.

And I don’t want you to forget how we did it.

You made history every single day during this campaign — every day you knocked on doors, made a donation, or talked to your family, friends, and neighbors about why you believe it’s time for change.

I want to thank all of you who gave your time, talent, and passion to this campaign.

We have a lot of work to do to get our country back on track, and I’ll be in touch soon about what comes next.

But I want to be very clear about one thing…

All of this happened because of you.

Thank you,

Barack

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.]