The Blue Land of Enchantment

Tom Udall won the senate seat 61-39.

Congressional districts 1 and 2, both currently held by Republicans, went to the Democratic candidates 55-45. The third seat (Udall is the incumbent) went to the Democrat 56-30-14.

Obama won New Mexico 57-42.

New Mexicans approved $14.7 million for senior citizen facilities; $11 million for public, academic and tribal libraries; $57.9 million for health facilities; and $140.1 million for special school and higher education facilities.

Best line of the day, Obama-style

Atrios had this item from Newsweek’s Special Election Project:

The debates unnerved both candidates. When he was preparing for them during the Democratic primaries, Obama was recorded saying, “I don’t consider this to be a good format for me, which makes me more cautious. I often find myself trapped by the questions and thinking to myself, ‘You know, this is a stupid question, but let me … answer it.’ So when Brian Williams is asking me about what’s a personal thing that you’ve done [that’s green], and I say, you know, ‘Well, I planted a bunch of trees.’ And he says, ‘I’m talking about personal.’ What I’m thinking in my head is, ‘Well, the truth is, Brian, we can’t solve global warming because I f—ing changed light bulbs in my house. It’s because of something collective’.”

It’s a long story

As I was putting my older son to sleep last night, I had just heard about Ohio. I explained to the boy that Obama was going to win the election and become the first African-American President of the United States. The boy looked up at me, eyes filled with wonder, as one’s kids will on occasion, and said, “Really? The first? How can that be?”

ari — The Edge of the American West

November 5th

Today is the birthday

… of Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee Art Garfunkel, 67. Bridge Over Troubled Water

… of Sam Shepard. He’s 65. An inductee as a playwright into the Theatre Hall of Fame, Shepard was also nominated for the best actor Oscar for playing Chuck Yeager in The Right Stuff.

… of Peter Noone (Herman of Herman’s Hermits). He’s 61. No, Peter isn’t in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Mrs. Brown, You’ve Got a Lovely Daughter

… of Bill Walton, 56. He’s in the Basketball Hall of Fame.

… of football hall-of-famer Kellen Winslow. He’s 51.

… of Bryan Adams, 49.

… of Oscar-winner Tilda Swinton, 48.

… of Tatum O’Neal, 45. Miss O’Neal won the best supporting actress Oscar at age 10 for Paper Moon.

Vivien Leigh (who died at age 53) was born on this date in 1913. Miss Leigh was voted best actress twice — for Katie Scarlett O’Hara in Gone With the Wind (opposite Clark Gable) and for Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire (opposite Marlon Brando).

Leonard Franklin Slye was born in Cincinnati on this date in 1911. As Roy Rogers he’s an inductee into the Country Music Hall of Fame, the only person to be elected twice — as the King of the Cowboys and as a founder of the Sons of the Pioneers (“Tumbling Tumbleweeds,” “Cool Water“). Rogers died in 1998.

The journalist Ida Tarbell was born on this date in 1857.

By the early 1900s, John D. Rockefeller Sr. had finished building his oil empire. For over 30 years, he had applied his uncanny shrewdness, thorough intelligence, and patient vision to the creation of an industrial organization without parallel in the world. The new century found him facing his most formidable rival ever–not another businessman, but a 45-year-old woman determined to prove that Standard Oil had never played fair. The result, Ida Tarbell’s magazine series “The History of the Standard Oil Company,” would not only change the history of journalism, but also the fate of Rockefeller’s empire, shaken by the powerful pen of its most implacable observer.

. . .

“The History of the Standard Oil Company” would be hailed as a landmark in the history of investigative journalism, as well as the most comprehensive study of the building of Rockefeller’s oil empire. In 1999 it was listed number five among the top 100 works of twentieth-century American journalism. …

American Experience

Eugene V. Debs was born on November 5th in 1855.

Labor leader, radical, Socialist, presidential candidate, Eugene Victor Debs was a homegrown American original. He formed the American Railway Union, led the Pullman strike of the 1890’s in which he was jailed, and emerged a dedicated Socialist. An idealistic, impassioned fighter for economic and social justice, he was brilliant, eloquent and eminently human. As a “radical” he fought for women’s suffrage, workmen’s compensation, pensions and social security — all commonplace today. Five times the Socialist candidate for president, his last campaign was run from federal prison where he garnered almost a million votes.

Labor Hall of Fame

Morons

Via Daily Kos

Campbell Brown: For those people who have been worried about the possibility of one party controlling Congress and the White House, the last president to do that, of course, was….?

John King: Ah, that was Bill Clinton, and…

Brown: Jimmy Carter! Jimmy Carter had… Bill Clinton had Democrats in the House and in the Senate?

King: Very briefly.

Brown: Very briefly. [Crinkles her nose] Didn’t go so well.

King: No it didn’t.

OK, class: Who was the last president to have one-party control of both houses of Congress?

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

I have a dream

And this will be the day — this will be the day when all of God’s children will be able to sing with new meaning:

My country ’tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing.

Land where my fathers died, land of the Pilgrim’s pride,

From every mountainside, let freedom ring!

— Martin Luther King, Jr.

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.]

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.