Random Thoughts the Day After

The Good News - America has reached beyond ‘race’ in it’s election of Barack Obama. That is good news on many levels. Further, most of ‘the world’ was hoping for an Obama victory. He will (and America will) have an incredible opportunity to ‘reboot’ its foreign policy and foreign relations image.

Waiting to See -- I personally am waiting to see if Obama’s closest friends are beyond race. Do you believe that Jeremiah Wright is beyond race this morning? Do yo believe that Ayers is beyond race this morning?

GOP gone for a Generation -- this election spelled the end of the GOP for a generation. Ronald Reagan captured the imagination and loyalty of the under 30 crowd and that crowd (me and my peers) have been Republicans every since. Barack Obama just overwhelmingly won the under 30 voters and they will be Democrats all of their lives.

Bush / Rove Did It - the moderate, pitiful, thousand-points-of-light, compassionate-conservative, big spending, government expanding, liberties stealing, war focused Bush Dynasty did in the Republican party.

Tip of the Hat - having just ripped Bush (not nearly enough) I do have to say that he did try to get his party to pass immigration legislation so as to not lose all Hispanics to the Dems, and he did try to pass reforms of Freddie and Fannie, and he did try to work toward energy-independence legislation, and he did do more than most recent presidents on HIV/AIDS not just here but around the world. He just was so weak as a leader that he could not make case OR EVEN GET THE CREDIT for having tried.

McCain was an incredibly weak candidate. As the final vote numbers suggest, despite all that favored the Democrats in this election Obama was beatable. Moderate maverick McCain offered no real alternative to Obama so why not vote for the young energetic guy?

Loss Protocol - when FSU loses an important game, I refuse to watch sports TV ‘cause I don’t want to hear about it or see replays of it. By about 10 PM last night, I had the sound off on my TV - just watching, no sound. By this morning, no TV, only internet. Bleak. We have now elected a guy who has literally said that he is not sure the the U S Constitution in its current form is relevant to today’s world.

Jekyll or Hyde - a female African-American political ‘panelist’ and Obama supporter on CNN last night nailed it - (after the results were in of course) - she said that as a Senator, Obama was left-wing and aligned with Pelosi but as a presidential candidate Obama had been a centrist - then she asked the key question: “which will he be as the President?” Of course, CNN never made that distinction in their campaign coverage and NO mainstream reporter challenged him on the differences between his voting record and his stump speech.

The Hope - that Obama the candidate will be President, not Obama the senator. That Obama really will be the unifier and positive change agent he claims to be. That he can govern and lead when has has never governed or led before. He does seem to be calm in the storm and that should serve him well.

Populist orator -- the “stump speech version” of Obama has been a populist orator - as were Bill Clinton and especially Ronald Reagan. To put in this generations’ term, they ‘connect.’

Obama will be frustrated - Obama enters the White House with more combined power (Dems control congress) than any Democrat since Carter or LBJ. But I predict that he will be frustrated in getting his agenda through AFTER the initial honeymoon. The Democrat congress doesn’t need him. They have all power. If they had gotten to 60 in the Senate, he could have been vetoed on everything. Now, none of that will happen early as he is the Savior. But that will wear off.

Intolerance -- every signal suggests that we are about to experience the most intolerant administration in history. Obama kicked reporters from three newspapers off of his plane because the papers endorsed McCain. His people tried to destroy more than one local TV reporter after they simply asked a tough question or two. Now his appointing the most arrogant and intolerant person in Washington, Rohm Emmanuel, to run his White House. Don’t get in the way of Barack (or Michelle!!!).

GOP lost the Future - lost Hispanics 67% to 31% (the majority minority voting block), lost blacks, lost people under 30 years of age, lost almost every college town - so lost the intellectual future as well. The GOP did not run a single minority candidate in a competitive race for Governor or the US Congress anywhere in America. Once again, the GOP will have ZERO blacks in Congress. So, when you look to a future Presidential ticket, where is the minority person to choose?

Big Techno Win -- Obama destroyed the GOP in internet and wifi campaigning and funds raising. Like JFK won the first real TV election, Obama won the first techno geek election.

Left-Wing Kooks -- what will Obama do with all of those left-wing crazies that he has been friends with through the years?

Too Maverick to Win -- McCain did not pull in any GOP big-hitters to campaign for him until the last weekend. Interestingly, people who decided who to vote for in the final ten days of the campaign broke decisively toward McCain.

Viet Nam Politics is Over - McCain represented Viet Nam era, Obama the first post-Viet Nam era Presidential Candidate. Young voters know nothing of Viet Nam and don’t care. They know about Iraq - and do care.

God, Guns and Gays - those will not win elections outside of the NASCAR nation.

Right Move on Iran -- I believe that Obama is right when he says that the US must be engaged in conversation with Iran. Perhaps progress can be made there.

Liberal Carte Blanche -- the Dems now control it all - President, Congress, all appointments in government, of judges and to the Supreme Court, and of all legislation.

Incredible Disappointment -- my last thought this morning is that people will soon be bitterly disappointed with this administration and the Democrat congress. It’s good that they now run it all and will have nobody to blame but themselves (after a year or so - up until then it will be ‘we are cleaning up the Bush mess’). Just as the Democrats swept congressional elections last time on an ‘end the war’ theme - then didn’t to it - and now have the lowest approval rating in the history of congress - so I believe the same will happen to this crowd. They can’t instantly end the Iraq war. They can’t instantly fix the economy. They can’t instantly fundamentally change the health-care system. And if it is up to Pelosi, Obama will not be able to deliver on his tax-cuts. So people will soon be frustrated. And it will be very interesting to see how Obama reacts when the evening news is finally critical of him and his administration.

Total Votes as of 9 AM -

Obama 08 - 62,521,169

GW 04 - 62,040,610

McCain - 55,446,169

GW 00 - 50,456,002

Reagan 80 - 43,903,230