Left Side of the Aisle #81 - Part 1

Some thoughts about the election

So let me start this week by talking some about the election, some general observations from my perspective.

On the presidential level, of course, Barack Obama won, It wasn't even as close as had been predicted, which I found interesting. Of the nine so-called "battleground" states, which I think would be better described as tossup states, Obama won eight of them; in seven of those cases he won by margins of two to six points.

Unfortunately, he then followed up that victory with what may well have been the most self-centered victory speech I have ever heard. He barely mentioned his supporters among national figures who campaigned for him and all the people who did the grunt work, all the on-the-ground-workers, got little more than a passing nod. He didn't say anything about gains made by his own party in the House and even more in the Senate, a body where the GOPpers had hoped to become the majority but instead actually lost seats. No, the whole speech was about his victory, about his success; it was all about people believing in him.

The liberal pundits almost universally slavered praise on the speech, describing it as anything from "moving" to "great." I actually found it a little creepy.

Now, the fact is, and I have to say this, is that while I did not want Obama to win, I did want Romney to lose - because if nothing else, I wanted to know there was some level of lying, some level of blatant lying, which even our electorate will not tolerate. I mean, the thing about Romney is that not only is he a liar, but - unlike Obama - he's not even a good liar. He's a terrible liar.

A couple of weeks ago I gave you the reasons why I would not vote for Obama. I stand by all of those reasons and we are still going to be facing those same issues in a second term for PHC*.

There is one other thing to mention about this, one other point I want to make here: Obama won the popular vote by something over two percent. That's a clear enough victory; it wasn't a razor-thin margin as some have been. But it is also a clear enough indication of two important things: The obvious one (emphasized by the fact that the "undecided" vote never was very large; people made their minds up quickly) is that we are still a very divided nation and we have to face that and we have to deal with that. The other, subtler, one is that it raises the question of how much of that reflects a conviction that the choices are too narrow.

*PHC = President Hopey-Changey