Posts on November 5, 2008
final election results for tonight
Mood: a little teary-eyed
Posted on 2008-11-05 02:18:00
Tags: election politics
Words: 343
Re my predictions:
- Obama picked up all those states, plus Florida. Most networks have called Indiana for him which would put him at 349 electoral votes. It looks like he's barely ahead in NC with 100% of the vote in, and barely behind in MO with 98% of the vote in. Although the last few states were close, the election certainly wasn't and we don't have to worry about recounts or anything like that. Still kinda in shock he won Ohio and Florida and Indiana!
- Senate: Dems did win seats in VA NM CO NH NC, with AK results not in yet and OR looking to be very close. The GA race has Saxby Chambliss(R) at 50.38% (he needs to stay above 50% to avoid a runoff) with 99% of the vote in, so that's pretty close. Al Franken(D) is barely ahead in MN with most of the vote counted.
- House: Dems pick up somewhere between 12-31
- California Prop 8 looks like it's gonna pass, I'm sad to say - "yes" is winning 52-48 with 62% of the vote in. I'm gonna assume it loses for peace of mind - staying up later hoping for a big comeback is probably not great for my health.
(oh, apparently a lot of GA early votes haven't been counted yet, so that could change things with the senate race and even the presidential one!)
I'm disappointed about Prop 8, of course (whose brilliant idea was it to let people take away rights by a simple majority? /sigh) but you know what? You can take away my legal rights, but you can't take away my djedi. It sucks to be in a state of legal limbo, but there are far worse things. We'll keep fighting the good fight and live our lives in the meantime. (encouraging words from Andrew Sullivan) I'm so overwhelmed by the historic nature of Obama's win and the fact that, with a solid majority in the Senate and House, hopefully he can get things done.
I stayed up later than David Gregory and Keith Olbermann!
probably the craziest result of the night
Mood: amazed
Posted on 2008-11-05 10:31:00
Tags: election politics
Words: 117
Convicted felon Ted Stevens is winning in Alaska. Words fail me. Except for "what the hell is wrong with y'all up there??"
From TPM:
4:21 AM ... Now that Alaska seems on its way of reelecting its convicted felon senator and its (little doubt) soon to be indicted member of the House, I realize that perhaps I judged Sarah Palin too harshly. In the context of Alaska politics, I guess she really is a reformer.
4:26 AM ... Now that the "Bradley Effect" seems set for a richly deserved retirement, TPM Reporter Eric Kleefeld suggests christening the "Stevens Effect" -- the poll distorting effect of poll respondents unwillingness to admit they will vote for the convicted felon in the race.
trying to move on
Mood: distracted
Posted on 2008-11-05 14:54:00
Tags: politics
Words: 98
Trying to detox from election coverage. No on Prop 8 is not conceding yet, but looking at the numbers it's hard to see how Prop 8 fails to pass. Don't really want to write more about it, except that progress is never easy but I'm confident we'll win in the long run.
Newsweek's "special election project" had a lot of access to the campaigns over the last year on the condition that they not publish anything until after the election. Here's the summary of what they're going to cover, and here's part 1 of their 7 part report.
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