Progressive Democrat Issue 189
Well, we won. Big time.
Obama even won Virginia (which didn't surprise me at all), North Carolina (which I am not TOO surprised at) and Indiana (which DID surprise me). Obama even won one of Nebraska's electoral votes (which get split). Missouri seems to have barely gone McCain. I was convinced Florida would be stolen again, but the Republican Governor of Florida, though a typical Republican otherwise, seems dedicated to fair elections. And Obama wound up getting almost 53% of the vote.
If you are like me and you grew up hearing the refrain, "America isn't ready for a black President," you now will never hear that again. America isn't just ready for one, it OVERWHELMINGLY is ready.
Obama got some 95% of the black vote, 78% of the Jewish vote (more even than Kerry, proving the Republican fear mongering didn't work), 66% of he Hispanic vote (so much for the Republican claims that Hispanics would never vote for a black), 61% of the Asian American vote, and, I think, about 43% of the white vote...which is about the same if not HIGHER than what Kerry, Clinton and Gore got.
YES, folks, America is ready for a black President.
In the Senate races you have been hearing from the "pundits" that we didn't do as well as expected. That isn't quite true. First off, few people actually predicted that we would reach 60 Senators. They just hoped we would, and most figured we'd still need Lieberman for that. We have so far picked up about what I expected: 6 new Dem Senators. We picked up New Mexico and Colorado (the twoUdalls), New Hampshire (bye bye Sununu), and Virginia (by a landslide as expected), all of which were expected by even the most pessimistic people. In addition we picked up Oregon (barely and against all early expectations) and North Carolina (bye bye Dole). We actually still have three Senate seats up in the air. In Minnesota the Republican is ahead by only a couple of hundred votes. That close of an election in Minnesota triggers, by law, an automatic recount. Of course the Republicans are calling for the recount to be called off...which would be against the law. Typical Republican disregard for the law. So, AlFranken could still become the Senator from Minnesota, though that is not a given. In Georgia no one got over 50% (there were three candidates running) so it goes into an automatic runoff. PLEASE donate to Jim Martin for Senate. It is really
a big deal (as I discuss below). No one expected Jim Martin to do so well in Georgia. If we can win, it will be a HUGE repudiation of Karl Rove smear tactics.
The big surprise is that Alaska was predicted based on polling to throw convicted Republican felon Ted Stevens out on his ass by a wide margin. Turns outAlaskans are FAR more tolerant of corruption than predicted or than they were willing to admit. The race is so close that counting of votes is continuing, but Stevens looked to be winning early on.Bigich may yet win since some of the uncounted votes are from Juneau where he was mayor. But I am AMAZED that so many Alaskans think it is okay to elect an convicted felon to the Senate.
So, we still have a chance of picking up three more Senate seats. So, keep your fingers crossed and consider donating to one of their campaigns.
There are also several House seats still unresolved. Including Alaska's House seat where ONCE AGAIN Alaskans are voting for a corrupt Republican (Don Young, under investigation for corruption) over an honest Democrat. But we have definitely picked up many seats, including the ID-1 seat!
North Carolina was the biggest shift to blue of the year. President, Senate, and one House seat (Larry Kissell) picked up from Republicans in North Carolina. AND we held on to the North Carolina Governor's office (against many predictions). Virginia has been shifting blue since 2005. Now North Carolina is following a similar shift.
By the way, Joy and I found we got sucked into the Rachel Maddow show and Keith Olbermann shows on MSNBC. I had heard they were good, and had heard Rachel Maddow on Air America radio back in 2004. But I had gotten so out of the habit of watching any of the mainstream media that we never bothered to try them out. Finally we started watching and they are great. Highly recommended. Seems to me MSNBC is the first network to realize that the Fox News style is out of fashion now and have shifted their coverage to being more balanced. And it is showing in the ratings. Fox News has seen its profits plumment, and their stock recently tanked. I am sure they will continue because they have a rabidly faithful following of right wing nut cases. But MSNBC is poised to surpass them and Rachel Maddow and Keith Olbermann are leading the way in popularity on MSNBC.
Long road ahead of us. The mess the Republicans have made over the past 7 years is quite daunting. This is the worst mess, both in terms of domestic AND foreign policy, that I have seen in my lifetime. But it is NOT by any means the worst mess this nation has been in. After all, think of the horrible mess the Republicans got us into in the 1920's which then had to be cleaned up by FDR. We are facing hard times, but with good leadership (which we now will have!) we can make it through. What we have to get beyond is the stupid Republican insanities like "drill, baby, drill" and trickle down economics (called "Voodoo economics" by Bush's father...called looting America by some economists) and "bomb, bomb, bomb Iran."
I will be cutting back on the number of states I cover. It has grown to some 20 states and takes a fair amount of time. There are really 5 states where most of my readers are (NY, CA, GA, AZ and CO) with about another 5 where I have pretty good readership. Most of the others I get occasional hits, but not lots and I may start cutting back on those. If you are a regular reader, please let me know so I can keep at least some coverage of that state. And recruiting some new readers in your area would also help. Not sure how many states I will keep going, but at least 10.
Here is this week's newsletter.
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
NINE UNRESOLVED CONGRESSIONAL RACES: Help out
PROGRESSIVE MAJORITY DOES IT AGAIN
JEWISH VOTE OVERWHELMINGLY FOR OBAMA
INDIGENOUS DEMOCRATIC NETWORK DOES IT AGAIN
NEW YORK STATE
CALIFORNIA
GEORGIA
ARIZONA
COLORADO
NEW JERSEY
FLORIDA
WASHINGTON
VIRGINIA
NORTH CAROLINA
WISCONSIN
IOWA
NEVADA
OHIO
MINNESOTA
OREGON
PENNSYLVANIA
ILLINOIS
MICHIGAN
TEXAS
ALASKA
Obama even won Virginia (which didn't surprise me at all), North Carolina (which I am not TOO surprised at) and Indiana (which DID surprise me). Obama even won one of Nebraska's electoral votes (which get split). Missouri seems to have barely gone McCain. I was convinced Florida would be stolen again, but the Republican Governor of Florida, though a typical Republican otherwise, seems dedicated to fair elections. And Obama wound up getting almost 53% of the vote.
If you are like me and you grew up hearing the refrain, "America isn't ready for a black President," you now will never hear that again. America isn't just ready for one, it OVERWHELMINGLY is ready.
Obama got some 95% of the black vote, 78% of the Jewish vote (more even than Kerry, proving the Republican fear mongering didn't work), 66% of he Hispanic vote (so much for the Republican claims that Hispanics would never vote for a black), 61% of the Asian American vote, and, I think, about 43% of the white vote...which is about the same if not HIGHER than what Kerry, Clinton and Gore got.
YES, folks, America is ready for a black President.
In the Senate races you have been hearing from the "pundits" that we didn't do as well as expected. That isn't quite true. First off, few people actually predicted that we would reach 60 Senators. They just hoped we would, and most figured we'd still need Lieberman for that. We have so far picked up about what I expected: 6 new Dem Senators. We picked up New Mexico and Colorado (the twoUdalls), New Hampshire (bye bye Sununu), and Virginia (by a landslide as expected), all of which were expected by even the most pessimistic people. In addition we picked up Oregon (barely and against all early expectations) and North Carolina (bye bye Dole). We actually still have three Senate seats up in the air. In Minnesota the Republican is ahead by only a couple of hundred votes. That close of an election in Minnesota triggers, by law, an automatic recount. Of course the Republicans are calling for the recount to be called off...which would be against the law. Typical Republican disregard for the law. So, AlFranken could still become the Senator from Minnesota, though that is not a given. In Georgia no one got over 50% (there were three candidates running) so it goes into an automatic runoff. PLEASE donate to Jim Martin for Senate. It is really
a big deal (as I discuss below). No one expected Jim Martin to do so well in Georgia. If we can win, it will be a HUGE repudiation of Karl Rove smear tactics.
The big surprise is that Alaska was predicted based on polling to throw convicted Republican felon Ted Stevens out on his ass by a wide margin. Turns outAlaskans are FAR more tolerant of corruption than predicted or than they were willing to admit. The race is so close that counting of votes is continuing, but Stevens looked to be winning early on.Bigich may yet win since some of the uncounted votes are from Juneau where he was mayor. But I am AMAZED that so many Alaskans think it is okay to elect an convicted felon to the Senate.
So, we still have a chance of picking up three more Senate seats. So, keep your fingers crossed and consider donating to one of their campaigns.
There are also several House seats still unresolved. Including Alaska's House seat where ONCE AGAIN Alaskans are voting for a corrupt Republican (Don Young, under investigation for corruption) over an honest Democrat. But we have definitely picked up many seats, including the ID-1 seat!
North Carolina was the biggest shift to blue of the year. President, Senate, and one House seat (Larry Kissell) picked up from Republicans in North Carolina. AND we held on to the North Carolina Governor's office (against many predictions). Virginia has been shifting blue since 2005. Now North Carolina is following a similar shift.
By the way, Joy and I found we got sucked into the Rachel Maddow show and Keith Olbermann shows on MSNBC. I had heard they were good, and had heard Rachel Maddow on Air America radio back in 2004. But I had gotten so out of the habit of watching any of the mainstream media that we never bothered to try them out. Finally we started watching and they are great. Highly recommended. Seems to me MSNBC is the first network to realize that the Fox News style is out of fashion now and have shifted their coverage to being more balanced. And it is showing in the ratings. Fox News has seen its profits plumment, and their stock recently tanked. I am sure they will continue because they have a rabidly faithful following of right wing nut cases. But MSNBC is poised to surpass them and Rachel Maddow and Keith Olbermann are leading the way in popularity on MSNBC.
Long road ahead of us. The mess the Republicans have made over the past 7 years is quite daunting. This is the worst mess, both in terms of domestic AND foreign policy, that I have seen in my lifetime. But it is NOT by any means the worst mess this nation has been in. After all, think of the horrible mess the Republicans got us into in the 1920's which then had to be cleaned up by FDR. We are facing hard times, but with good leadership (which we now will have!) we can make it through. What we have to get beyond is the stupid Republican insanities like "drill, baby, drill" and trickle down economics (called "Voodoo economics" by Bush's father...called looting America by some economists) and "bomb, bomb, bomb Iran."
I will be cutting back on the number of states I cover. It has grown to some 20 states and takes a fair amount of time. There are really 5 states where most of my readers are (NY, CA, GA, AZ and CO) with about another 5 where I have pretty good readership. Most of the others I get occasional hits, but not lots and I may start cutting back on those. If you are a regular reader, please let me know so I can keep at least some coverage of that state. And recruiting some new readers in your area would also help. Not sure how many states I will keep going, but at least 10.
Here is this week's newsletter.
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
NINE UNRESOLVED CONGRESSIONAL RACES: Help out
PROGRESSIVE MAJORITY DOES IT AGAIN
JEWISH VOTE OVERWHELMINGLY FOR OBAMA
INDIGENOUS DEMOCRATIC NETWORK DOES IT AGAIN
NEW YORK STATE
CALIFORNIA
GEORGIA
ARIZONA
COLORADO
NEW JERSEY
FLORIDA
WASHINGTON
VIRGINIA
NORTH CAROLINA
WISCONSIN
IOWA
NEVADA
OHIO
MINNESOTA
OREGON
PENNSYLVANIA
ILLINOIS
MICHIGAN
TEXAS
ALASKA
posted by mole333 | 11:53 PM
|
1 comments
1 Comments:
Hi Mole333,
Mole333 said: In Minnesota the Republican is ahead by only a couple of hundred votes. ...So, AlFranken could still become the Senator from Minnesota...
The vote difference is now 206! When we recount we'll find more discrepancies (people marking the oval with an "x" instead of darkening the circle. A small percentage of those make it past the machines...)
Call off the recount! No way. Franken's opponent has already declared a win... but Franken just may be our choice, instead. It'll take a long time to recount. Keep your fingers crossed, folks.
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