The State of their Nation

America is reveling in the aftermath of one of the most important elections in American history. Barack Obama is now a mere two months away from removing George Dubya Bush from the white house. America chose the candidate who was nearly unanimously preferred outside of their borders (according The Economist's Global Electoral College Obama was chosen by every country except Iraq, Cuba, Algeria, and The Democratic Republic of the Congo). Irregardless (taking every opportunity to use Bushisms while it is still fashionable) of whether Obama is everything people have made him to be, simply being popular the world over will help repair America's image. If he promotes world unity, environmental protection and completes his plan of near universal health care it would be enough to make him a very successful President. Unfortunately with two wars, a financial crisis, and a budget so stretched that higher taxes or cuts will be a necessity in the short term will make even those three initiatives difficult.
Barack has begun the difficult task of picking his new cabinet to be fully prepared for the inauguration. His first announcement was regarding Chief of Staff where he chose an Illinois local and veteran of the Clinton administration, Rep. Rahm Emanuel. I hope Warren Buffet makes his way into the cabinet as the appointment of a respected figure like Buffet can increase investor confidence immediately. Also having a very wealthy person in charge of the treasury will make the tax hike on the rich easier to enact. Buffet is now, after all, the richest man in America and one of the strongest supporters of heavy taxes on the wealthy.
Around the country we have seen some interesting local election results. It appears as though popular comedian Al Franken lost his chance to be a senator by the slim margin of 700 votes. This has been contested and may result in Minnesota having its first recount in 40 years.
Elizabeth Dole lost her incumbency in North Carolina. Not surprising when it was revealed she spent all of 13 days in North Carolina during the year of 2006. Bob Dole's daughter was distraught on television.
Even with this win and a few other pickups, the Democrats managed to fall short of the filibuster proof 60 seat majority in the senate. With only 55 seats, perhaps 56 if Mr. Franken wins on the recount, the Democrats will have a hard time pushing through any legislation without enduring time wasting bipartisan debates.
Surprisingly California voted to end gay marriage. With absentee ballots not yet counted it is possible this will change but as it stands California has reversed a right bestowed on its gay community. With the liberal hotbed of California saying no to gay marriage it looks as though nationwide bans may be seen in the future.
Already the speculation of Palin 2012 has begun. I really hope this pans out as it would be a huge boost to Obama, giving him an even larger landslide for a second term and likely pushing the senate majority over the 60 seat threshold.
Palin 2012?

Early Results (Update 2)

Ohio and Pennsylvania have been called for Obama! Florida and North Carolina are leaning Obama. West Virgina and Louisiana have been called for McCain but it doesn't seem to matter. Even if somehow McCain wins North Carolina and Florida, Obama should still capture the 270 necessary electoral college votes. I am comfortable going to work now believing that Obama has won!

Early Results (Update 1)

Update: Looks like Florida is heavily leading to Obama while Indiana is starting to move into the red. Indiana has over 20% of precincts showing results, Florida only 10%. These results could still change dramatically depending on which precincts these are as both States have areas that tend to go Democrat/Republican.

Democrats have already picked up one new seat in the Senate. It is unlikely they will end with the Filibuster-proof 60 seats but with some centrists, like Lieberman, it is likely that most of their main stream legislature should be able to pass through unimpeded if they can manage even 55 seats. This is possible with all the money Obama has thrown around and the state of the economy.

Early Results

Currently Maryland is leaning Obama by a ratio of 2:1. That is to say there are three votes totaled and 2 are for Obama.
Vermont is called for the Democrats (with 0 votes counted?).
Kentucky has gone to McCain and Indiana is looking very close. If Obama carries Indiana I think that would be a good sign of a landslide in the works.

Third Debate (Review part 1)

I will do something serious later as I am only half way through watching the debate now but I am pretty sure McCain accidentally said "Breast and Fresh Hair" instead of "Breath of fresh air" when explaining why he thinks Palin would be a good President. Can anybody confirm this?

Global Electoral College

The Economist has a fancy little application on their website. It is a map of the world and asks the question who would the world vote for in the American election? The world, by country, is divided up similar to the Electoral College in America. Each country receives a minimum of 3 votes with their true number weighted by population.

Electoral College

It is quite clear who the world wants to be president. It also looks like America may agree. This will help American foreign policy gain legitimacy by implicitly saying they are on some sort of level ground, morally, with their world community.

NRA

The NRA have officially endorsed McCain for president. Here is the article:

NRA Article

I always suspected the NRA as an organization had a high RQ but here is some proof. Firstly, they like Palin!
"Palin, an NRA member, received an A-plus rating from the group when she ran for governor in 2006. That compares to an NRA grade in the average range for McCain in his last Senate race. McCain isn't an NRA member."

Second, did you notice the scale? A good score is an A-plus; McCain scores and average. I guess the scale ranges from a high of A-plus to a low of Hippie? This is a pretty big deal since the NRA do not always endorse candidates. Bush Sr. was never endorsed - perhaps the fact that he bombed Japan, had his plane shot down and still continued to fight is not enough for the NRA to think he likes ARMS? So what is wrong with Obama?

"Obama has said he respects the Second Amendment but doesn't think it precludes "some commonsense gun laws so that we don't have kids being shot on the streets of cities like Chicago.""

Yes! The NRA is pro gang violence - but only when guns are used. They don't want gangs to have to resort to the Nancy tactics of knife fights.


What are my view on guns? I don't really know. I guess I could see how hunting could be fun, I have shot guns before and it is exhilarating. Though, I don't know if I would want to kill an animal? That being said I do like the taste of Deer, Moose and the like. I fish and have no problem killing fish. They are really delicious. There is something to be said about the fact that restricting gun ownership only affects those who have them legitimately since the gangs are not exactly registering their guns.
Considering how many people the Canadian, and I presume American too, police kill with Tasers, I don't think they can be trusted anymore than the criminals to use their weapons safely. For military purposes it is understandable but I think that most people would rather live in a world without wars but that will probably never happen.
The idea that guns don't kill people, people kill people is especially stupid. If someone attacks you with a bat, you can run, you can scream for help, you can try to fight back; but with a gun you have no chance.

Second American Presidential Debate

Obama: Fundamental difference
McCain: My friends
Repeat

The preceding dialogue is essentially the entire debate.

McCain really started off strong. His rhetoric resonated through the first two questions and really his answers were better. The problem is, as he was walking around he looked as stiff as a 72 year old. He looked feeble!
Obama really picked it up through the middle hour of the debate. What is more important to my feeling that Obama won is that McCain started to sound pandering. Calling the crowd 'my friends' repeatedly ws ludicrous. He should have called everyone my 'children' or maybe 'grandchildren'. But, more importantly, his mannerisms changed, he cracked his old man smile and his voice sounded like he was looking for an emotional response. This is something that works with Obama but not McCain. McCain is running on the tough, experienced, guy platform and he should not try to move out of that range. It is not believable.

Obama vs McCain

This is stupid.

Obama more preferred Football Buddy

With everything going on in America right now some asshole decided to waste his time and money polling Americans as to who they would rather watch a football game.

the quotations make it sound a little bit like hetero man dating. Like "the age differences is too great" or "McCain might be an angry drunk if his team doesn't win".

I guess if it came down to it, I would pick Obama solely for "Da Bears".

McCain in the LEAD?

Since the Republic convention (which was not much of a show) it appears as though McCain has received a bump. Many polls are putting him in the lead and in fact on yahoo it shows the average of polls now puts McCain a couple of points ahead.
This is interesting for me because despite my far left of centre social values (I am a social libertarian and my policies tend to be pro-choice, pro-gay marriage, pro-legalisation, etc, [more to follow on that]). Anyways I hoped McCain would win the nomination the first time he went up for it - I think most people would considering the result was a second Bush. Anyways historically I liked Eisenhower (beware of the industrial-military complex), which he felt was dangerous when an army man was in charge but down right subversive if business people were to take control. I think his dire warning looks to be true when you look at the ramifications of the previous 20 years of presidents. Don't forget even Mr. Congeniality, Clinton, bombed everywhere.
So we want out of Iraq but if nothing good happens then some douche bag named Jeb will end up starting Operation Desert Storm III. After Iraq is dealt with we should go on to get the coalition out of Afghanistan. It seems logical that a military leader will be more inclined to follow the advice of all the generals that Bush ignored.
Anyways, I pulled out my support when McCain made his choice of Palin (and no it is not because her daughter is all preggo.... that is just funny). Palin is a terrible choice. she is from a small state, she is from a corrupt state, she is dorky, she is on record as saying she doesn't know what the VP does, she has absolutely no relevant experience which was a huge selling point of McCain over Obama, and finally she doesn't look presidential with those stupid glasses.
The vetting must have been highly unsubstantial (I bet 90% of Americans didn't know the definition of vetting or vet the root word 2 months ago and 40% still don't know but use the word regularly).
Biden on the other hand is a fine candidate. I would like to see it Biden/Obama not Obama/Biden but lets be honest, Biden has foot-in-the-mouth disease and Obama is too cool to be VP.
Well I imagine a lot of people feel the way I do - that McCain > Obama but Obama/Biden > McCain/Palin. So why did the Republicans get a boost? My theory will be looked at further in another post as I wish to touch on the Media role in both America and Canada at once but my belief is the old boys club that is the media may be trying to swing the election by getting some extremely biased figures to trump up McCain so as to make people believe he is winning in a clear self fulfilling prophecy attempt.