Camper

Smug

Yes, I am feeling a little smug today.  This image is a poor quality BB pic of my doodles during the day yesterday while consumed with watching election coverage.  The figures are my predictions for the night - made at approximately 1 p.m.  The 349 was my gut feeling for Obama's electoral college number.  The parenthetical 380 was my pie in the sky, all things perfect in the world number. The 52.1% was my guess for his popular vote count.  Right now I stand dead on for both and it feels good.  If only I had gotten paid some big bucks for these stellar predictions. . . .

VOTE for Change - Election Day Inspiration

Some bits of inspiration as we all go to the polls . . .

Here is a bit of very stirring testimonial from a registered Republican about what he has learned canvassing for Barack Obama:

I've learned that this election is about the heart of America. It's about the young people who are losing hope and the old people who have been forgotten. It's about those who have worked all their lives and never fully realized the promise of America, but see that promise for their grandchildren in Barack Obama. The poor see a chance, when they often have few. I saw hope in the eyes and faces in those doorways.

This wonderful story comes from a TPM post:

My grandmother voted today. She is 86 years old. A white woman born to hardscrabble cattle ranchers in the most desolate part of New Mexico. Our ancestry goes back through West and East Texas, through Tennessee, the Cumberland Gap, and Virginia. This side of the family rode in the Texas 2nd Cavalry during the Civil War. A dark reminder for me of my family's past, she still has receipts for slaves that our family owned. Her first husband was killed in the Battle of the Bulge, sacrificing his life like so many other young men. My mother was two months old at the time. My grandmother has voted Republican her entire life, but today she voted for Barack Obama.

VOTE VOTE VOTE

 

Campbell, Adam and I have been to the polls here in Danvegas.  There was a good crowd at our polling location.  It felt really good to cast that ballot for Obama.  Now we wait and see how things turn out. 

To help pass the time and do all that I can to make a difference, I just spent the last hour or so calling Ohio voters on behalf of the Obama campaign to encourage them to go vote.  Everyone I spoke to was very excited about going to vote so hopefully that is a good sign for Obama in the Buckeye State!

If you would like to call voters in swing states and encourage them to vote simply go to www.barackobama.com now!

But most importantly - go VOTE yourself!

Vote - No Matter What!

Right now I, like everyone else, just want to get through tomorrow.  But once we have our new leaders something must be done to fix our election system.  Seriously.  We are the most powerful country on the planet.  We can cure diseases. We can create computer programs that allow paralyzed people to move artificial limbs with their minds.  But we can't create an election system where everyone can vote? That's just plain wrong.

And He's Smart, Too

We've heard a lot during this election cycle about Barack Obama's oratorical skills, his million dollar smile and athletic swagger.  And we have heard, too, from time to time about his tendency to be "too professorial" and "elitist."  I, for one, don't see anything elitist about Barack Obama - and I'm not just referring to the ridiculous notion that a black man with a name that automatically makes some people rule out voting for him is a standard bearer for elitism.

My friend Shana and I were reminiscing about some old high school classmates on the way to work this morning and we were discussing two of the more intelligent of our fellow Rebel alumni and how different their personas were.  One was probably the smarted person I've ever met and yet Shana remembered playing paper football with Dean in middle school and I remember goofing off with him in AP English.  He was fun, funny and completely unassuming.  The other classmate was intelligent but not in a could save the world sort of way.  This classmate was, in my mind, the epitimy of elitist.  Chris knew he was smart and thought that made him better than everyone else and he acted as such.

Barack Obama is "Dean."  He's not elitist.  He's crazy smart but he doesn't look down on the people around him.  And its a good thing to elect someone who is smart and can think deliberately and intelligently about the biggest issues facing the world and make smart decisions.  It is equally important that our president pair with superior intellect the ability to bring people to the table and make them feel comfortable - not treat them like inferiors.  Barack Obama does all of these things.  It is this combination of intelligence and empathy, self-assurance and deference that make Barack Obama a transformational leader.

As proof for these opinions I offer his interview last night with Rachel Maddow.  I think this was one of Obama's best interviews of this very long campaign.  His reasoning and thought process are clear.  His positions and goals are well explained.  Some will say it is because he was interviewed by a liberal host.  I will agree with that only in that Rachel had the respect to let him talk which is something most interviewers from either side of the aisle don't do. 

Make History

Tell Five Friends . . . . VOTE!

Hollywood Declares Themselves - Part 2....FIVE MORE FRIENDS!
by declareyourself

Primetime Obama Ad

In case you missed it . . . here is the Obama ad that aired last night. I thought it was tremendously well done.  As is so often my reaction I reached the end of the video feeling that we just have to elect this man because leaders of this caliber are a once in a generation (or longer) type of people.  So, watch it if you haven't already . . . My apologies for having to break it up into four parts - I couldn't find it in one piece.

Summing up the Palin Effect

From Bob Herbert's column:

Senator Hillary Clinton helped define the new political atmosphere with her own historic run for the White House. Senator McCain, demonstrating again his tone-deafness to the new reality, tried to capitalize on Mrs. Clinton’s remarkable achievement by cynically selecting Sarah Palin, the anti-Hillary, as his running mate.

Mr. McCain must never have noticed that the public turned overwhelmingly against the Bush administration because of its repeatedly demonstrated incompetence. Now here is Senator McCain, in the midst of a national crisis, with a running mate who is demonstrably incompetent to serve the nation as its president.

Ms. Palin is a walking affront to the many Republican women (not to mention women in general) who are, in fact, qualified to hold the highest office in the land.

Obama, Not McCain, Sees America as One Nation

As I stated yesterday there is a lot at stake in this election.  And there are many reasons I will cast my ballot for Barack Obama with great pride and enthusiasm on November 4. Many of those reasons are exhibited in this clip.  He gets it. Barack Obama understands the American dream, he has lived the American dream and he knows that dream is being threatened today. He has a world class mind and a steady temperament and hand that will make him a thoughtful and extremely capable leader.

After watching clips like this and seeing them in contrast to clips of Sarah Palin and John McCain calling liberals socialists and declaring that conservatives are more American than liberals, it is unfathomable to me how anyone can think that McCain will have a better chance in office of forging bipartisan policies than will Obama. 

Have we not seen very clearly over the last eight years where a right vs. wrong, the world is black and white, its us vs. them, my way or the highway attitude gets us? John McCain bristles when people compare him to George Bush - I can appreciate that response I think I'd probably puke if someone compared me to George Bush.  But at the same time he invites such comparisons.  George Bush ran two elections talking about bipartisanship out one side of  his mouth while stirring division and derision out the other side of his mouth.  The result is a nation more bitterly divided against itself than any other point in my lifetime. And yet John McCain is unequivically offering more of the same in this instance.  He is running the exact same double-sided campaign and he is stirring up the exact same hatred and resentment that George Bush did.

Barack Obama, on the other hand, is saying its okay to disagree. That's a right we all have and should cherish.  But we can disagree and still work together, respect one another and find solutions to improve our great nation.  The big difference between Obama and McCain is that when John McCain stands up and looks out over a crowd he sees two nations - the conservative nation he calls home and the unAmerican liberal nation he'd like to vanquish. When Barack Obama looks out of a crowd he sees one nation full of competing and equally valid viewpoints; one nation of liberals, conservatives and moderates; one nation in which we are all in the same fights together fighting for each other not against each other. That is what makes Barack Obama a leader and what will make it far more likely that he can reunite this country.