Election Anecdotes – Moon of Alabama

November 4, 2008

Election Anecdotes

Amuse-gueule: Obama Takes Dixville Notch Away From The GOP

The first results are in for the 2008 general election, with the small village of Dixville Notch, New Hampshire again performing its tradition of having everyone turn out to vote at midnight and then immediately reporting the results.

Result: Obama 15 votes, McCain 6.

In my life so far I never experienced voting lines, non-paper ballots or election fraud. People here are amazed that U.S. elections are not organize better. Then again – we do not elect dog catchers, judges, sheriffs or school boards and do not have many prop. x, y and z. So voting here is a bit easier. It is also usually done on a Sunday.

To folks in the U.S. – please let us know what you see in the streets. How are people feeling about it? What do they expect?

Posted by b on November 4, 2008 at 12:06 UTC | Permalink

Comments

My SO called me at 6:30. He was at his precinct at 6 and it took him 30 min. instead of the usual 5 . There were 4 machines instead of 2. About 300 people in line in rural Buckingham Co. Va. when they opened.
I voted absentee in person at the registrar’s office two weeks ago because I’ve been volunteering.

Posted by: beq | Nov 4 2008 12:42 utc | 1

Voting lines (sometimes hours-long queues) is usually what you see in 3rd world countries that get their first elections ever. Definitely not what you’d see in any other Western country with some solid experience in voting – US exceptionalism probably.
Then the whole “let’s make people vote in a weekday, when they’re meant to be at work and being productive members of society” is a complete outrage; in a civilised nation, people should vote during weekends, have generalised mail-in ballot, or have an official vacation day to vote.
And the fact that every state, and every city can have its own voting method is quite retarded. Standardisation and uniformisation of process should be seriously considered.
On the other hand, the “propositions X” thingie can be a good thing, in that it allows people to overturn what some moronic State parliament decides. Of course, the downside being that some powerful group or party can come with a moronic proposition and manage to pass it into law. But as such, it’s not worse than having government and congress acting like semi-gods.

Posted by: CluelessJoe | Nov 4 2008 12:48 utc | 2

My spouse got up early here in Charlottesville VA to try to “beat the lines” at our usual voting place near the University of Virginia. Instead, arriving shortly after opening time at 6, he found the line already around ten times longer than he’d ever seen it before. He described it as very well-organized with people sharing cupcakes and information.
For myself I voted “absentee, early” since I thought I might be in NYC today, but am not. When I did that, back in early October, I went in person to the city’s Voter Registration Office, where the registrar said she’d had absolutely unprecedented numbers of new registrations to deal with.
Yesterday I went with two friends to do some GOTV work in a neighboring precinct. The little local tip of the GOTV that I saw was stunningly well organized though actually over-staffed. A group of Yale students had come into town to help work for Obama here. Someone said they had originally gone to Pennsylvania but found halls-full of volunteers already there so they headed on south to VA. Frankly, within VA, C’ville really didn’t need them as much as, perhaps, some other portions of the state. But perhaps the state’s campaign planners thought their Yalie accents and demeanor would cause fewer ructions/ potential alienation here than in southside VA.
As for the doorknocking itself, it was delightful and a real upper. Fewer than 50% of folks we knocked at were home. But all we met, to a person, were strongly pro-Obama and either totally psyched for voting today and knowledgeable about where to go, or they’d already voted. It was a good, racially mixed neighborhood.

Posted by: Helena Cobban | Nov 4 2008 13:22 utc | 3

Here in Backsburg (Virginia, USA), I went to vote earlier than usual; my wife was a poll watcher and had phoned me that it was about an hour’s wait, so I factored that in as the only time I could find an hour — before going to work.
But it was quicker than that by the time I go there, at least for the P-Z line. They had more voting machines than last time – 7 I believe. No propositions on the ballot, only 4 choices to make, and I didn’t even vote on one (Representative running unopposed). This no doubt speeded up the line.
Can’t really tell much from the crowd, in this university town, but they seemed upbeat.
GOTV was very well organized, redudant. We got a call last night from a Dem call center in Illinois, and assured them that the local folks were well handling the GOTV.

Posted by: DonS | Nov 4 2008 14:05 utc | 4

I really live in Blacksburg, not Backsburg! Don’t want to confuse fellow Virginians!
Final note: I had grabbed my wrong wallet, and didn’t have a picture ID, so I showed a bank card. After some hemming and hawing they let me vote when the worker discovered that credit cards were OK for ID, even without a picture. I didn’t argue.

Posted by: DonS | Nov 4 2008 14:10 utc | 5

I just got back from my ward polling station in Burlington, VT. 10 minute wait to check in. Smooth flow. There was a buzz around the bake sale put on by the local United Way chapter. I voted for Nader; have done every GE since 1996!

Posted by: Jay Vos | Nov 4 2008 14:15 utc | 6

What seems amazing to Europeans is the fact that so many people in the US stand in queues for hours on end waiting to vote. In rural Bucks, UK, we get to the polling station, register and vote without having to queue more than a couple of minutes. The long queues over there seem reminiscent of the snaking lines of people waiting in South Africa in the first election after the end of apartheid. Then they elected their first black president too…….so I suppose that is a good omen.

Posted by: Kelso | Nov 4 2008 14:35 utc | 7

dos
i bring you another problem as is my habitude
i am trying to watch msnbs live coverage – choosiing between hacks – but i was able yesterday to have an hour or two but not at all today
i’d prefer another choice to cnn int
perhaps it is not possible in france
force & tendress
as is also my habitude

Posted by: remembereringgiap | Nov 4 2008 14:59 utc | 8

only one person ahead of me in the A-I line, but the rest had sorta long lines (40ish). since i live in a swing state i don’t feel that i had the luxury to selfishly vote my true interest so i cast a pebble (w/o illusion) to help the landslide.
on saturday i got one of those recorded phone messages, this one started w/ a voice identifying himself as obama — but was the aural equivalent of the fat bin laden video — encouraging me to get to polls, followed by a lady’s voice giving me a fictional address as my polling station. no id in the msg as even being paid for my the obama campaign. a step up from last year, i guess, when the dirty tricksters only left a door knob hanger giving me both an incorrect polling station address & election date (nov. 5th).

Posted by: b real | Nov 4 2008 15:06 utc | 9

i mean any llive coverage from here that isn’t from theose jackalls & hyenas on cnn
though i was a little surprised at that old thug ed rollins last night – perhaps there are strategists who are not completely in the attwater/rove mould – though that baying babboon bay buchanan certainly is in their mould

Posted by: remembereringgiap | Nov 4 2008 15:07 utc | 10

R’giap
Baying baboons – how right you are. The glow from their incandescent arses could light a major metropolitan area.
My wife had no problems voting this AM at our daughter’s elementary school – where, yesterday, said daughter heard so much racist parroting from her 1st grade classmates that it gave her nightmares. God alone knows what these kids are listening to at home.

Posted by: Tantalus | Nov 4 2008 15:17 utc | 11

My take was that Buchanan shit all over McCain and the Republicans and clearly sees a huge win for Obama, similar to Reagan’s win in 1980. I think that’s an honest assessment, regardless of what I, or you, think of Buchanan.

Posted by: Obamageddon | Nov 4 2008 15:30 utc | 12

o
i think you’re confusin buchanans – she calls a mccain victory. & i don’t think much of her – not more than i think of a piece of dogshit as i walk a small promenade dans ma ville

Posted by: remembereringgiap | Nov 4 2008 15:36 utc | 13

At 6 AM poll opening time we had an hour-long line but by 9 it was right in/right out. I’m in Lynchburg VA where Falwell Jr. made sure to maximise the effect of his Lib U students on the local turnout.
This area has always had a heavy GOP slant even without the evangelical school, but not as bad as other more rednecky places. Nearby Virginia Military Institute in Lexington is a favorite of our city fathers who are just about ALL repubs. VMI vanity plates and decals abound here.
Our city’s relatively small (for the South) black population was out in force this morning; to my eye much more than for other previous elections. It looks like Virginia will indeed go Dem this year, especially if a hard core conservative town like Lynchburg can be swayed over.
I’ll let you know later how it works out.

Posted by: rapt | Nov 4 2008 15:48 utc | 14

In the little village I live in (population 223) there were 5 polling stations, yet i still had to wait about five minutes. I took my Ma, who is 82 and nearly crippled with arthritis, so she could cast her meaningless vote as well. Just like I take her to church even though I’m decidedly atheist. I’ve lived here for about eight years and grew up here before that, but I still had to show my driver’s license four times before I left the place. I cursed them in Russian, since they acted like I was some kind of foreigner.

Posted by: JimT. | Nov 4 2008 15:49 utc | 15

Here in Milwaukee (WI) voting is smooth, orderly and heavy turnout. Voted at 8, waited about 45 minutes – not too bad for unprecedentedly heavy turnout. Ran into lots of neighbors out voting, mood is very happy. I’ve been canvassing the neighborhood for Obama, seems like half the neighborhood is doing it, and at this point, we’re all just canvassing each other’s houses, as the support for Obama is tremendous. This is a neighborhood that was considered a “swing” one, formerly full of conservative old folks but has changed dramatically as highly educated young urbanites have moved into the area in the past 3 years.

Posted by: foilhatgrrl | Nov 4 2008 16:05 utc | 16

In the county where I live in Washington state, the voting is all mail-in/drop-off. This year they added heavy steel drop-off boxes that have been unlocked since the ballots were mailed. These replaced the cardboard boxes guarded by hawkeyed old ladies on election day as was always the case before.
Some might miss the ritual of standing in line; not me. We might all go to this method and recycle those electronic voting machines into the slot machines they always wanted to be.

Posted by: brian | Nov 4 2008 16:29 utc | 17

Giap, yeah, you’re right. I thought you were talking about Pat Buchanan.

Posted by: Obamageddon | Nov 4 2008 16:44 utc | 18

Here outside of Buffalo, in Rethug Genesee County, my town hall polling place was fairly busy at 9am. I had a ten minute wait and was the 150th voter in my district, the other town district was across the room and had more voters. A fairly long line did form up behind me. Wore my Bartcop “Worst President Ever” t shirt while I was voting. Had my truck parked outside the door with Worst President Ever sticker in back window along with “Friends Don’t Let Friends Vote Rethuglican”. Lot’s of agreement from people inside and out.
Folks are pissed off and fed up, and I think, glad it’s over today.
Buzz Meeks

Posted by: Buzz Meeks | Nov 4 2008 16:52 utc | 19

We are watching very carefully here- north of the 59th parallel. There is a saying that when the US sneezes, we catch a cold! Hopefully not this time. I think a blowout for Obama will be good for both the US and Canada. There is a lot of fixing that needs to be done, and appropriate majorities in both houses would facilitate that. I don’t think Obama would abuse a Democratic majority.
BTW, I notice that Palin had started to use the pejoritive ‘democrat’ as in ‘democrat majority’. Its use was very common during the heyday of the republicians under GWB. Yesterday a couple of Montreal comedians played a prank on Palin, pretending to be Sarkosy in a call placed to her campaign office. The audio recording can be found here.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UMV0LKlVj8I
Bernie

Posted by: bernie | Nov 4 2008 17:15 utc | 20

No wait at all here in the Florida panhandle. But they seem to have doubled the number of booths in anticipation and added one extra checker-in person. But we do have an awful lot of polling locations for a city/county as small as this one.
At 11:00 AM, I was #519 on the optical scanner count. So that is how many had voted here since 8:00 when the poll opened.
Outside away from the entrance to the church, there was one group of Obama supporters and one group for a local sheriff up to election. There wasn’t a single McCain/Palin sign, no supporters, it was almost like they weren’t even running. And this is a mostly Republican area. Can it be no one would volunteer?

Posted by: Ensley | Nov 4 2008 17:24 utc | 21

r’giap
I have a satellite receiver so I can get MSNBC without any problem. You apparently are relying on a cable provider for your teevee.
Best I can offer you right now, and I will look more when I get home, is to use Google. they have put up an election reporting page

Posted by: dan of steele | Nov 4 2008 17:27 utc | 22

thanks dan
where would i be without you

Posted by: remembereringgiap | Nov 4 2008 17:55 utc | 23

is bay buchanan the daughter of anti-semite-in-chief pat buchanan or was she brought up in the woods by some feral foxes & just unleashed on washington but that does not explain her awful array of glasses/spectacles

Posted by: remembereringgiap | Nov 4 2008 17:58 utc | 24

The Swiss (those I hear) think the disorganization must be deliberate, if at local levels, no tinfoil hats, because they simply can’t imagine not being able to run several votes per month – the before last lot (I refused to elect 80 citizens 10 days ago to rewrite the Constitution and so voted ‘defaced’) had 13 objects. These people quote Katrina as another ex. of total mayhem, state failure, etc.
To be fairer, the US should adopt the ‘emergency vote’ procedure, invented by some shining light at the UN. You need a meter measure, boards, scraps of paper, anything will do, an indelible stamp for skin. (reminiscent of the first votes in Iraq.) Anyone who shows up and is over 1.40 (say) tall gets a scrap of paper (obviously colored is best, or torn out of the same material, such as old magazines or packing paper, and the size has to be constant) and faces two boards flanked by two urns. The boards picture the candidates / party, or spell out the issue in some comprehensible way. Voter puts scrap into his choice of urn, and on his way out his hand is stamped. A few armed guards and you’re on your way … The counting is done under guard by citizen committees, plus whatever dignitaries *anyone* wants to send. Even if there is a huge crowd at counting, no prob. 🙂
The voting snarls in the US show that rule-bending or violation, cheating, manipulation, personal influence, fraud, secret calculations, coercion and exclusion, financial gain, are a constant. Also that minor bureaucrats, at all levels, hold extraordinary ‘proxy’ powers. Not contested by those who vote…
UN observers of ‘elections’ were present in the US, in tiny numbers, in 2004 but their report seems? not to have been published, or is not available on-line. Meaning I could not find it.
CNN Fox Dawn

Posted by: Tangerine | Nov 4 2008 17:58 utc | 25

thx dan my TV is meager i do contractually receive cnn eu and cnbc by cable i think they may still work …i will go check soon..
here the silence is like when an international and crucial football match takes place. the neighbors (arabs) are super quiet and the traffic is low low, I just drove 80kms.
i taught this afternoon but no one could concentrate the support for Obama is heartfelt and overwhelming (young adults, some from the mountains.)

Posted by: Tangerine | Nov 4 2008 18:16 utc | 26

tangerine
i connected with msnbc through internet on their site – really just another breed of jackals – guiliani right now
question to my american amis – there does not seem to be the numbers for example in florida, pennsylvania etc that the democrats have expected – am i wrong – or is it accounted for in part by early voting – hope these are not entirely stupid questions

Posted by: remembereringgiap | Nov 4 2008 18:40 utc | 27

Here in Southern California, it was about 30 minutes total to wait in line and vote.
The proposition system was put in place to counter severe corruption in past legislatures. Unfortunately the proposition system is now gamed by various interest groups like extreme right Catholics and Mormons (props opposing abortion and gay marriage) and wealthy individuals.

Posted by: Michael | Nov 4 2008 18:51 utc | 28

giap, I never heard of Bay Buchanan, but Pat’s a real Pip. You’ll get a kick out of this

Posted by: Obamageddon | Nov 4 2008 18:57 utc | 29

R’g,
Bay Buchanan is the heavily botoxed sister of Pat B.
For the next 48 hours I’m going to be really excited and moved for my country. I may even weep. A mil. plus in Grant Park later tonight. Wow.
For those who’d like to tear up right about now, check out this post, via TPM, about voting in E. St. Louis, Illinois (birthplace of both my parents in 1911).
Bun and I are in for the evening to watch returns with extra wine, lotsa snacks and chocolates.
LANDSLIDE I tell you.
Howz everyone else spending the return watch?

Posted by: Hamburger | Nov 4 2008 19:04 utc | 30

Polls in my precinct in Tennessee opened at 8am. I got there around 10:30. Took about 15 minutes to get through the line. There were several Obama supporters in the parking lot waving to people. Didn’t see anyone publicly rooting for McCain.
People seemed to be in a good mood, with the exception of the gentleman in front of me who apparently had a problem with his registration and they wouldn’t let him vote. He walked out muttering “They always find some way to screw you…” No idea what the issue was.

Posted by: Chemmett | Nov 4 2008 19:11 utc | 31

No lines here in Oregon, but then no polling places. A quiet day, pretty much like any other.
Oregon votes by mail or, if you prefer, drop-off at specially-marked mailboxes. I cast my vote nearly 2 weeks ago.
We have paper ballots and have performed hand recounts on several occasions when a close race demanded it.
So simple and so common-sense.

Posted by: Obelix | Nov 4 2008 19:11 utc | 32

o
you speak of their bias towards obama but all i see is that stupid fucking msmalltime tyrant mccain & his apologists tho i understand the sociopath-in-chief karl rove declares an obama victory

Posted by: remembereringgiap | Nov 4 2008 19:40 utc | 33

Michael @28
Kpfa morning show this morning reported that the Catholics and Mormons combined had spent more than 60 Million in opposition to P8. Imagine, how many people that could have fed and helped; So if your starving it’s the lord’s will, if your fucking, and wanting to marry whom you fuck, it’s of the devil.

Posted by: Anonymous | Nov 4 2008 20:10 utc | 34

rgiap we are gripped in the Society of the Spectacle, see old friend Guy Debord wiki so what, one staggers on weeps or shuts up..
More than one million far more in fact in Iraq have been killed and if one adds the lost, uncounted, displaced, imprisoned, it reaches the mythical 6 million mark. Successive ‘surges’ or whatever have changed nothing and the same genocidal policies have been continued. The resistance, also, has not changed.
Obama plans to expand, or re-set, the War on Terror, concentrating on Pakistan and Afghanistan – a trivial way to operate some change after BushCo. McCain prefers to target in discourse the now traditional enemy, Iran, the ‘new’ ME power. (From an imperialist pov, it is McCain who has it right.) The Dems and the Reps have always tussled about the ‘right’ wars to fight, and have had their pet targets and bitter arguments.
The US public laps it up…

Posted by: Tangerine | Nov 4 2008 20:19 utc | 35

Quiet up here in N. Maine. Lines formed early but by noon its was slow. Most folks up here despise Bush but there are a few camp followers left: a few College Republicans trotted out a big paper mache elephant to drum up support over the summer and were virtually ignored. A few religious right types are pro-McSame, but I expect this county of 72,000 will go for Obama and he’ll win here by 20%.

Posted by: diogenes | Nov 4 2008 20:26 utc | 36

Howz everyone else spending the return watch?
What, exactly, will you be celebrating? I mean that sincerely. Is it the promise of Obama to expand the war to Afghanistan and Pakistan? Is it the promise of Obama to ensure an undivided Jerusalem? Is it no promise from Obama to end the war now and decrease the military budget by 90% and use those funds to create a World Class Universal Healthcare System and a World Class Educational System? A celebration considering the above is not only callous, but severely cynical. There’s no time, and no place for celebration. It’s inappropriate. It’s time to hold Obama’s feet to the fire and expect him to do, and not do, what I mentioned above, and a whole lot more. If he doesn’t, then he has failed, just as surely as every president who has come before him.
Giap, I’m not going to defend the MSM, I’m just telling you my perceptions. Your perception differs, obviously. Obama is the Establishment’s choice. CNN got behind him about two months ago and MSNBC even before that. It doesn’t mean certain reporters and pundits aren’t pushing McCain. Of course some will do that. Afterall, as Debs points out, it’s about ratings and profit, so they have to provide some intrigue, howvever transparent their efforts may be.
What about the BLT’s in Iraq. How could they have invaded when the BLT’s had no Mustard?

Posted by: Obamageddon | Nov 4 2008 20:27 utc | 37

> I don’t think Obama would abuse a Democratic majority.
Funny man. I can’t think of a single politician at that level who won’t abuse power given half a chance; that’s why the worst possible outcome is a congress and white house controlled by the same party, no matter which party it is.
If Congress sometime repealed laws, things might be a little different, by the way, but since they just accrete things instead…
In any case, as far as lines and such go part of the problem is that the polling places are entirely staffed by volunteers. In places where there are not enough such volunteers (or not enough effort put into using them effectively) you end up with lines. The issue is exacerbated by (expensive, hence not purchased in sufficient quantity) electronic voting machines.
Case in point: in Chicago, where I was for the last three national elections, including the last presidential election, I never actually waited in line to vote. The polling place had 5 booths and 3 volunteers checking in people, and covered about 4 square blocks (a few hundred people total, I believe). In Brookline, MA today, the polling place had a lot more voting booths (12 or so) but only two volunteers checking in voters. This polling place covers a much larger population than the one in Chicago did, and they’d had 450+ votes cast by 9am this morning. There was a 10-minute line, and the bottleneck was pretty clearly the checking-in process: half the voting booths were empty at all times.

Posted by: Boris | Nov 4 2008 20:34 utc | 38

I dropped off my ballot at the library a week ago–for Nader and a bunch of state and local Democrats.
I will be happy to see McCain lose. I am curious to see if/how progressives will continue to push Obama and his supporters to address the issues as outlined by Obamageddon.
I was in a coffee shop this morning listening to a woman loudly asking her companions why is it in this country the banksters and other corporate thugs don’t get thrown in jail. Everybody in Portland is giddy today–most have already voted but they’re checking/working to make sure folks are getting their ballots in.

Posted by: catlady | Nov 4 2008 21:18 utc | 39

@37 –
I’ll be celebrating the historically huge and screamingly overwhelming repudiation of George W. Bush and his co-criminal Richard B. Cheney and the repudiation of their 8 years of
– illegal wars
– deception, lies, divisiveness, race-baiting, hate-mongering
– voter suppression
– thievery, market manipulation, undermining of the economy
– subversion of the constitution, and on and on.
It will be the biggest rejection of a US prez’s administration in our history. Undeniable and historic. And it will be global. Parties everywhere. Bush is the most reviled prez in recent memory (I never thought I’d despise a pres more than Nixon) and his legacy is shit and will be ever known as such. I am celebrating that. And the fact that a very large portion of Americans will feel validated in ways I most likely cannot imagine.
Obama will have the burden of a very heavy mandate. At this point I will hope that he can begin to restore constitutional government, gather power to resist the MIC, close Gitmo, bring troops home, restore diplomacy, calm hysteria, improve relations with all others.
Tonight I drink to the ignominious end and the total humiliation of gwb/rbc, and oh yeah, those other two – what’s-his-name and the Alaskan.

Posted by: Hamburger | Nov 4 2008 21:42 utc | 40

rgiap – you could try this, it’s a small screen and you need a fast connection but there’s quite a choice, it’s the only place where I can get canalsur, and presstv usually has good coverage of US events. I decided a couple of years ago to stop watching tv, and in the rare cases – last was the failed Bolivian coup – when I break that rule it´s where I go.

Posted by: estouxim | Nov 4 2008 21:54 utc | 41

hamburger
what you sd
& thank you estouxim

Posted by: remembereringgiap | Nov 4 2008 21:59 utc | 42

I’m torn. I want to celebrate and I want to scream. If this is repudiation, why did it take so damn long?
Why did we have to live through a repeat of the first stolen election, the betrayals of Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid after the 2006 election, FISA, the surge, the f*cking bailout? Cheney got what he wanted, now he’s handing over the keys and retiring to Dubai.
I feel like I’m at the end of a Three Stooges movie, when the “sane” people arrive after everything has been destroyed by the clowns. Who’s gonna clean up this mess?

Posted by: catlady | Nov 4 2008 22:52 utc | 43

Tonight I drink to the ignominious end and the total humiliation of gwb/rbc, and oh yeah, those other two – what’s-his-name and the Alaskan.

Cheers!

Posted by: a swedish kind of death | Nov 4 2008 22:58 utc | 44

Alright. annie is sleeping this time. We hit the pavement at 9 a.m. and as always this past week had a memorable day. One lady spoke to us from her 2nd floor window and after we moved on found us and tried to give us money for what we were doing. We suggested donating it and took hugs instead. We ended up spending a good hour standing in the street just connecting and rejoicing in our community.
Last thing we were sent out to just follow our lists again and talk to people at their doors. Found two new voters who hadn’t gone to the polls yet and drove them to vote and home again. And even at this late date annie convinced two to go and volunteer.
We’ve been told that our area has the largest concentration of democratic voters in the state so it’s crucial to go over and over again. I had one who had had enough and shut the door in my face. One.
So we’ve hit the wall for now but plan to go downtown later to join the crowd watching the returns. Champagne is chilling.

Posted by: beq & annie | Nov 4 2008 23:31 utc | 45

Thanks estouxim, that’s a great link. I can now watch European news right from iceweasel. Mine will open up in full screen, as well. Of course I have no choice but to watch the commercials now, though.

Posted by: JimT. | Nov 4 2008 23:33 utc | 46

For the last couple of days virtually every shot of mccain out pounding the stump telling whoever he can get to listen that the polls are wrong and “macca’s coming back” have featured slimy joe lieberman mugging his used car salesman grin at the audience.
I dunno whether that is just a piece of obscure irony by the video editors here in NZ or lieberman has been fronting with mr anger at every stop, sort of a mid match subsitution for the now unelectable palin, but if joe the war crim has been snuggling that close to mr angry, surely that means Obama can retire him from the field of play permanently, doesn’t it . . . ?

Posted by: Debs is dead | Nov 4 2008 23:39 utc | 47

wandering the net – saw an urgent message on dkos from the democrat campaign asking for people to phone – it seems very late in the day to be doing that

Posted by: remembereringgiap | Nov 4 2008 23:40 utc | 48

Helan går, askod, I’ll drink to that, but I’d drink with much greater joy the day those 2 would get a permanent residence in The Hague. But just as the half-meter cigar my grand-father kept to celebrate the dictator’s death never was lit, I’m afraid that’s a party we’ll never have.

Posted by: estouxim | Nov 4 2008 23:44 utc | 49

But on second thought party wouldn’t be complete unless they were joined by cigar Bill and Wesley Clark… That, yes, that would be a party.

Posted by: estouxim | Nov 4 2008 23:56 utc | 50

but then you have senator dole weeping that she will lose because of bush & the obama tsunami

Posted by: remembereringgiap | Nov 5 2008 0:00 utc | 51

catlady,
because people have been dealing with lost jobs, foreclosures, gas price hikes, doctor’s bills, and because there is no (recent) sanctioned social outlet – other than polls – and the election was on the horizon and they were waiting, though surveys do show that people have become very angry with congress because they did not carry out the electorate’s wishes, and polls do show more and more and dissatisfied – i.e. “on the wrong track” IS repudiation – 9 out of 10. Then the meltdown blew up in everyone’s faces and the money found instantly to bail out the banks, fergawdzsake … where could people go to repudiate other than this November 4 election? There haven’t been mass demos in the US since – when? 2003? Against Iraq war?
The repudiation comes today! A million volunteers getting out the vote for Obama. Millions more – democrats – registered in the last few years and – thanks to annie and beq – finding their ways to vote. This is a GREAT REPUDIATION and TURNING to something completely different.
And by the way – Dubai – I recently read, has HUGE external debt. Its growth is not financed with oil revenue like other Gulf states but phoney credit – so not all’s so well in Dick’s newest hidey hole.
Millions voting. Millions engaged. Millions rejecting the rethugs. Millions to clean up the mess if asked to participate and sacrifice to get the country back. I truly feel that Americans want to turn away from rapine, greed, war, exploitation and take steps toward regaining some moral standing in the world. White America is so utterly dependent on black America for redemption and this extraordinary moment in our history may hold that on offer. Obama hints of being able to ask for sacrifice and of being able to tell the truth about how bad things truly are – I have severe doubts that there will be the necessary follow through, stamina, patience, gaining enough support in congress, but it does seem that there is at least the slim chance at this turning point for a calm voice of reason to lead the way – from screaming frightened hysteria to a sense of a better America. I think people are really sick of what the country has become.

Posted by: Hamburger | Nov 5 2008 0:20 utc | 52

thanks, hamburger. gotta work on my attitude. the coming economy scares the crap out of me (i’m looking for work) but annie and beq are inspiring goddesses.
buy you all a drink…red wine from Argentine?

Posted by: catlady | Nov 5 2008 1:22 utc | 53

catlady –
the coming economy will scare the crap out of everybody – all the more need for a calm voice of reason, sane measures and putting out fires among the wackos. Combat trained troops for domestic use? What? runs on banks? I can imagine it. Sorry to hear you’re out of work – hope you’ve got some good support via friends and family to see you through. gotta go check the returns.

Posted by: Anonymous | Nov 5 2008 1:43 utc | 54

May the world breathe a collective sigh of relief, and recognize the magnitude of this historic occasion for the United States, and for the peace and security if the world. Congratulations Barack Obama, you deserve it… but there is much work to be done now, and the masses that you have mobilized are poised to listen and follow your lead.

Posted by: Daniel | Nov 5 2008 5:54 utc | 55

4 was me, catlady.

Posted by: Hamburger | Nov 5 2008 6:21 utc | 56

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