ElfGrove

Final Result (like you don't already know)

Barack Obama
Electoral Votes: 349 ( 68% )
Popular Vote: 52% ( 62,985,891 )

John McCain
Electoral Votes: 163 ( 32% )
Popular Vote: 46% ( 55,793,118 )

Ralph Nader (Independent)
Electoral Votes: 0 ( 0% )
Popular Vote: ~?% ( ? )

Bob Barr (Libertarian)
Electoral Votes: 0 ( 0% )
Popular Vote: ~?% ( ? )

Cynthia McKinney (Green Party)
Electoral Votes: 0 ( 0% )
Popular Vote: ~?% ( ? )

And several other candidates that I can't even find the numbers on.

Just on principal, I'm still baffled by the continued use of the Electoral College. What's wrong with the popular vote? The 14~16 shift in the percentages is just odd-looking. And I can't even see where the Independent/Third Party percentage fell on election websites. Boo election coverage. BOO. I can't help but wonder if more people would vote, and more people would vote informed or third party if they didn't feel like the electoral college made thier vote worthless unless they lived in a swing state. But expecting people elected by a system to change the system that elected them is more hope than I have for politics.


I voted. I didn't vote on the props I hadn't educated myself about, and did joke write-ins on the local elections I had not educated myself about. (Bruce Wayne to run the school board, yay.) Still won't say who I voted for in the presidential race, because frankly, I have large disagreements with different stances from both (major candidates) Obama and McCain. I don't think I would've been dissappointed by the result either way. At this point, I find what happened last night impressive in our nation's history.

A lot of people are proud that the US just elected an African-American as our president. I think it speaks volumes MORE that the man elected is not just an African-American, he is also bi-racial. There is still prejudice even here in liberal-holy-land California against black/white marriages -- from both sides (Prop 8 is winning, with 95% of precincts reporting. And we just banned booze from ALL San Diego beaches. WTF, "liberal-land" California?). Obama being elected shows that the nation as a whole is moving past that sort of crap.
Or at least, I hope that's what it means.

Okay. So Obama will be the Commander in Chief come January.
The Democratic Party will have control of Congress, the Senate, and the White House. I will not hesitate to say it makes me nervous. I don't like either party having total control. Representation of the people gets lop-sided. That makes me edgy. I don't have to agree with someone to believe they deserve the same rights as I do or that they deserve a voice.
I'm sick of party politics. Your citizens are not that extreme, they're in the middle. Start actually doing right by the citizens instead of lobbyists and special interest groups.
When it comes to politics, I'm a cynic. Sue me.

I dunno, I guess my message to the newly-elected is...
You've got a bad situation. You've promised a lot of people a lot of things.
Keep in mind that 46% of the country doesn't agree with all of your stances. They're still out there.
Four years isn't a lot of time to fix things. I don't expect everything to get all better in one presidential term (this mess with the economy is a lot more than just 8 years in the making, and will take longer to fix), but it will be real easy to make it worse.

I don't care who you you voted for. I don't care who I voted for.
Election's done.
I just care that the mess this country ids in gets better rather than worse, and I (middle class single in the technology sector) don't get screwed over in the process.

I watched the election coverage last night with my friends. We disagree on a lot of political points, but we're still friends. If they blindly agreed with me, I'd have no respect for them. If I blindly agreed with them, I'd have no respect for myself. My friends don't need to agree with me, they just need to respect that we differ. I'd bet they think they know who I voted for. I know who they think I voted for. They'd also be wrong.
My main priority last night was to hear the speeches of both winner and loser. I did that. They both spoke well.
That said, I know I was a little late arriving, but was James drunk? The entire "fuck" everything aside from Obama was more than a little... irritating? And, I hadn't talked politics with Willie before. It was a pleasant surprise that we shared some of the same concerns on the props and the presidential stances.

Honestly, I think asatira and selphish have made the best three posts I've seen since the election results were announced, and I agree with their sentiments.

My icon in regards to politics? It remains unchanged. And will continue as such.