U.S. presidential election 2000
Well…at the time of this posting we’re a little over 1 day from an election some have called the most important election in our time; some have called the most important ever. Based on what we know and what we guess the election race between Republican Mitt Romney and Democratic President Barack Obama is a virtual tie.
Who ultimately wins comes down to who wins a majority of Electoral Votes in 11 states that polls and/or history say are the only ones of the 50 where any doubt exists over who will win. They are (in alphabetical order):
Colorado- 9 electoral votes
Florida- 29
Iowa- 6
Michigan- 16
Nevada- 6
New Hampshire- 4
North Carolina- 15
Ohio- 18
Pennsylvania- 20
Virginia- 13
Wisconsin- 10
Some pundits have said Minnesota, and Oregon are up for grabs. But barring Romney sweeping the Eastern Time zone swing states (and he might) and getting a lot of voter momentum that doesn’t seem likely.
President Obama and Mitt Romney Different Words, Different Visions
Based on polls, history, common sense, 6th sense, and admittedly some wishful thinking this is where I currently see things going among the swing states:
Romney definitely wins: North Carolina, Florida, Virginia, and Colorado.
Obama definitely wins: Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Iowa.
Romney PROBABLY and HOPEFULLY wins: New Hampshire and Wisconsin.
Obama PROBABLY wins: Ohio
The result: Romney wins 271 to Obama 267.
I won’t call the popular vote. It could go either way.
If I’m wrong I’m wrong on either Wisconsin or Ohio or possibly Pennsylvania.
What I’ve learned in this year-long election contest is that Democrats think Republicans are crazy to vote for Romney. They also think Republicans are mean, heartless, lacking in compassion, greedy and longing for the 1950s. They really believe this, and all my efforts to convince my friends otherwise has not changed their thinking.
Republicans think Democrats are absolutely loony for voting for Obama. They also think Democrats are stupid, and lazy, and greedy and stupid and lazy…and oh ya…hypocritical. And most importantly tyrannical. I don’t think most of the Republican claims about Democrats are true. But I do think some of those thoughts are true of some Democrats.
Sadly, the conclusion I come to is that regardless of who wins this country is and will remain seriously divided. These days even natural disasters cause political blame and argument. Hurricane Sandy brought debate from both sides about New Jersey Governor Chris Christie’s gracious and patriotic commentary and treatment of President Obama. Conservatives felt he went way over the top in his praise. Democrats accused him of hypocrisy and based his civility strictly on Christie’s selfish desire for Federal Funds to be “gifted” to New Jersey. All I can say to both sides is PUUUUHHHHLEEEEZZZZ! Get over yourselves.
And before anyone thinks this is a one time or recent thing just think back to the most recent national emergencies of such size and scope. Hurricane Katrina was political from the moment it hit the shore in August 2005. Democrats…many of them not only accused President George W. Bush of incompetence but of actual racism. REALLY? REALLY? And the financial meltdown of 2008 was purely political and remains so much so to this day that it prevents real and fair decisions from being made. Four years later has the Obama Administration prosecuted any of Wall Street’s big mega-bankers for their complicity in the theft of billions of dollars? Uh…that would be NO. Is that Bush’s fault too? Uh…that would be NO. See…it goes on and on.
Though I didn’t vote for him and I didn’t have confidence in him I wrote several complimentary and encouraging blogs about President Obama following his election win in 2008. I was heartened by the election of America’s first black President and naively felt that our nation’s never-ending battle over race might finally be drawing to a close. I was wrong.
What has happened since George W. Bush was elected in the closest election in U.S. history in 2000 is that Red state‘s have become redder and blue states have become bluer. This election was fought in the narrowest geographic scope in history. Aside from the occasional fund-raiser neither candidate campaigned outside the eleven states mentioned.
The togetherness and American patriotism we ALL felt following the evil vicious attacks of 9-11 is now a distant memory. Efforts of civility on my part and the part of others have been bitch-slapped by the opposition. Faux offense over every little and possible conceived slight is displayed by both sides, such that too many of us stop listening to each other.
What is saddest of all is who is to blame for all this division. It’s our elected leaders and only our elected leaders. Sure we can lower our heads in shame for pulling the lever and putting them in office. But ultimately our leaders are supposed to lead.
I’m tired. Really really tired. I’ve done all I can to civilly and honestly pursued those who disagree that my point of view was correct. They’ve done likewise to me. In the end I wonder if any good came of it. If Romney wins and does much (he won’t do all) of what he says I suppose perhaps the answer is “yes”. I just hope another 9-11 or WWII or even Civil War doesn’t have to transpire in order to bring us together again as Americans. I think Mitt Romney can and will be transformative…but he won’t stand a chance if the opposition continues to not listen and instead paints him and his supporters as evil, greedy…etc. In Obama’s case…we already know THAT’S true.
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November 4, 2012
Categories: National Politics . Tags: a divided country, Barack Obama, current-events, George W. Bush, Mitt Romney, political division, politics, President, presidential election 2000, republicans, swing states, United States, virtual tie . Author: Michael Schuett . Comments: 2 Comments
M Schuett blah blah blah 
Conservatives look in the Mirror
Americans have re-elected a President presiding over 7.9% unemployment and GDP growth below 2%. These are by far the worst economic numbers overcome by a President winning re-election since Franklin Roosevelt in 1936.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 1933.
It’s not too difficult to figure how this happened.
There are currently 47-million Americans on food stamps. Just how many of them voted for Mitt Romney? Seriously…can you really expect a dog to bite the hand that feeds it? President Obama received a total of 58-million votes. And if 95% of food stamp recipients voted for him then all he would have needed was 12-million non-food stamp recipients to vote his way to overcome Romney’s total. Obama has created this dependency. It’s not likely they’ll vote against the person who keeps giving them their candy.
In spite of the Federal Government-gives-candy-advantage Obama held; Romney still could have won this election had Conservatives not self-destructed. The most obvious failing comes from the selfish, masturbatory Libertarian voters who sent nearly 1.2-million votes to Gary Johnson.
Gary Johnson
Add in the 0.1-1.4% (depending on the state) of “voters” who wasted their vote on the Constitution Party candidate and you have just enough Conservative voters to match Obama in the popular vote. There’s no doubt in my mind that had this 1-2% of voters not bashed Romney as equally and vociferously as they did Obama over the course of the past year we’d be celebrating a Romney victory this morning. Florida is still too close to call and Virginia, Ohio and Colorado went to Obama by less than 2%. That’s the whole ball game.
What troubles me now and did so throughout the campaign is the foolish, bigoted, and hateful comments about Obama and his supporters that continuously poured from Conservative corners. The “birther” issue was and remains idiotic. And it was clearly racist. What I never understood was the point of it. Obama could have been born on Mars. Because his Mom was an American citizen so was he. The end result was the extreme side of Conservative politics continually gave Liberals all the ammunition they needed to once again paint those with our point of view as angry, mean, and bigoted.
Since the 1930s more Americans have identified themselves as Democrats than Republicans. And over the past 20 years more and more Americans are identifying themselves as independent. Overall, it’s roughly 1/3 Democrats, Republicans and independents. Polls show Romney won independents. But he didn’t win Democrats, not enough of them anyway. If scary, angry, bigoted Conservatives (what few of them there are) scare-off even a small percentage of independents and all Democrats, Republicans don’t have a chance…not in 2012, and certainly not going forward as our country increasingly becomes less white and more brown.
Karl Rove correctly points out that there is no reason Republicans shouldn’t enjoy more support from this countries Hispanics. Generally speaking they are more religious and focused on family values than the overall populous. With such values they should vote for the GOP. But they don’t. Yesterday and in 2008 they vote close to 70% for Democrats. Why is that? Only one reason: too many Republicans allow hateful xenophobic attitudes to exist within our own political discourse without justly shouting them down. And I for one am sick of it.
It makes me mad as hell to have Liberals who don’t know me constantly assume I’m a bigot. It happens all the time. And it diminishes me in the eyes of my kids, my black kids. It’s important that my values are passed on to my kids so that they may pass them on to their kids, etc etc. But like all young people my kids are influenced not only by me but by what they see and hear in society. And if I’m less trusted and less understood simply because I’m associated with people who espouse bigotry I’m naturally going to be hurt in my efforts to stand as a good example to my children. I worry about this constantly.
Republicans have to bring people to the party and not repel them. With a country that is increasingly made up of people of color we’re going to have to see to it that we not only attract them but repel and reject the angry bigots. They don’t make-up a large percentage of Conservatives or Republicans. But they don’t need to in order to chase away any chance the party has of winning in the future.
God Bless America.
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November 7, 2012
Categories: National Politics . Tags: Barack Obama, bigots, Conservative, constitution party candidate, Democrat, food stamp recipients, franklin delano roosevelt, hateful comments, Mitt Romney, Obama, politics, President of the United States, racists, Republican, Romney, United States, Xenophobia . Author: Michael Schuett . Comments: 24 Comments