A short recon of what’s out there that might draw your attention, updated throughout the day...so check back often.
In the News: (Registration may be required to read some stories)
Obama wins presidency - Americans dissatisfied with their faltering economy and two drawn-out wars elected Barack Obama their 44th president on Tuesday night, shattering the last great racial barrier in U.S. politics and empowering Democrats with larger congressional majorities to pursue the young Illinois senator's agenda of change. (READ MORE)
Warner, Obama capture Virginia - Virginia completed its march from red to blue Tuesday by electing former Gov. Mark Warner to the U.S. Senate and voting for a Democratic presidential candidate for the first time in 44 years. (READ MORE)
McCain concedes, congratulates opponent - If there is one word that has encapsulated the life and career of Sen. John McCain, it is "survivor." Three times as a Navy pilot, he crashed planes he was flying; three times he walked away without a scratch. Once, when sitting in his jet on the deck of the USS Forester, a rocket from another plane hit his plane, which exploded. Mr. McCain scurried through the flames; 134 other men died. (READ MORE)
Democrats set to gain 5 Senate seats - Congressional Democrats strengthened their majority in both chambers in elections Tuesday, ousting such well-known Republicans as Sens. Elizabeth Dole of North Carolina, Sen. John E. Sununu of New Hampshire and Rep. Christopher Shays of Connecticut. (READ MORE)
Economy turns voters left, but may delay agenda - America took a sharp left turn Tuesday with the election of Barack Obama and a more liberal Congress, voting for a change in the economy's direction, U.S. troop withdrawals from Iraq and a nationwide system for affordable health care. (READ MORE)
GOP ponders path of return - After a flubbed response to Hurricane Katrina, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, several corruption cases and a mangled economy, the Republican Party found itself Tuesday in a damp, earthy pit it had been digging for years. Climbing back out and shedding its label of incompetence may not be easy. (READ MORE)
Bush tells Obama his win was 'awesome' - President Bush on Tuesday night called President-elect Barack Obama to congratulate him on what he deemed an "awesome" win. The president, who supported and voted for Mr. Obama's opponent, Republican John McCain, called his newly anointed successor at 11:12 p.m., less than 15 minutes after Mr. Obama was announced the election winner by the Associated Press. (READ MORE)
Marylanders approve slots - ANNAPOLIS A deluge of Maryland voters Tuesday approved a state constitutional amendment to legalize slot-machine gambling, but a bitterly fought contest to replace a longtime Republican representative on the Eastern Shore was too close to call. (READ MORE)
Obama Makes History - Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois was elected the nation's 44th president yesterday, riding a reformist message of change and an inspirational exhortation of hope to become the first African American to ascend to the White House. (READ MORE)
Afghan Rebel Positioned for Key Role - KABUL, Afghanistan -- As U.S. and NATO officials revamp their strategy in Afghanistan, a renegade Afghan commander could prove central to U.S. plans to rein in the insurgency through negotiations. (READ MORE)
President-Elect Obama - Hearty congratulations to President-elect Barack Obama. The American electorate has handed him and his fellow Democrats the kind of sweeping victory they haven't had since at least 1976 and in certain respects since 1964. We'll now find out if the Democratic Party has learned anything since the last two times it held all the levers of power in Washington. (READ MORE)
Read Their Lips - Assorted pundits of the left and right keep telling us that the tax issue has lost its political power. They must not have been paying attention to the Presidential campaign, and especially not to Barack Obama. One of the Democrat's main political feats this year has been to portray himself as a more formidable tax cutter than John McCain. (READ MORE)
The Latest Charity Shakedown - What if the Greenlining Institute held a shakedown and nobody paid up? The Berkeley-based outfit invited representatives from America's top 50 foundations to come to their offices two weeks ago for a chat on the urgent national priority of "diversity in philanthropy." Among the questions posed: "What percent of the asset management firms under contract with your foundation are minority-owned?" (READ MORE)
Chinese Strait Talk - At a time when global financial risks seem larger by the day, there's one risk that's receding: tension across the Taiwan Strait. Yesterday China and Taiwan agreed to open new air, sea and postal links. This establishes the hitherto elusive "three links" -- direct trade, transport and mail -- that the two governments have been talking about for years. (READ MORE)
On the Web:
Michael Gerson: The Decency of George W. Bush - Election Day 2008 must have been filled with rueful paradoxes for the sitting president. Iraq -- the issue that dominated George W. Bush's presidency for 5 1/2 bitter, controversial years -- is on the verge of a miraculous peace. And yet this accomplishment did little to revive Bush's political standing -- or to prevent his party from relegating him to a silent role. The achievement is historic. In 2006, Iraq had descended into a sectarian killing spree that seemed likely to stop only when the supply of victims was exhausted. Showing Truman-like stubbornness, Bush pushed to escalate a war that most Americans -- and some at the Pentagon -- had already mentally abandoned. The result? A Sunni tribal revolt against their al-Qaeda oppressors, an effective campaign against Shiite militias in Baghdad and Basra, and the flight of jihadists from Iraq to less deadly battlefields. In a more stable atmosphere, Iraq's politicians have made dramatic political progress. (READ MORE)
Jeffery Scott Shapiro: The Treatment of Bush Has Been a Disgrace - Earlier this year, 12,000 people in San Francisco signed a petition in support of a proposition on a local ballot to rename an Oceanside sewage plant after George W. Bush. The proposition is only one example of the classless disrespect many Americans have shown the president. According to recent Gallup polls, the president's average approval rating is below 30% -- down from his 90% approval in the wake of 9/11. Mr. Bush has endured relentless attacks from the left while facing abandonment from the right. This is the price Mr. Bush is paying for trying to work with both Democrats and Republicans. During his 2004 victory speech, the president reached out to voters who supported his opponent, John Kerry, and said, "Today, I want to speak to every person who voted for my opponent. To make this nation stronger and better, I will need your support, and I will work to earn it. I will do all I can do to deserve your trust." (READ MORE)
Thomas Frank: Conservatism Isn't Finished - I was never a fan of Barack Obama's bipartisanship routine. His famous plea at the 2004 Democratic convention for an end to the red state/blue state divide, I thought, sounded noble but overlooked the obvious: that a unilateral display of brotherly love from the Democratic Party had no chance of actually ending the culture wars. The reason those wars have raged ever since 1968 was because they help Republicans win elections. For Democrats to wish that they would please stop was about as useful as asking Genghis Khan to a tea party. What would beat the culture wars was always clear from the pseudo-populist language in which they were framed. In place of a showdown between a folksy "middle America" and a snobbish "liberal elite," Democrats needed to offer the real deal -- the conflict between a public that craves fairness and an economic system that enables the predatory. (READ MORE)
Harvey Golub: I Vote No Confidence in Congress - It's the day after a historic election and I can't help but worry. I'm one of those people who are pessimistic about the near- and medium-term prospects for our financial markets and our economy. I'm not pessimistic about our country or our capitalist system: They are not the problem. I am pessimistic about whether our next president and the savants in Congress can deal with the massive economic issues we face. Members of Congress, regardless of party affiliation or yesterday's results, will continue to meddle in matters beyond their knowledge. In doing so they will exacerbate our current economic downturn and delay the recovery of our financial markets. In recent months, Congress has displayed a fundamental lack of understanding of how our economy and our financial markets actually work. Members believe they can say a bank is likely to become insolvent and that will not lead to a run on the bank, or say a major insurance company is in trouble and not have insurance stocks tank. (READ MORE)
Wynton Hall: Karl Marx is Not the Father of Capitalism - Sen. Barack Obama won for a simple reason: historical amnesia. I once asked a room full of college students who the father of capitalism was. Crickets began chirping as blank stares shot my way. “Oh, come on,” I prompted. "Does anyone want to take a guess?” Finally, one bold student blurted out, “Isn’t it Karl Marx?” (That creaking sound you’re hearing is Adam Smith rolling over in his grave.) Sadly, this is a true story. And sadly, this kind of economic and historical amnesia goes a long way toward explaining how the most far-Left candidate in American presidential history wound up in the White House. The reason Sen. McCain’s “socialism” charges didn’t stick is precisely because “socialism” means little to voters who don’t know what the term even means. Public schools teach multicultural curriculum but seldom if ever the basics of free market economic principles. (READ MORE)
Thomas Sowell: Affirmative Action and Gay Marriage - The politically clever way to get special privileges is to call them "rights"-- especially "equal rights." Some local election campaigns in various states are using that tactic this year, trying to get special privileges through affirmative action quotas or through demands that the definition of marriage be changed to suit homosexuals. Equality of rights does not mean equality of results. I can have all the equal treatment in the world on a golf course and I will not finish within shouting distance of Tiger Woods. When arbitrary numerical "goals" or "quotas" under affirmative action are not met, the burden of proof is put on the employer to prove that he did not discriminate against minorities or women. No burden of proof whatever is put on the advocates of "goals" or "quotas" to show that people would be equally represented in jobs, colleges or anywhere else in the absence of discrimination. (READ MORE)
John Stossel: Who Will Run America? - Some of you think you went to the polls yesterday to pick someone to run America. "Who do you want to have run this country?" Chris Matthews asked repeatedly on MSNBC. "One of these guys is going to be running the country," said Michael Goodwin of the New York Daily News. Really? Run the country? "That has to be a joke -- or a misunderstanding," said George Mason University economist Walter Williams on my recent TV special, "John Stossel's Politically Incorrect Guide to Politics". Williams pointed out that the White House doesn't govern what happens in your house. And a president certainly cannot control the economy. We, all of us, run the country. "Politicians have immense power to do harm to the economy. But they have very little power to do good," Williams says. The failure to understand this is at the root of many of our problems. (READ MORE)
Kathleen Parker: Not the Best of Times, But Hardly the Worst - WASHINGTON -- Three conversations on Election Eve: One: A friend recounts a traumatic childhood event, prompting me to say something like, "Oh, that must have been horrible." "No," he says. "Horrible was Auschwitz. What those children experienced was horrible." Two: Mary Ann Lindley, another friend, colleague and editorial page editor of the Tallahassee Democrat, tells me she's just finished rereading Charles Dickens' "A Tale of Two Cities." "On a single day in France, 52 heads rolled at the guillotine -- numbed, accused innocents, impoverished, starved, beyond hope," she writes in an e-mail. "They went to their death in the bloodiest of ways, some of them nevertheless saying that the sacrifice was worth it if it meant a France that would one day recognize a more generous definition of human dignity." Three: Blake, an African-American artist, is giddy with excitement as we discuss the presidential race. (READ MORE)
Michelle Malkin: Peggy the Moocher - Sorry to break the bad news to Joe the Plumber. But the winner of Campaign 2008 is Peggy the Moocher. No matter who moves into the White House, Peggy has good reason to do a happy dance. The plain, ugly fact is that both major political parties are committed to spreading the wealth in one form or another. It's all just a question of how much and how quickly. Who is Peggy the Moocher? She's Peggy Joseph, a voter in Sarasota, Fla., who exulted earlier this week at a Barack Obama rally that this was "the most memorable time of my life." Why? As she told a Florida reporter on a YouTube video that has been viewed by hundreds of thousands: "Because I never thought this day would ever happen. I won't have to worry about putting gas in my car. I won't have to worry about paying my mortgage. You know. If I help [Obama], he's gonna help me." You can't blame Peggy the Moocher for viewing Obama as the superior Santa Claus. (READ MORE)
Michael Medved: The Party Of Interests Versus The Party Of Values - Regardless of the final tallies in the Presidential election, the two major parties will retain their identities as distinctly different sorts of political coalitions: the Democrats as the party of interests and the Republicans as the party of values. Until the nation again faces an undeniable threat to its security and survival, this contrast gives a formidable, long-term advantage to the Democrats. Consider last night’s Democratic victory parties in every corner of the Republic. Prominent among the most enthusiastic celebrants, it’s easy to spot the interest groups who provided the party with most of its energy, enthusiasm and money. Labor unions, trial lawyers, alternative energy entrepreneurs, gay activists, teachers, environmentalists, community organizers, university faculties, ethnic advocates, multiculturalists, feminist militants, welfare rights agitators and other liberal constituencies... (READ MORE)
Tony Blankley: To Conservatives Who Are Thinking About Tomorrow - Bring me my Bow of burning gold: Bring me my Arrows of desire: Bring me my Spear: O clouds unfold! Bring me my Chariot of fire. I will not cease from Mental Fight, Nor shall my Sword sleep in my hand Till we have built Jerusalem In England's green & pleasant Land. In regard to attitude, America's conservatives could do worse than to be moved by those lines of Robert Blake from another place and another time on behalf of a similar sacred cause then not yet realized. Conservatism always has been and always will be a force to reckon with because it most closely approximates the reality of the human condition, based, as it is, on the cumulative judgment and experience of a people. It is the heir, not the apostate, to the accumulated wisdom, morality and faith of the people. As a force in electoral politics in any given season, conservatism, like all ideas and causes, is hostage to the effectiveness of the party that carries its banner: (READ MORE)
Walter E. Williams: Capitalism and the Financial Crisis - There has always been contempt for economic liberty. Historically, our nation was an important, not complete, exception. It took the calamity of the Great Depression to bring about today's level of restrictions on economic liberty. Now we have another government-created calamity that has the prospect of moving us even further away from economic liberty with the news media and pundits creating the perception that the current crisis can be blamed on capitalism. We see comments such as those in the New York Times: "The United States has a culture that celebrates laissez-faire capitalism as the economic ideal. Or, "For 30 years, the nation's political system has been tilted in favor of business deregulation and against new rules." Another says, "Since 1997, Mr. Brown (the British Prime Minister) has been a powerful voice behind the Labor Party's embrace of an American-style economic philosophy that was light on regulation." (READ MORE)
Terence Jeffrey: Wanted: Small Government - Up until the 1930s, the United States maintained a small federal government that mostly focused on the limited number of things the Constitution authorized it to do. Americans were responsible for their own food, clothing and shelter, and if they could not take care of themselves, they looked to their extended family, their neighbors, their churches and local governments to give them a helping hand. Charity in America in those days did not mean the federal government compelling you to hand over some of your property to the state so the state could hand it over to someone else. Americans did not believe in spreading the wealth -- they believed in earning it. The term compassionate conservative had not been coined. There was no federal welfare state before the 1930s. That year, according to historical data published by the White House Office of Management and Budget, the entire federal government spent only 3.4 percent of gross domestic product. (READ MORE)
Dan from Madison @ Chicago Boyz: Post Election Thoughts - This morning I woke up, showered, and drove to work. It seemed like any other day. The convenience store where I always stop to pick up vitamin fortified water had a familiar song playing on the radio: I logged on, checked email - yep, tons as always. Then I logged in to Chicago Boyz to organize some pixels with some personal thoughts this day after the election. I look forward to checking out this post in four years. I am no political expert and don’t typically post about things political; a lot of the thoughts I will put forth are probably stone wrong, but you can let me have it in the comments - I have thick skin. I think it is the harsh Midwest winters that steel me. You see, today is a little different. “President elect” Obama they say on the radio. The Democrats are dominating the House and are very near a filibuster proof majority in the Senate, although it doesn’t look like they will get it. Thank God for Mitch McConnell. (READ MORE)
Spook86: In Praise of Local TV News - Some say that 2008 will be remembered as the "year that journalism died." And, watching the media's fawning coverage of Obama over the past year, it's difficult to challenge that assertion. Still, there are a few, faint glimmers of hope and in a most unlikely spot--local TV news. For decades, local stations have been the whipping boy of media critics and their brethren in the national press. Local newscasts are often derided (and sometimes fairly) for being sensational and consultant-driven in their content, with non-stop coverage of crime and traffic accidents. But that characterization is slightly unfair, when you consider that some local stations have done yeoman work in the closing weeks of the presidential campaign. In some cases, local reporters and anchors have tackled stories that the broadcast and cable networks refused to touch. (READ MORE)
CJ: Congratulations President-Elect Barack Hussein Obama - I'll admit, I had hoped that I never would have to say those words. It's no secret that I believe that Senator Obama was the worst of our crappy choices for President this year. I stand by that belief. However, I will not treat him with the same disrespect and overt contempt that the Democrats and others have given to President Bush during the past eight years - especially the past two! The fact of the matter is that whether we like it or not, Barack Hussein Obama will be this nation's 44th President of the United States. Like Bush before him, he deserves the respect that the office commands. The fact that Obama has won an office that only 43 people before him have ever held is an achievement that we must recognize. Ladies and gentlemen, many of us feel very strongly about the worthiness of this choice of President. I urge each of you to please set aside those feelings and support our next President. (READ MORE)
Meghan McCain: Thank You - Dad's remarks from last night... "Thank you for coming here on this beautiful Arizona evening. My friends, we have come to the end of a long journey. The American people have spoken, and they have spoken clearly." "A little while ago, I had the honor of calling Senator Barack Obama to congratulate him. To congratulate him on being elected the next president of the country that we both love. In a contest as long and difficult as this campaign has been, his success alone commands my respect for his ability and perseverance. But that he managed to do so by inspiring the hopes of so many millions of Americans who had once wrongly believed that they had little at stake or little influence in the election of an American president is something I deeply admire and commend him for achieving. This is an historic election, and I recognize the special significance it has for African-Americans and for the special pride that must be theirs tonight." (READ MORE)
The Belmont Club: Small freedoms - Sometimes attitudes are formed imperceptibly, in a manner so slow that we don’t recognize that our values are actually changing. Take the Chinese. In the early 1990s, a person I know who visited a bicycle factory as a journalist was accused by the Public Security Bureau of being a spy. A decade later, Breitbart TV has this video of a Chinese bureaucrat being stopped by restaurant patrons after he tried to molest an 11 year old girl at a restaurant. The man turned out to be a member of the Communist Party of China and although the police refused to detain him for lack of direct evidence, he was later sacked after: “[H]eated discussion among many online communities after a surveillance video clip from the restaurant was uploaded. The video showed the 11-year-old girl helping 58-year-old Lin as he asked her to guide him to the men’s room in the lobby of Xinmeiyuan Restaurant in Shenzhen around 8:40pm last Wednesday.” My conjecture is that the people were empowered by two things: first, the sense of self-worth that comes from not being an employee of the government; and second, the information revolution created by the Internet. (READ MORE)
Van Helsing @ Right Wing News: Let the Backlash Begin - Congratulations, moonbats. You finally have your revenge for being forced to look at all those flags after 9/11. This is a day of celebration for everyone hostile to America and the principles of individual liberty for which it stands. Enjoy it while you can. There are people lowdown enough to know in advance who and what was elected yesterday, and to have voted for the Moonbat Messiah anyway. What they have done to this country is beyond forgiveness. But an ultra-radical leftist like Obama could not be elected in a center-right country, or even a center-left country, without a great deal of deception. Thanks to a radicalized liberal media willing to sacrifice its own long-term credibility to put a leftist in power, Obama was never publicly vetted. Moderates did not vote for a real person, but for a two-dimensional phantom temporarily conjured into being by hype. The opposition made the swindle easy to pull off. (READ MORE)
John Hawkins: The Silver Lining In A Vast, Dark Cloud - Not only did Obama demolish John McCain, the Democrats added significantly to their margins in the House and Senate. This has already spurred discussion on whether conservatism is dead or the country is now "center-left" instead of "center-right." Here's what I would say to that. In 2004, George Bush beat John Kerry 51% to 48%. Today, the Democrats are as fired up as they have ever been, conservatives are completely demoralized, the Republican Party has done an awful job, George Bush is less popular than Nixon after Watergate, McCain was widely disliked by conservatives, and Barack Obama/DNC had a war chest at least 200 million dollars bigger than the McCain campaign/RNC -- and as a result, Obama won 52% to 47%. (READ MORE)
Kings of War: Victory we can believe in? - We have a new President. Thanks partly to a banking collapse and current levels of relative stability in Iraq, economics rather than national security became the decisive issue of the campaign. But Obama now inherits a war, and an opportunity to wage it smarter. Al Qaeda, its network and its abhorrent ideology, has proven a self-defeating force. As agile and as innovative as it can be, it has also alienated Muslims wherever it has taken its unsmiling and vicious methods. It has misdirected its violence. And unlike other Islamist movements that stand as providers as well as predators, such as Hamas or Hezbollah, it offers little more than endless war. Opinion polls from Indonesia to Pakistan, the revolt against it by former allies in northern Iraq, and the internal schism of former Al Qaeda figures renouncing the movement, show that it is destined to fail in its effort to bring back the seventh century and create a new theocratic empire. (READ MORE)
Information Dissemination: An American Dream Is Realized - Congratulations to Barak Obama, the next President of the United States. I get the racial factor, embrace it, but understand it played a smaller part then it will be given credit. The majority of voters for McCain didn't support him because of race, and neither did the majority of those who voted for Obama. This election was about two men, both impressive, and one who defeated the other in the latest chapter of our nation where we transition government peacefully through the democratic process. It is about an idea. Not specific, but both generational and generic. A brilliant campaign strategy with an associated brilliant communication strategy. It is about likability, charisma, charm, and the ability to make perception a reality. Barak Obama became the personification of the idea of change. While "change" is undefined, it is best represented in the personification of Barak Obama himself and all the challenges he has overcome... (READ MORE)
Loving A Soldier. Living The Life: Blessed to Vote - I still remember the first time I saw his eyes — dark, deep, but full of pride, staring straight at my husband in his Stryker vehicle as if he were a soldier himself, lifting his pointer finger in the middle of the Mosul streets and proudly displaying the black ink on the pad of that finger. For the first time, that Iraqi man voted. You could read the freedom all over his face. I don’t often take time to look at that picture my husband sent me of the Iraqi referendum he was a part of on October 15, 2005. But I don’t have to look to remember. The image is burned in my brain, I hope, forever. It’s the image I recall when people tell me that my husband has done no good during his three deployments to support the global war on terrorism. It’s the image I recall when people tell me that his sacrifices are meaningless and that the lives he’s touching could care less about the things he’s forfeited to be there. (READ MORE)
This Ain't Hell: The Blogosphere reacts - I’m not bothering to read the news this morning. Somehow, I know what they’re all saying. So, instead I took a tour of the folks in my blogroll and since I have to go to work in a minute (across the dining room) I’ll make this brief. Michelle Malkin pretty much says what I did first thing this morning (emptying my head of those nightmares I had last night) - except she says it like my drill sergeant would have; “There is no time to lick wounds, point fingers, and wallow in post-election mud. I’m getting a lot of moan-y, sad-face ‘What do we do now, Michelle?’ e-mails. What do we do now? We do what we’ve always done. We stand up for our principles, as we always have — through Democrat administrations and Republican administrations, in bear markets or bull markets, in peacetime and wartime. We stay positive and focused. We keep the faith. We do not apologize for our beliefs.” (READ MORE)
Soccerdad: The wolf at the door - In 1996, following a series of devastating terrorist attacks carried out by Hamas, Israelis narrowly elected Binyamin Netanyahu to be Prime Minister. About three years later, despite fewer terror attacks, Ehud Barak successfully challenged Netanyahu to succeed him. It’s true that Netanyahu alienated his base and ran a lackluster campaign. But what’s remarkable is that because of his apparent success in containing terror, his constituency forgot why it elected him in the first place. Within a year and a half, Barak, who had promised to be more forthcoming in negotiations with the Palestinians, found himself facing the Arafat led “Aqsa intifada,” and ultimately lost power when he could no longer hold his government together. In a sense we are seeing a replay of that scenario this year in America. (READ MORE)
Meryl Yourish: On graciousness - I really don’t feel like being gracious on McCain’s loss. I wasn’t gracious in 2000, when George W. Bush “stole” the election from Al Gore. And even though I came to believe that he didn’t steal it—notably after even the New York Times recount showed that Bush won Florida, and I started saying, “Y’know, if Gore had won Tennessee, he’d have won the election”—but I wasn’t gracious then. I doubt I’ll be gracious now. I’ve never been a good loser. Am I happy that an African-American is going to be our next president? Yes and no. I still don’t believe Obama is qualified enough to be president, and frankly, I’d be much happier if I were celebrating the first female president. I’d be gracious for Hillary, I think, because of that. In fact, if it had been Hillary, odds are high I would have voted for her in the end. In which case, there’d be no need for graciousness. (READ MORE)
Jay Tea: Why Obama Won - Well, now that the election's over, we can look back and see where the key elements came together to make Barack Obama the 44th president of the United States. And it's only with the blessing of hindsight that we can fully grasp the significance of certain events. As I see it, Obama won the presidency because of two key decisions. The first one enabled him to win the primary, and the second clinched him the general election. In both cases, Obama (or his team) looked very carefully at the rules of each contest and found the loopholes that they could best exploit to win. I don't mean that as a criticism. In contests like this, it is not only acceptable to look carefully at the rules and find the best way to play within them, but entirely appropriate to do so. (READ MORE)
Cassandra: Ruth Marcus - Smart Lady - ...and someone you should be reading, if you're not already: “President-elect Obama needs to think about how to handle the marshmallows. In the classic psychology experiment on delayed gratification, researchers gave 4-year-olds a marshmallow, then promised a second if the children could refrain for 20 minutes from eating the first. Some did, some didn't. Years later, the 4-year-olds with greater impulse control were better adjusted, more dependable and had higher SAT scores. We're about to conduct a rerun of that test -- with Democrats substituting for 4-year-olds.” I'm not so sure I agree with her here, though: “Clinton's 43 percent plurality made him look weak in the eyes of Congress; Obama's victory puts him in a stronger position to resist demands from Capitol Hill. Unlike the last two Democratic presidents who came to town disdaining the ways of Washington, Obama, for all his change rhetoric, is surrounded by people who understand how to navigate the tensions between a Democratic president and a Democratic Congress.” (READ MORE)
Stop the ACLU: Obama Wins: My Wrap Up - Congratulations to our new DeID*, as Ace of Spades has taken to calling Obama. But, buck up, little campers. Life will go on. Obama will only be able to screw so much up. With every pink cloud there is a platinum lining. Remember, the finally tally is around 62 million to 55 million. That is not bad for a candidate that none of the conservatives wanted in the first place, who pushed many non-conservative ideals, with an almost rudderless campaign, in a year that was expected to be massively Democrat. Without SarahCuda, how bad might it have been? What happens next? Here are my expectations for the first 2 quarters of the year: (READ MORE)
Melanie Phillips: Freedom now stands alone - So the answer to my question turned out to be yes, America really was going to do this. A historic moment indeed. The hyperbole for once is not exaggerated: this is a watershed election which changes the fate of the world. The fear however is that the world now becomes very much less safe for all of us as a result. Those of us who have looked on appalled during this most frightening of presidential elections – at the suspension of reason and its replacement by thuggery -- can only hope that the way this man governs will be very different from the profile provided by his influences, associations and record to date. It’s a faint hope – the enemies of America, freedom and the west will certainly be rejoicing today. America has voted for change, apparently. Change from what, precisely? From Bush? But in the second term, Bush stopped being Bush. His foreign policy lurched from paralysis to appeasement: (READ MORE)
ShrinkWrapped: Problematic Outcomes - Up until the election of 2000, Presidential elections were generally understood to be that moment when political rancor between the contending parties came to a temporary end. The losers traditionally would accept their defeat, quietly slink off into opposition, succor their wounds and gird up for the battle next time. In the event of a landslide defeat, the loser had the rare opportunity to examine their assumptions and choose to either redouble their efforts to convince people of the wisdom of their policies or revamp their platform altogether and present a new approach to the electorate. The landslide victory of LBJ over Barry Goldwater set the stage for the Reagan revolution that followed almost 20 years later. The landslide victory of Nixon over McGovern eventually facilitated the victory of Bill Clinton, and due to the vagaries of the process, some luck, and very long term planning, the left has been able to re-invigorate their program and are poised to take a commanding role in an Obama administration. (READ MORE)
Dan Riehl: Freedom, Baby! - With Carl Cameron reporting that McCain advisers are claiming they can't honestly see a path to victory, I was wondering what I would feel when this too long election was finally over. And, honestly, as a rather conservative-minded voter, I feel a sense of freedom. While I continue to agree that on the larger issues Bush had it right - the Middle-east, Iraq, etc - it's also fair to say that I have found myself all too often in the position of defending an administration that made far too many mistakes and looked tragically incompetent at times. For example, Right-side bloggers were calling for a surge in Iraq long before Bush acted, as he should have. And certainly most conservatives have to agree they found themselves defending an administration that too often couldn't actually be defined as small-government, or fiscally conservative. (READ MORE)
McQ: The Morning After - Well it's done. Now to sort out some final thoughts. - The polls were right. I mean dead right. I frankly didn't expect them to be as close as they were. It certainly gives me a reason to trust them a little more given this performance. - While the election is certainly a decisive victory for Barack Obama, it is still unclear whether Dems will meet their expectations in the House and Senate. Norm Coleman leads Al Franken by less than 700 votes (mandatory recount will be made), Smith holds a slim lead in Oregon and Stevens apparently rallied and the race in Alaska and took the lead althoug it is still too close to call. -Prop 8 in CA seems to have passed. Some interesting stats: “In California, first-time voters cast their ballots against the proposition by a 64 percent to 36 percent margin, according to exit polls. The rest of the electorate favored the amendment 52 percent to 48 percent.” FL and AZ passed similar propositions. I understand the desire to define marriage in a traditional sense. However, in terms of civil rights, I'm not at all threatened by same sex partners enjoying the same civil rights as a traditionally married couple. Call it whatever you like (civil union works for me) but there should be the same rights for all. (READ MORE)
John Hinderaker: No Landslide - Barack Obama's victory last night was no doubt historic, and the Democrats, as expected, extended their leads in the House and the Senate. But their victory was no landslide, despite what appeared to be overwhelming advantages. Obama won around 52 percent of the popular vote, defeating John McCain by between five and six points. That's nothing like the true landslides of the past: Reagan by ten points in 1980 and 18 in 1984; Nixon by 23 in 1972; or even Bush by eight in 1988. And yet, with hindsight, it is remarkable how much Obama had going for him. After breaking his pledge to take public financing he raised more money, by far, than any Presidential candidate in history, outspending McCain nearly two to one. Millions of new voters, many of them minority voters, were registered, and they went heavily for Obama. Obama enjoyed the monolithic support of the entertainment industry and was something of a fad among the young. (READ MORE)
Political Pistachio: "I Voted For Change" - I spoke with a number of people today about the election, how they voted, and why. Interestingly, every single person that voted for Obama did not say such. How they responded was, "I voted for change." The person, Obama, was not why they voted for him. It's the change he stands for that attracted their vote. Question is, what change will he enact? The people I spoke to knew no specifics, just like Obama. All they could mindlessly say was that "We need change." I asked these Obama supporters questions about Obama's policies, and in every single response were the words, "We can't afford four more years of Bush," or "Bush is the worst president in history." Policy specifics were never mentioned, and when the basics of a policy was uttered, the impact on our country was not a concern. (READ MORE)
Patterico's Pontifications: Obama: A Flawed But Good Man Who Has Made Bad Decisions And Will Make More - I have endured some criticism for saying that Barack Obama, with whom I disagree about almost everything, is a good man trying to do what he thinks is right for this country. Some commenters have disagreed, citing Obama’s support for grisly forms of late-term abortion; his attendence of a church with a pastor who said anti-American things in some of his sermons; his relationship with unrepentant terrorist Bill Ayers; his disturbingly close relationship with corrupt individuals such as Tony Rezko; his broken promises; and his many falsehoods about John McCain. They point to his campaign’s inappropriate use of the race card; his disabling of credit card verification checks; his minions’ attempts to silence free speech with threats; and much more. There is something to all that, and I don’t think we should pretend these things didn’t happen, or give Obama a false halo. (READ MORE)
Yankeemom: The Next Day - Well, well, well. Here we are. The Change has transcended. First off, I have to say that I am proud that we as a country have come to the point where a half-black/half-white man can win the presidency and a woman is taken seriously for the same position or the VP position. What a moment for all the people who have lived through so many years of their race or sex being held against them. Absolutely remarkable! Unfortunately, we now have a President-elect who believes our Constitution is flawed, wants the (BIG) government to be involved in near every aspect of our lives, is no real friend of the Military, does not appreciate America’s long history of individualism, believes your hard-earned income belongs to the government, believes that everyone should share in the pot whether they worked for it or not and should not be held responsible for their actions. (READ MORE)
Ed Morrissey: Notes from the collapse - This morning, after having absorbed the substantial victory of Barack Obama, I noticed a couple of interesting items in the data. Barack Obama certainly won this race, but he won it with just a little more votes than George Bush won in his re-election bid, and the turnout models came up short. In 2004, Bush beat John Kerry by winning 62.04 million votes. In 2008, Obama won 62.443 million, a gain of only 400,000. In 2004, Kerry garnered 59.028 million votes; John McCain only got 55.386 million. That means this election saw 3.24 million fewer votes than four years ago. Far from being more energized, the nation appeared to be more apathetic. Using these numbers, we can see that Barack Obama succeeded in turning out his base much more effectively than McCain did his. (READ MORE)
Major Z: Why I am okay with Obama - Towards the end of the election coverage last night, there was much angst. People kvetching and discussing options for relocation etc. I realized something today, as I watched our next batch of leaders take a PT test: We're going to be okay. More than that, we are going to be a stronger nation. We are a resilient country. We suffered through four years of Jimmy Carter, and the result was eight years of Ronald Reagan. Eight years of Clinton resulted in Eight Years of McBushCheneyaliburtonCo. In two, four or eight years, the country will again correct itself--or it won't. Ideally, in two years the asshattery in congress will be apparent and congress will turn over to the republicans--but I doubt it. Jack Murtha was reelected, and the republicans lost seats in a democratically controlled congress that has single-digit approval ratings. Never underestimate the stupidity of people in large groups. (READ MORE)
Bill Whittle: HISTORIC - It is with the utmost sincerity and genuine goodwill that I wish to congratulate Barack Obama and the millions who supported him on your historic win this evening. My hope is that this will lift your spirits from the traumatic eight years they have endured, and restore to you the conviction that this is, and was, and always will be your country as well as ours. I hope that, over time, you may come to see in this great victory tonight perhaps a sense that the cards are not and were not hopelessly stacked against you, and that tonight you simply did what we conservatives did on this same evening four and eight years ago – make a better case to the American people. And you did it by a far greater margin than we did on either of those occasions. To our liberal and Democratic opponents: this night is yours. Indeed, the next four years are yours. Starting soon I will begin again to argue as best I can against many of the policies and philosophies that President-Elect Obama represents. (READ MORE)
Lawhawk: The Crooks Still Inhabit Congress - Rep. William Jefferson (D-LA) easily won reelection in Louisiana despite law enforcement finding $90,000 stashed in his freezer, while the same could be said of Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY), who as Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee was in charge of writing tax law, but never could figure out how to pay all those taxes he owed over the years. At the same time, Rep. John Murtha (D-PA) won reelection despite the fact that he called his constituents racists and rednecks. It truly is amazing to see the cognitive dissonance involved in that one. Murtha will be reelected until he either dies in office or retires. And even then, I'm not sure that he wont continue to be reelected. These three members of the House, along with their fellow Democrats will be setting policy for the next two years. Get used to higher taxes and fees, because that's their policy prescription. (READ MORE)
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