We are officially a center-left nation.
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November 7, 2012 at 5:31 am
Anonymous
What an absurd statement refering to a single election where an incumbant won with an equally absurdly polarized electorate. More accurate would be: We are a far right and far left nation where the far left marginally outnumbers the far right. That is hardly center anything. Too bad though, center left would be much better.
November 7, 2012 at 6:36 am
bolithio
No, anon, Im going with center-left. I think its a reasonable statement.
November 7, 2012 at 6:48 am
JK
OK anon, we are a center left nation, based on the amalgam of data on the victors of this particular election cycle. But, technically it’s an oversimplification not an absurd statement. And the now that the election is over, the decisions will be made based on the elected NOT the electorate. So, he’s actually more accurate than your oversimplification.
November 7, 2012 at 8:14 am
Erasmus
The “far left” is insignificant in this country save for the Common Dreams website and a few college professors whose experiences in the 60s have branded them for life. (Obama is the incarnation of “center-left.”) ——- I’ll say nothing at this point about the fate of certain propositions in CA except for this: why would a relatively enlightened state continue to support the death penalty? My current state (Michigan) abolished it in the 19th century!
November 7, 2012 at 9:00 am
Plain Jane
When the majority of the country votes for a “socialist,” who could argue with the headline of this thread? Or maybe they don’t really believe he’s a socialist?
November 7, 2012 at 9:50 am
Joe Blow
More like this country is experiencing a “Cold Revolution.”
November 7, 2012 at 9:52 am
moviedad
“Socialist?” I wish.
Well, I’m glad to see Nate Silver vindicated. Him with that new-fangled, mystic and magical weapon of the radical-leftist-socialists called…math.
When you only have a small portion of the progressive and social-liberal group coming out, against a huge portion of the “conservative-economic-fascist-Tea-party Republican” group coming out; you’re going to get a skewed picture of the real political demographic. The Right-wing owns practically every major media outlet, yeah, yeah; the “leftist-media” is such a bullshit statement, it makes fools of those who try to use it. Anyway, with the right in such control of the propaganda, they like to pretend they represent the majority of people here. but in truth they represent the rich, and all one has to do is look at the percentage of people who actually qualify as rich and it becomes clear. Poor people, excluding those who slavishly work against their own interests on behalf the wealthy; are mostly liberal. Rich people, excluding those who rose up from poor beginnings; are Right Wing.
I think the biggest mistake the Republicans made was allowing themselves to be taken over by the “Tea-Party” radicals and the billionaires. Most thinking people I know, don’t think Gay-marriage, and abortion, mean very much when they’re losing their homes, and their jobs because people like Romney can get a better return if they send their factory to China. And banks can charge 36% interest on credit card balances because the newly unemployed are late on their payments.
Another mistake is having a platform based on how bad the country is, especially when your party carries so much of the blame for what is, actually bad about it.
Personally for me, it’s still “Fascism-Lite” with Obama. It’s a little more gilding on the cage. But nothing significant is going to change until there is complete public financing of elections. Ha! That’s the day I’ll be celebrating……from beyond the grave I think.
November 7, 2012 at 10:00 am
Mitch
I think many on the right may actually have fooled themselves. Ignoring the facts only works until something concrete depends on the facts.
You can say you’re winning as much as you want, and it probably helps you turn out your voters. But if you’re so foolish as to convince yourself with the fantasy you spin to convince others, reality has a way of biting you on the ass.
The Rove Fox meltdown was amazing.
November 7, 2012 at 10:02 am
longwind
We are all Kenyan Socialists now. Where are my wives?
November 7, 2012 at 10:41 am
Eric Kirk
I’m not just looking at the Presidential election. I’m looking at 3 gay marriage initiatives passing 3-0 last night, where we were 0-36 before. I’m looking at the fact that Obama could mention gays and lesbians in his speech, and that his support might have been a factor in his win. That Tammy Baldwin could be elected in Wisconsin over a popular ex-governor. That even in red states like Missouri and Indiana voters could say that enough is enough with regard to outrageous statements about women and choice and decide that these men simply are not responsible enough to hold power. That despite blatant voter suppression policies in Ohio and Florida, that African American, Latino, and other progressive voters have the tenacity to wait in line for hours to cast a vote. That voters are mature enough to vote for higher taxes when needed. That we booted Joe Walsh and Allen West, and almost booted Michelle Bachman. That Sherrod Brown, who faced the biggest onslaught of dark money of any candidate excepting Obama, is still standing having weathered it – and maybe we showed last night that massive saturation of ads does not win elections. That New Hampshire now has all women in their five highest offices. That a four-eyed bookworm intellectual like Elizabeth Warren can beat out the quarterback cool kid. That Chris Christie is willing to buck the fringe tide in his party, and maybe, just maybe, can be an effective standard-bearer to restore at least some level of bipartisanship in the country. That working class white voters won Ohio for the scary black guy.
Yeah, I wish we had abolished the death penalty in California yesterday, but that’s still a tough sell. At least we reformed 3 strikes after several similar failures. But California, for all its vaunted progressivism, still has a law and order streak which belies our reputation.
And Eric Mar fought off a huge dark money dump in the Richmond District of SF.
http://blogs.sfweekly.com/thesnitch/2012/11/eric_mar_wins.php
I’m used to being depressed on the morning after. But this went very well.
November 7, 2012 at 10:54 am
Eric Kirk
Josh Marshal lists a few more factoids to support my argument. I hadn’t even heard about Trump’s rant! That alone is worth the price of admission.
http://2012.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/11/democratic-schadenfreude-gay-rights-allen-west-karl-rove-donald-trump.php?ref=fpa
And if you’re a rich guy, are you going to fork over more money to Rove’s loser causes?
November 7, 2012 at 11:04 am
Eric Kirk
And we elected our first Buddhist Senator!
http://shambhalasun.com/news/?p=39867
November 7, 2012 at 12:35 pm
Mitch
That woman at the Romney rally (filmed by New Left Media) who was worried that the Buddhists were taking over may not have been suffering from dementia after all!
November 7, 2012 at 1:56 pm
Plain Jane
If they had been successful at suppressing the vote in a couple of battleground states, they probably would have won. This time it’s likely the courts saved us.
November 7, 2012 at 2:00 pm
Plain Jane
Not demented, senile, as in loss of mental capacity and memory due to age. I didn’t mean it as an insult but as an excuse. I’m becoming more sympathetic for senile people as I age.
November 7, 2012 at 2:01 pm
Plain Jane
It was a much younger guy who was worried about Buddhists. The old gal was worried about Muslim Atheists in the White House!
November 7, 2012 at 3:13 pm
tra
No post from Nate Silver today. If I were in his position, I’d be tempted to, at the very least, take a nice leisurely victory lap.
While he’s apparently too nice to really rub his critics noses in it, he’d certainly be justified in doing so. After all the pundits who claimed that the polls and/his model were systematically skewed in Obama’s favor, Nate’s final electoral vote map was exactly right, and it appears that his prediction of the popular vote was highly accurate, too (he predicted Obama 50.8, Romney 48.1, and as of this afternoon the latest update I saw was Obama 50.4 to 48.3).
Meanwhile, Karl Rove, Dick Morris, Michael Barone, Newt Gingrich and so on, all have egg on their faces and crow on their plates.
November 7, 2012 at 3:23 pm
Anonymous
Eric, what does the local hospital board election mean?
November 7, 2012 at 3:28 pm
Joel Mielke
As the very smart, and formerly prominent Republican operative Bruce Bartlett points out (Sept 20th program), Obama is a conservative by any reasonable measure.
November 7, 2012 at 3:55 pm
Mitch
You’re right on both counts, PJ. It was the younger fellow who was concerned about the Buddhist hordes. Now that America has a Buddhist Senator, I hope we’ll still be allowed to pray to Lord Jesus.
November 7, 2012 at 5:06 pm
Dave Kirby
What I took away from this election. Just as Hillary found out the Obama campaign is a state of the art machine. As one commentator put it this morning Romney’s campaign was a 50s effort up against a 21st century juggernaut. Obama’s team was a focused cyber savvy group of heavy hitters that wasted no time or resources showing the flag in meaningless non battleground states. They utilized all the usual core groups to mobilize their base. The times and country are a changin’. White male voters are not the lead dogs anymore. Romney did well with that group but this time is wasn’t enough. As a side note for the first time in 80 years the Democrats now have super majority in both the assembly and the senate here in California. Along with a Democratic governor the Republicans are a relic in this state.
November 7, 2012 at 5:55 pm
Anonymous
So what does it mean locally? What is your take on the hospital board results, Kirby?
November 7, 2012 at 6:57 pm
Joel Mielke
And here’s Fred’s cretin of a candidate.
November 7, 2012 at 9:42 pm
spyrock
i think obama is a bit more conservative than rominy and way more of a hawk. its the people that surrounded rominy that would have controlled his foreign policy though. the republicans usually just want a figure head for a president like both bushes. someone that will pick up their ball and let the pro finish the hole. obama would slam dunk if he could. two different animals. when rominy started talking about building battleships, i knew he was done for. obama is going to get those ben gazzi people too. they already have one of them in tunisia. they tracked him through facebook.
November 7, 2012 at 9:51 pm
spyrock
i was really surprized that the fundamentalist right supported rominy because the mormons don’t really believe in the bible. they believe in the book of morman which tells the story of the plates that joseph smith found in new york that jesus appeared to the mayans in central and south america during his resurrection. the mormans have a secret calendar that is very similiar to the mayan calander. the fact that this election is occuring in 2012 which is the end of the current mayan calender had me thinking that rominy may win. but the mormons don’t admit being connected to their latino brothers and sisters. and not many latinos have ever read the book of morman.
November 7, 2012 at 9:58 pm
spyrock
native americans also claim that they originated in mayaland and migrated north for some reason that no one knows for sure about. they were the mound builders in ohio which was the key state in this election. they were also in many other parts of the united states including new york. actually, native americans don’t claim that this is true, because its a secret and most of them don’t know about it anyway. to me it’s just part of the strange year that is 2012.
November 7, 2012 at 10:10 pm
spyrock
the key to the republicans having any chance at all of winning a presidential election in the future, is to realize that latinos are people too.
romo of the giants was wearing that i just look illegal shirt during the giants parade. that law is very insulting to latinos because they lived in texas, new mexico, arizona and california for over a hundred years before we showed up. most latinos were born here.. and most of them are conservative and very religious. my cousin married a latino in 1962. he voted for rominy and has been a republican his whole life. but he identifys as being an american. and relates well with the dominent male role as head of the family. the only reason latinos vote democratic is because they are disrespected so bad by the republicans. show respect and you win. keep on dissing them and you will continue to lose elections.
November 8, 2012 at 7:17 am
bolithio
Its funny. I feel like the commentary has been poor poor republicans. What are they going to do? What are the keys for them to regain their ability to trick people into voting for the interests of the super rich again?
As in-effective as they may have been – we need to abolish the super pacs. When you start to look at the money that was spent (6 billion?) and consider what society could have done with 6 billion… its just sick. Those people who spent that money… are they not the so called job creators? How many jobs could have been created with 6 billion>? I think campaign finance reform is key to long term prosperity.
November 8, 2012 at 8:05 am
Mitch
spyrock,
It’s a mistake to think that the typical person in the “religious right” actually knows anything about the bible or about Mormonism. All they know is that people who look and sound like Romney are good, as confirmed by their wealth, and people who look like Obama are bad, because they clearly don’t look like good people look. They’ve seen and heard people who look like Romney telling them what to do every Sunday since they were born.
Don’t let the label “religious right” make you think that these people are aware of principles of Christianity.
November 8, 2012 at 9:22 am
Anonomous
Look at the women vote. Obama had over 15 million more women vote for him over Romney. Why? Because republican’s and their platform are the arch enemies of all women. You have republican politicians believe and actually verbalize to the press that when women get pregnant after being raped, then it is gods will. Those politicians lost their seats on Tues from those asinine comments.The republican party is not just a relic from the past, they actually all need to be checked into the hospital for being delusional.
(A delusion is a belief held with strong conviction despite superior evidence to the contrary. Unlike hallucinations, delusions are always pathological As a pathology,
Delusions typically occur in the context of neurological or mental illness)
November 8, 2012 at 10:05 am
JK
I agree with Mitch here, American right wing “Christians” are more akin to very, very, very old school Jewish people. They seem to love to quote Leviticus, which I feel Jesus spent most of his life preaching against. I’m sure there are plenty of “pure” and sinless people out there ready to throw stones at me. Go ahead, I adore your hate.
November 8, 2012 at 11:00 am
tra
I was wondering why there hasn’t been a single post from FiveThirtyEight’s Nate Silver since Tuesday night. As it turns out, Twitter users have been reporting multiple sightings of Silver stumbling around drunk, acting as a kind of celestial orchestra conductor. Here are a couple of the eyewitness accounts:
Dave Levitan @davelevitan
Drunk Nate Silver stumbles through traffic on the Jersey Turnpike, screaming out what time each driver will get home. #DrunkNateSilver
Shelby @Kamber
Drunk Nate Silver sends you at Text at 2:00am thats says “It’s 9:32am.” And thats when you read it. #DrunkNateSilver
Alan @alan_maguire
Drunk Nate Silver points at the night sky. The star he is pointing at flickers then dies. #DrunkNateSilver
John Herrman @jwherrman
Drunk Nate Silver making eye contact from the very back row of your wedding. Expressionless. #DrunkNateSilver
Tom Ganjamie @tomgam
Drunk Nate Silver is now just handing everyone new pens the moment the one they’re using runs out of ink #DrunkNateSilver
Josh Fruhlinger @jfruh
Drunk Nate Silver waits 20 minutes for the G train, nods silently when it arrives, walks out of the station. #DrunkNateSilver
November 8, 2012 at 11:28 am
bolithio
I want to know how much money Nate made on the election. He is a notorious proposition gambler.
November 8, 2012 at 5:15 pm
Mitch
No money, bolithio, but I bet each and every one of his avatars has cool new clothes now and a cool new car.
November 8, 2012 at 8:33 pm
spyrock
nate sounds like hunter thompson who blew his brains out when bush got elected. there has been a rush on kool aid at the supermarkets. every flavor except hawaiin punch. james jones would have been a good tea party candidate if he were still alive.
November 8, 2012 at 8:42 pm
spyrock
these tea party conservatives remind me of the radical groups that were emerging in the late sixties during the protest of the viet nam war. the brown berets, the north viet nam liberation front, even manson was like a berkeley politico. the weathermen who blew things up and the symbionese liberation army that kidnapped patty hurst. these new conservatives act just as crazy. like they live in some alternate reality. things seemed to have gone 180. we are the silent majority and they are the crazy radicals.
love it or leave it baby. i have no time to listen to you cry. it’s 51% not 47%.
there;s a new sherrif in town. obama’s yo mama.
November 8, 2012 at 8:54 pm
spyrock
stories evovle over time. everyone thought that obama didn’t show up for the first debate. but he was really just using an old strategy. he rope a doped rominy. he made karl rove and the koch brothers think they had a chance and they blew several billion on rominy’s campaign in the final weeks of the election. even when the fox people told rove that obama had it won, he didn’t believe it. he bought the rope a dope hook line and sinker.
ideally, it would have been nice of karl rove and the koch brothers to give those billions to the poor and middle class instead. but you know that wouldn’t have never happened. so they got rope a doped. they gave it to the advertising companies and networks but hey, all that money went into our economy and out of china or switzerland or whatever foreign bank it was sitting in.
November 8, 2012 at 10:43 pm
tra
Spryrock,
Sorry if my comment above led you astray. Nate Silver is about as un-Hunter-S-Thompson-ish as you can get. Silver is a numbers geek who predicted the electoral college outcomes and popular vote totals near-perfectly in both 2008 and 2012.
The #DrunkNateSilver Twitter meme is funny precisely because he’s so sober and seemingly detached. Mostly I posted that comment because I know Eric is a fan of Silver’s work, and I thought he might get a laugh or two out of it.
November 10, 2012 at 8:11 am
moviedad
Ok, where’s my “Stuff!”
November 13, 2012 at 7:02 am
bolithio
Yeh, where is my stuff?
Where is my educated workforce I can call upon to design and innovate my product? Where is my transportation network of roads, rail, and, and air? I want it built, maintained and repaired so i can sell the product my educated workforce created for me! I also want to use state of the art satellites to track my shipments around the country and globe! And speaking of my international business, I demand I have protection of my shipping interests with a state of the art navy! And make sure we have diplomatically given my companies the edge over seas!
Why should I have to pay for any of that? Those are my entitlements!