Every American election is hyped as the most important election ever. They all matter, though. The job has only been held by 42 men and each one of them has affected the lives of billions.
We’re in the middle of so much right now, all manner of crises – foreign and domestic. We need so much for a steady hand to lead the nation and the world at this point. We need someone to finally pull this country together after the divisions of the last 16 years. There is a line between a vigorous, competitive democracy and warring tribes, and we’ve crossed it. Not healthy. And if something isn’t good for America, it hurts the entire planet.
So I look at all these numbers. 90% of voters say the country is on the wrong track. With steady consistency a majority of the voters support Sen. Obama in the polls. States that weren’t supposed to be in reach now are, while the “safe” states remain quite safe.
I don’t feel the sort of dread I felt going into the 2002 election, nor do I have the queasy “jump ball” feeling from 2004, or the elation from 2006 where I figured a gain was likely and the excitement was only a matter of degree. I feel good about this election. Really good. 85% good.
And yet… I keep trying to convince myself that America won’t disappoint me. Maybe I’m just beat up from the last eight years, as I remarked to a friend after the ‘06 election, until then you had the sense that Democrats just couldn’t be elected in America anymore.
And yet… 2008 is so different. No WMD in Iraq. Post-Katrina. Mid-Financial crisis. And I get the sense that out there, in the great mush that is the collective American consciousness that something really awesome is happening.
But I can’t let myself get carried away with it. Just gotta wait for election day.
It already feels better than how Kerry did in 2004. Much better. But there are so many unknowns I think I will be hiding behind the couch on Election Day waiting for them to call it. And I’ll probably be drunk.
I totally agree with you. I have become crazy superstitious. 2004 almost killed me!
No wonder space exploration is so costly; you have to have singing lessons first!
I’m just really trying hard not to get my hopes up too much – as Media Glutton says, there are so many unknowns – especially in terms of whatever troubles might arise with the actual voting.
I’m not much of a conspiracy theorist, so I’m not too worried about some massive plan to steal the election – though given the last few elections, I can’t dismiss it 100% – but there are other, smaller things that when combined can have a larger impact. These are things like the illegal actions some states have used to eliminate names from the voter rolls, poll challenges at the voting booths, dirty tricks (like posting fliers saying if you go vote and have outstanding tickets you’ll be arrested, or claiming the date of the election has been changed,) and other kinds of harassment we’ve seen before – law enforcement setting up road blocks to check … whatever, I forget exactly, but it was in Florida.
Allow me to engage in some tinfoil-hattery: I won’t be too shocked if the remains of Osama bin Laden are “discovered” in Afghanistan in the coming weeks. IMO, he’s been dead for years now, and it would be all too easy to put some bones in a box and have an Army scientist “inspect” them.
Having said that, I’m not sure it would work. A lot of Americans really thought Saddam was responsible for 9/11, and a lot of other Americans simply can’t think back seven years. Ya know, Cheney’s got to have something up his sleeve.
But watching the Republican party implode over the last year has reminded me that all of their geniuses: Rov, etc., really aren’t that sharp. They got lucky a few times in the trauma of 9/11, but it ain’t happening now. The campaign has shifted to the economy now, and there’s not quick fix for that. Bush and his Republican allies like de-regulatin’ McCain drove our country into a ditch, and once again only a Democrat can get us out of it.
These are things like the illegal actions some states have used to eliminate names from the voter rolls [...]
Fortunately, a federal judge has just ruled those actions unconstitutional in Michigan:
http://www.freep.com/article/20081014/NEWS15/810140382/?imw=Y
Oliver, I never imagined your conflicted emotions (hope and dread) would so closely match my own. Does this mean I’m as well informed? No, but the unknowables level all expertise, maybe.
Nice to have company, still, and have it expressed so well.
I feel you, Brother. 21 days feels like 10 years from now. I will positively go batshit crazy if the election is contested. And certain white people can be counted on to screw up any outcome that makes them “uncomfortable”.
I never want to go through this again.
I won’t be too shocked if the remains of Osama bin Laden are “discovered” in Afghanistan in the coming weeks.
Personally, I think he’s at the Radisson in Houston. Or Kennibunkport.
The job has only been held by 42 men and each one of them has affected the lives of billions.
I think I can state firmly with 100% accuracy that William Henry Harrison did NOT affect the lives of a billion people, much less billion*S* during his presidency.
I think he did merely by being President of the United States. (Alright, maybe not “billions” but whatever) Even then it was that important a job. Also, by dying within minutes of his inauguration he forced the US to finally figure out the rules for Presidential Succession once and for all. Hey, it’s an achievement.
Yes, Oliver, we can.
In typical Congressional fashion, the House and Senate quickly responded to Harrison’s death by passing the Presidential Succession Act … 25 years later.
Yes, well, lots of naps to take and so on. He still caused the constitutional crisis. You’d think Madison or Franklin or one of those guys would have considered the possibility of a president dying in office.
Barring a gaffe of astronomical proportions, I think Obama has it in the bag. All the numbers are increasingly breaking his way.
While I echo the sentiments of what this country needs, and would love to see a President who can bring the “warring tribes” together, I remain skeptical that the Democrats have any more interest in bringing the tribes together than the Republicans do (which is basically none). I hope I am wrong.
My biggest concern is that should Obama become President, as is most likely, there will be so many on the right who are hell-bent to see him fail that it may be difficult for him to succeed.
It’s very difficult to bring sides together if some folks are adamant that they stay apart, even going against their own interests to ensure it.
Can we do this?
I’d say yeah. Reality might turn the corner and failure can no longer be rewarded. I mean, C’mon:
My biggest concern is that should Obama become President, as is most likely, there will be so many on the right who are hell-bent to see him fail that it may be difficult for him to succeed.
Please refresh memory, Sean. At what point over the last 8 years would you say people on the left were not completely and insanely obsessed with seeing George W. Bush fail, no matter what the cost to country?
“..people on the left were not completely and insanely obsessed with seeing George W. Bush fail, no matter what the cost to country?”
Fixed.
At what point from 1993 to 2001 would you say people on the right were not completely and insanely obsessed with seeing Bill Clinton fail, no matter what the cost to country?
Dennis, Oct 14th, 2008 at 12:29 pm
Please refresh memory, Sean. At what point over the last 8 years would you say people on the left were not completely and insanely obsessed with seeing George W. Bush fail, no matter what the cost to country?
Um, at every point over the last eight years.
At what point in the last sixteen years would you say the people on the right were not completely and insanely obsessed with trashing the reputation of the last legally elected president?
>My biggest concern is that should Obama become President, as is most likely, there will be so many on the right who are hell-bent to see him fail that it may be difficult for him to succeed.
What Dennis said. Huh? As fun as it will be to see the relative positions of the respective partisans reversed, its not as if there isn’t quite a bit of precedent for it. I’m sure righty partisans will continue to refer to Obama as “The One”, much like lefties referred to Bush as “Dear Leader”, and righties will use any excuse to paint Obama’s presidency as worst ever, in increasingly crazed ways, just like the lefty partisans did with Bush. Lefty partisans will defend Obama, sometimes in valid, sometimes not very valid, ways. In other words, much like the last 8 years with the chairs reversed.
Andy Rooney told the story of visiting a farmer while doing a story and, trying to make conversation, said, “I see you have a picture of Richard Nixon hanging on your wall.” “No,” the farmer said. “I have a picture of the President of the United States.” He said we needed more people like that farmer.
I know politics ain’t beanbag, and voters supposedly like divided government and all, but still…
Bush failed all on his own.
Besides, how that prick not getting what he wants could possibly have been detrimental to the country, or the world, I don’t know.
Dennis: Please refresh memory, Sean. At what point over the last 8 years would you say people on the left were not completely and insanely obsessed with seeing George W. Bush fail, no matter what the cost to country?
First, translated Dennis: Yeah, we’ve controlled the Congress for 12 of the last 14 years and the White House as well for the last eight but you guys keep picking on us!
Second, at what point? At exactly the point where the Dems in Congress blocked legislation, threatened filibusters at every turn and didn’t cave every time the White House said it wanted something.
Oh, that’s right. None of those happened.
Haplo9: I’m sure righty partisans will continue to refer to Obama as “The One”, much like lefties referred to Bush as “Dear Leader”, and righties will use any excuse to paint Obama’s presidency as worst ever, in increasingly crazed ways, just like the lefty partisans did with Bush.
I’m sure there will be those on both ends who refuse to even attempt to work with folks on the other. A situation that 8 years of Bush and a rubber-stamp Congress have certainly exacerbated. I certainly hope Obama is able to pull the sides together and be an actual “uniter not a divider”.
But I’m sure there will be those who absolutely want him to fail. To be a one-termer. And will work actively to bring that about without any thought to how doing so is actually counter-productive to their own goals.
I’m sure there will be those on both sides who don’t want to work with the other side. But consider this. The right spend gobs of time and money working to impeach Clinton because of what he did in his private life. The left took impeachment of Bush for actual violations of the Constitution “off the table”.
Yes, there are those on the left that can be vindictive and childish. But it’s a trait more often practiced by the right.
So while the left paints Bush as one of the worst presidents ever there are lots of legitimate reasons as to why. And, as you say, the right will have to find increasingly crazed ways to to do so to Obama.
At what point from 1993 to 2001 would you say people on the right were not completely and insanely obsessed with seeing Bill Clinton fail, no matter what the cost to country?
Welfare Reform and Supreme Court Nominations. And that’s just off the top of my head.
Farris, were you old enough to remember the Clinton years? Breyer and Ginsburg were about as middle of the road / conservative as you could possibly get from a Democratic president and yet Helms and Nichols still opposed them on ideological grounds.
Funny how this withering little example of comity pales in comparison to the complete stupidity that was the Gingrich congress antics. That was when I stopped being a Republican.
The election of President Barack Obama HAS to be Step 1 – else it means little.
Step 2) Introduce SPECIFIC MEANINGFUL LEGISLATION that will GUARANTEE: the young KNOW Democrats are good Republicans are bad. Example – GREATLY EXPAND student loan program.
Step 3) Introduce SPECIFIC MEANINGFUL LEGISLATION that will GUARANTEE: that AA’s will KNOW D’s are good R’s are bad. Example – Oliver, I’ll leave this one to YOU and OBAMA.
Step 4) Introduce SPECIFIC MEANINGFUL LEGISLATION that will GUARANTEE: that Hispanics will KNOW D’s are good R’s are bad. Example – I’ll leave that to the Latino Caucus of the party.
Step 4) Introduce SPECIFIC MEANINGFUL LEGISLATION that will GUARANTEE: that WORKING CLASS people will KNOW that D’s are good and R’s are bad. Example – Increase the minimum income level before taxes start. Let workers join Unions easier so they can have a vehicle to the Middle Class.
Step 5) Introduce SPECIFIC MEANINGFUL LEGISLATION that will GUARANTEE: the MIDDLE CLASS people, and ALL AMERICANS, will know that D’s are good and R’s are bad. Example – Ensure that ALL AMERICANS have AFFORDABLE HEALTH CARE – INCLUDING A PLAN THAT GUARANTEES that if laid off or fired or whatever – your health care premiums will continue to be paid. NO AMERICAN FAMILY must be destroyed because of catastrophic health care costs. (Personally – I’d introduce UNIVERSAL health care – like EVERY country in the western world except the Stupid US of A!)
You get the IDEA – Introduce SPECIFIC LEGISLATION that GUARANTEES a MAJORITY of AMERICAN’S KNOW their bread is buttered when they vote Democrat.
Hey, look who else has questionable associations!
When do we get the SPECIFIC LEGISLATION that GUARANTEES conservative trolls can count all the way up to 5 accurately?
z-dathura,
Are you really saying that votes of 96-3 and 87-9 compare to threats of filibusters followed by votes of 78-22 and 58-42?
No Hswarris, I am saying that the 99.99% of the rest of the legislative docket was filled with absolute shit due to the rabid partisanship of hypocrites like Henry Hyde and Newt Gingrich. I know you want to point to this one moment of calm in a churning sea of partisanship, but I don’t buy it. Even seemingly easy decisions were hard.
It is VITALLY IMPORTANT that there be TWO STEP FOURS.
I’m a 56 year old white woman but I’m with you heart and soul, pal. Heart and soul. I’m holding my breath–I hardly dare hope. I was sick, sick, in 2004. I could not believe anyone would vote to re-elect Bush, and yet, 51% of the voters did so. I wanted to move to Canada, France, anywhere. Obama’s a MUCH better candidate than Kerry. If he loses it’ll be due to racism, I have no doubt. It’ll prove that there are still a large number of racists in this country, and I’ll feel sick, sick again. If he wins it won’t mean racism is gone forever, but it’ll prove the vast majority of racists are republicans, hah! WE SHALL OVERCOME (I’m showing my age).
Uh, that’s *43* men. No, I don’t want to acknowledge Bush either, but he HAS most assuredly been holding the office.
Uh, that’s *43* men.
Nope. Forty-two is correct. There have been 43 presidencies, held by 42 different men.