My brother was interviewed by NPR on the topic. You can listen to or read a transcript of the interview here.
Browsing Posts in Election 2008
So Says Camille Paglia:
Liberal Democrats are going to wake up from their sadomasochistic, anti-Palin orgy with a very big hangover. The evil genie released during this sorry episode will not so easily go back into its bottle. A shocking level of irrational emotionalism and at times infantile rage was exposed at the heart of current Democratic ideology… One would have to look back to the Eisenhower 1950s for parallels to this grotesque lock-step parade of bourgeois provincialism, shallow groupthink and blind prejudice…As for the Democrats who sneered and howled that Palin was unprepared to be a vice-presidential nominee — what navel-gazing hypocrisy! What protests were raised in the party or mainstream media when John Edwards, with vastly less political experience than Palin, got John Kerry’s nod for veep four years ago? And Gov. Kathleen Sebelius of Kansas, for whom I lobbied to be Obama’s pick and who was on everyone’s short list for months, has a record indistinguishable from Palin’s. Whatever knowledge deficit Palin has about the federal bureaucracy or international affairs (outside the normal purview of governors) will hopefully be remedied during the next eight years of the Obama presidencies.
The U.S. Senate as a career option? What a claustrophobic, nitpicking comedown for an energetic Alaskan — nothing but droning committees and incestuous back-scratching. No, Sarah Palin should stick to her governorship and just hit the rubber-chicken circuit, as Richard Nixon did in his long haul back from political limbo following his California gubernatorial defeat in 1962. Step by step, the mainstream media will come around, wipe its own mud out of its eyes, and see Palin for the populist phenomenon that she is.
From Unfair Park:
By now, you’re probably aware that a week after Election Day, the dust hasn’t settled in Irving, where three-term incumbent Linda Harper-Brown and Democratic challenger Bob Romano are still tussling over who gets to rep Texas House District 105. Knocked out by a mere 20 votes, Romano’s seeking a recount: “In the coming days, my focus will be on doing everything I can to see that every ballot is counted and that every voter’s intent is known,” he writes on his Web site. The recount, which will settle once and for all whether the Republicans maintain their majority in the Texas House, ought to be completed by next week, give or take. Till then, the inevitable today at Dallas County Elections Department HQ on Stemmons Freeway: Protest!
I had a feeling this was coming……can anyone say “Hey, we found some missing ballots!”
It is, but the real interesting race has yet to be waged….the race for Texas House Speaker. Tom Craddick has a slim majority in the Chamber…76-74, but will he survive? Paul Burka at Texas Monthly has been blogging about the race, just keep scrolling.
From Capitolfax:
* Chicago’s legendary “Gimme what’s coming to me” politics is on full public display…
Asked what she expected an Obama presidency to mean to her West Side ward, Ald. Emma Mitts (37th) replied, “One word: money. You’re supposed to take care of home first, aren’t you?”
There is no shame in Illinois politics.
Ald. Isaac Carothers (29th) said there should be no shame in a local politician bringing home the proverbial bacon. When a reporter suggested that a sudden flood of federal dollars to Chicago would seem shady, Carothers disagreed, asserting that former Republican U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert of suburban Plano had favored home-state projects.
“I don’t see why it’s suspicious – [Obama] is from Chicago,” Carothers said. “I think that’s expected … He’s from Illinois — he’s certainly not going to forget about Illinois … A lot of projects people call pork projects are actually good projects … A lot of organizations in the city need help as well.”
To all the millions of people who campaigned, blogged, worked behind the scenes…this seems as good of a tribute as any. Jackson Browne’s – Stay/Load Out. A song about the guys behind the scenes that make Rock Concerts possible….(yeah, I know Browne’s politics are to the left of Hugo Chavez, but I enjoy his music)
From Capitolfax:
” I’m still trying to absorb all of this. There are so many things to contemplate, many of them personal. The fact that I’ve known him for years, even since before he was elected to the Illinois Senate. The private conversation we had long ago when I tried to discourage him from running for the US Senate. Our chance meeting on a public golf course when my then girlfriend swooned and I told her she was nuts. His remarkable primary victory and the whacky season it sparked (Blair, Jack and the Martian). My chuckling at his nickname for my formerly staunch Goldwater Republican and formerly all too white father: “Brother Miller.” My embarrassment at my father’s first words to Obama when I introduced them in January of 2004: “Never change. Never change,” and my concern at how Barack will, eventually change. His call to me during his failed congressional bid wondering why I was being so harsh and his attempt at rapproachment, when I first realized how skillful he could be. The fact that my wife is an Iraqi-American and my concern about what this election will mean for her family and her former nation. On and on. It’s kinda weird “knowing” a president-elect. It makes you think back, as well as look forward.”
“Look, I expect to be one of the most severe critics of the Obama administration and the Democrats generally in the years ahead (though I sincerely hope I won’t find that necessary). But Obama ran a brilliant race and he should be congratulated for it. . . . God bless America, and may He guide Obama to be the best president possible.”
From Paul Burka:
Tarrant County
Early votes cast, October 20 — 28,764
Early votes cast, October 21 — 32,001
Early votes cast, October 22 — 29,050
Early votes cast, October 23 — 28,596
Early votes cast, October 24 — 30,839
Early votes cast, October 25 — 34,416
Early votes cast, October 26 — 14,396
Early votes cast, October 27 — 39,008
Early votes cast, October 28 — 42,657
Early votes cast, October 29 — 48,281
Early votes cast, October 30 — 50,773
Early votes cast, October 31 — 53,068
Early votes cast, 12th day, 2004 — 43,622
Cumulative votes cast, 2008 — 459,842
% of registered voters — 47.93
Cumulative votes cast, 12th day, 2004 — 305,666
% of registered voters — 33.27
I’m off to a P&Z Workshop and then to the bar election watching party….see you tonight. Remember to get your predictions in before 5:30 today to be eligible to Win Big Bob’s Money.
According to FWST PoliTex Blog:
The long lines from this morning are all gone and most polling places are fairly quiet as of 1 p.m.
“My educated guess is we don’t have any lines out there right now,” said Tarrant County Elections Administrator Steve Raborn.
Campaign volunteers at a couple of Fort Worth polling places say turnout has been steady but not particularly heavy. Several said they are just waiting for a possible surge of after-work voters later today.
Raborn said the high-water mark that some were thinking the county might break today would be 300,000 voters. With about half the day over, he sounded skeptical that Tarrant County would reach that.
My dad is taking his 1963 Cadillac to the Obama election night party in Chicago tonight. It is about a three hour drive from my dad’s home to downtown Chicago. They expect a million people to show up in Chicago tonight and aren’t allowing any vehicles close into the site, so I hope my dad finds a safe place to park his car.
In 1968 my dad wanted to go to Chicago for the Democratic National Convention but my mother put her foot down. I hope he doesn’t get his wish from 1968 to watch a riot in person tonight.
Jerry Lee Phillips sent me an email over the weekend giving me a scoop that his campaign was running their first TV ad on Sunday night. I apologize to Jerry Lee and his campaign for not getting the word out sooner, but I spent the weekend at Lewisville Lake relaxing on our boat for a change of pace and didn’t check my iPhone email until tonight.
Jerry Lee, I know you have a busy night tomorrow, but if you stop by Sabor’s the drinks are on me.
