The Night After Christmas

Random thoughts about yesterday's election results...

• My election prediction was "If I Am Wrong, I Am Wrong About America."  I was wrong about America.  And it hurts.  The only way I can describe it is that it is like finding someone you love deeply ( and I love America deeply) has done something that hurts you to the core.

• I have heard some say today that the results did not really change anything.  They woke up yesterday and they woke up today. The world did not change.  We are going to have the same President and essentially the same mix in Congress.  Everything is the same.  That is crazy.  That is like saying that nothing has changed the day after you learned you have a life-threatening illness because you look exactly the same to your neighbor.  We took the test and we know the results. Nothing is the same today as it was yesterday.  We now know for certain there is a disease deep within the body politic.  We did not know that yesterday.

• I heard some political analysts stating that the Republicans could not win unless 74% of the electorate was white.  What are they talking about?  The three states with the largest white populations in the United States are Vermont (96.6%), Maine (96.3%) and New Hampshire (95.7%).  They all voted for Obama.  By the way, other than Hawaii, the state with the lowest white percentage is Mississippi.  It voted for Romney. This seems to be the same old talk we get from people who want to keep dividing us.  Romney did not lose because there were not enough white voters.  Romney lost because there clearly aren't enough voters that are thinking right.  A case in point-11% of voters in the exit polls said they made their decision to vote for Obama primarily because of his response to Hurricane Sandy.  They ignored a four year record and based their decision on a four hour trip to New Jersey in a helicopter to tour storm damage? Is that thinking right?

• Barack Obama received almost 10 million fewer votes than he got in 2008.  However, Mitt Romney tallied almost 3 million fewer votes than John McCain! I know there still are some provisional and absentee votes that have not been counted but that total turnout is almost 10% below 2008. 

• 9% of the voters said in exit polls that they made their decision for whom to vote in the presidential election on the last few days before or on election day.  That is about 11 million votes.  They split about 50%-45% for Obama.   What does this tell me?  When you combine it with the 11% of voters who made their decision for Obama on Hurricane Sandy and the 13 million fewer votes that were cast in total, it tells me that this election really turned on a knife's edge.  There were a lot of voters who were uncertain about Obama and were in play even near the end.  A large portion of the people who stayed home simply appear to have decided they could no longer support Obama but also decided that Romney was not any better.  As they would say it, "I didn't want to vote for the lesser of two evils." The ones who did vote seem to be of the same mindset but they had to decide one way or the other.  When people are uncertain, they almost always go with the status quo.  Even if it means pointing to a hurricane response as the reason.

• I think the Republicans have to stop being "nice".  They need to stop allowing the Democrats to stack the deck to their advantage in elections.  A good example is early voting rules.  In Ohio the only place that you can physically vote is at the county seat.  In Hamilton County this is in downtown Cincinnati.  It is convenient and easy for city dwellers which so happen to be largely Democrats. For those in the suburbs it is anything but.  You have to leave your work or home, drive to downtown, find a place to park etc. If you are going to have early voting it needs to be fair.  In a large county like Hamilton County they should have a number of voting places spread around the county for easy accessibility for all.  I know that would add considerable expense.  If this cannot be done because of cost then it should not be done at all.  Make it a level playing field.  On voter access and voter id.  The Democrats are laughing with every vote. 

• I thought Rush Limbaugh pretty well summed up what happened last night in the colorful way he describes things---he said " In a nation of children, Santa Claus wins."  This is part of the transcript where he talked about that on today's show.

One of the greatest misunderstandings in this country, if you boil all this down, is what creates prosperity. The Romney campaign was essentially about that, and the Romney campaign was devoted to the traditional American view and history -- vision, as well -- of what creates prosperity. The old capitalism, the old arguments of hard work, stick-to-itiveness, self-reliance, charity, helping out in the community.

All of these things that define the traditional institutions that made this country great, that's what the Romney campaign was about. It was rejected. That way, or that route to prosperity was sneered at. That route to prosperity was rejected. The people who voted for Obama don't believe in it. They don't think it's possible. They think the game's rigged. They think the deck is stacked against them.

They think that the only way they're gonna have a chance for anything is if somebody comes along and takes from somebody else and gives it to them. Santa Claus! And it's hard to beat Santa Claus. Especially it's hard to beat Santa Claus when the alternative is, "You be your own Santa Claus." "Oh, no! I'm not doing that. What do you mean, I have to be my own Santa Claus? No, no. No, no, no. I want to get up every day and go to the tree. You're the elves," meaning us.

Credit: TheDiplomat.com

• In the grown-up world, Santa Claus does not pay the bills. He just hands out the gifts. And the bills start coming in shortly after Christmas. It is no different for our country. We soon will have to pay.