Some Mandate

Look for Obama to push his "grand bargain" shit, despite the outrage by the public over Washington policies.

It appears fewer people supported Obama this year than last time:

The sharp fall in Obama’s vote as he won his second term is virtually unprecedented in the history of American politics. It is in fact exceedingly rare for a president to win a second term with less votes than in the first election. George W. Bush, for example, increased his vote from 50 million in 2000 to 62 million in 2004.

Clinton increased his vote from 45 million in 1992 to 47.5 million in 1996. Reagan increased his vote from 44 million in 1980 to 54.5 million in 1984.

Indeed, the last time that a president won reelection with a decline in his popular vote came in the elections of 1944 and 1940, as Franklin Delano Roosevelt saw his enormous advantage over his Republican challengers fall somewhat in his bids for third and fourth terms after his landslide election in 1932.

However, a comparison to Roosevelt’s votes is itself instructive in understanding the scale and significance of Obama’s decline. In 1936, Roosevelt was elected to a second term in the midst of the Great Depression, seven years after the Wall Street crash of 1929. In that election, FDR increased his popular vote from 23 million to 28 million, a growth of more than 20 percent. His Republican challenger, Alf Landon, won only 36.5 percent of the popular vote, carrying just two states, Vermont and Maine, for a total of eight electoral votes. In the next two elections, Roosevelt’s total vote fell to 27.3 million and then 25.6 million.

If You Want to Know How Third Parties Fared

in this election, Politico has a state-by-state breakdown of the presidential contest, as well as the Senate and House races and major ballot measures, where applicable.

Anderson got 2,544 votes in Oregon, including yours truly's vote.

Obama's Victory Speech

I didn't stay up to watch the Narcissist-in-Chief give his speech:

Election 2012

Heller beat Berkley in Nevada thanks to the rurals and Washoe for the Senate race.

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So what can be taken away from this election?

So does the class problem

This issue was magnified by the fact that Republicans nominated a former private-equity executive, who allowed himself to be caricatured as a heartless corporate raider.

But the election laid bare, in the post-Lehman Brothers, post-housing crisis era, the extent of the class divide.

To wit -- Elizabeth Warren, the populist crusader who was also a fairly flawed Senate candidate, won handily in Massachusetts against a fairly popular, centrist Republican.

The existence of the video in which Romney dismissed 47 percent of Americans at a fundraiser merely stoked the anger. The issue of "fair share-ism" was on display in the presidential campaign, and Republicans will need to address it ahead of 2016.

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The WSWS gives its take on last night's festivities:

The vote is an expression of deep popular hostility to both the social layer personified by ex-Bain Capital CEO Romney, i.e., the financial parasites responsible for the 2008 crash and the subsequent economic slump, and to the ultra-right politics of the Republican Party. It also shows there are remaining illusions within the working class that Obama, despite his record over the past four years, represents an alternative to Romney and the financial elite, although popular support for Obama has diminished significantly since 2008.

Many who voted for Obama did so to keep Romney and the Republicans out, not because they were enthusiastic about a second Obama term.

Nevada Once Again Continues Its Streak

of picking presidents; it went for Obama tonight.

Virginia also went for Obama.

I predict Florida will also go for Obama. He's about 60,000 votes ahead there.

This means I made the correct prediction a couple of weeks ago on this blog when I said Obama would win every state he won in 2008 except for Indiana and North Carolina.

Too bad I didn't place a bet on it.


Dopers in Washington and Colorado have legalized marijuana, but I think this is easier said than done. It's a pretty sad commentary when people think the only way they can deal with life is to get stoned out of their heads.


Mitt conceded tonight. He will vacation in the Cayman Islands with his wife. (I am just kidding, I think.)

Election Returns: Obama Wins

At 8:14 PST, Ohio and IA were called for Obama, and therefore he has won the election.

Now the American people are going to get a real screwing in the name of the "grand bargain."

Mitt: IN, KY, WV, SC, GA, OK, MO, TN, MS, AL, AR, WY, ND, SD, NE, KS, TX, LA, MT, UT, AZ, NC, ID, AK

Obama: VT, CT, DE, MA, ME, IL, DC, RI, MD, NJ, MI, NY, NM, PA, WI, NH, MN, CO, WA, CA, IA, HI, OR

At least two independent senators are going to Washington: Bernie Sanders, of course, and King from Maine in a three-way contest. Both will caucus with Democrats.

The CT Senate race went to the Democrat. This was Joe Lieberman's old seat.

Elizabeth Warren has won the MA seat. Tammy Baldwin has won WI.

Joe Donnelly, Democrat, has won Richard Lugar's Senate seat in Indiana.

Alan Grayson is going back to the U.S. House. Jesse Jackson, Jr., has won re-election to his House seat.

Sherrod Brown and Claire McCaskill are returning back to the Senate. Bob Kerrey is not going back to the Senate. Paul Ryan will still have a job regardless of whether he gets promoted. Tim Kaine beat Macaca.

The "other" Tony Bennett got his ass kicked in IN. This is good news for teachers and students there.




Livestream/Stats:

NBC

Or View the NBC Stream:

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C-SPAN on its homepage has a running total, including Senate and House seats. Democracy Now! has its livestream:

Watch live streaming video from democracynow at livestream.com

link

Yes, It Really Is About "Class Issues"

Although this editorial at the WSWS is more for supporting the even more minor-party Socialist Equality Party, it's obvious the relentless class warfare by the top one percent against everybody else will continue:

Obama and Romney concluded their campaigns on Monday with stock speeches full of platitudes and lies. The Republican candidate sought to take from Obama’s 2008 campaign the empty mantra of “change,” while criticizing the president for failing to be sufficiently “bipartisan.” The Democrat countered by declaring that in a second term he will ensure that “everybody is doing their fair share,” while insisting that “I know what real change looks like; you’ve seen me fight for it.”

This from a president who has, during his four years in office, continued and expanded all the right-wing policies of his predecessor, and who has overseen soaring profits and stock prices even as wages have grown at their lowest rate in generations.
The real agenda of the ruling class after the elections is being systematically concealed from the American people.

To those who matter in the elections, Obama has already made clear that his “first order of business” will be to reach an agreement with Republicans to pass trillions of dollars in cuts to social programs, particularly Medicare and Medicaid. For his part, Romney’s references to the need for bipartisanship are intended as a signal that he too is committed to working with the Democrats in quickly carrying out the demands of the banks for austerity measures.

This despite the fact austerity measures make economic problems far worse. Obama is going to make sure his former nemesis Bill Clinton is there to use Lance Armstrong strong-arm tactics to keep wayward Democrats in line.

Like I said, this will create a permanent split in the Democratic Party and force many defections--that is, if the real Democrats actually stand for something.

This is the perfect opportunity, not for the crackpot Greens, but for the Justice Party, to step in and fill the void.

Another Election is Now History

My comments over at the Justice Party website (with a couple of minor changes):



And, when the election is over, pay very close attention to what Bill Clinton is doing. Rumor has it he will be pressuring Democrats to fall in line on that “grand bargain” nonsense over the bogus budget “crisis,” of which there is none . He needs to go back to Arkansas and run his library. So help me god, if Obama trades the New Deal and Great Society to suck up to the party he is more comfortable with in his narcissistic attempt to be a “post-partisan” president, that will be the end of the Democratic Party. If the Democratic Party is NOT going to stand for the people who are powerless, for the programs it has put in that have helped millions of people over generations, then there is no reason whatsoever for it to exist. It should be apparent by now Obama was bankrolled by people who wanted to kill the Democratic Party from within; all one has to do is to have closely followed this man’s career to know something was not right. The Justice Party needs to reach out to disaffected Democrats, including politicians, and become a viable second party or force the Democratic Party to actually be the party of the 99 percent. Just the threat of a major party division should do the trick.

I Have Never Been Into That Sort of Thing,

and I'll be damned if I will be into it now. And certainly not with my vote:

So it is with some morbid fascination that I watch Barack Obama, who has become the prime “dominatrix” of the liberal class, force us in this election to plead for more humiliation and abuse. Obama has carried out a far more egregious assault on our civil liberties, including signing into law Section 1021(b)(2) of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), than George W. Bush. Section 1021(b)(2), which I challenged in federal court, permits the U.S. military to detain American citizens, strip them of due process and hold them indefinitely in military facilities. U.S. District Judge Katherine B. Forrest struck down the law in September. The Obama administration immediately appealed the decision. The NDAA has been accompanied by use of the Espionage Act, which Obama has turned to six times in silencing whistle-blowers. Obama supported the FISA Amendment Act so government could spy on tens of millions of us without warrants. He has drawn up kill lists to exterminate those, even U.S. citizens, deemed by the ruling elite to be terrorists.

Obama tells us that we better lick his boots or we will face the brute down the hall, Mitt Romney. After all, we wouldn’t want the bad people to get their hands on these newly minted mechanisms of repression. We will, if we do not behave, end up with a more advanced security and surveillance state, the completion of the XL Keystone pipeline, unchecked pillage from Wall Street, environmental catastrophe and even worse health care. Yet we know on some level that once the election is over, Obama will, if he is re-elected, again betray us. This is part of the game. We dutifully assume our position. We cry out in holy terror. We promise to obey. And we are mocked as we watch promises crumble into dust.

Our political system is completely and totally FUBAR. It may take a revolution for sanity to return.

"Heads I Win, Tails You Lose"

The presidential campaign is ending today, but no matter which one gets in there, the American people are going to lose.

Neither candidate will tell the American people the truth: the next administration, whether headed by a Democrat or a Republican, will launch attacks on the living standards, social benefits and democratic rights of the American people on a scale never before seen. This will be combined with stepped-up military aggression overseas, from the Middle East to the Pacific.

Whether Obama or Romney is inaugurated next January 20 will affect only the details of this political prospectus, not its broad outlines. Both candidates, and the parties they head, represent and defend the interests of the American financial elite, the most reactionary and rapacious social force on the planet.

While many are concerned about vote rigging in Ohio or Florida, that is so 2000 or 2004. The leech class doesn't need to rig elections; they now own both political parties outright. Obama is as much their tool as Romney.

Look for more selling off of public assets, more destroying of the middle class.

When in the HELL are people going to wake up and stop this madness?

What is sure to happen is that there will be bloody uprisings, with the billionaires and their political hacks being rounded up and shot. I am not kidding on this. The military will not be able to stop it; indeed, the military and veterans are being attacked by this same bunch of crooks who want to get rid of their benefits and pensions. Not smart. Not smart at all. Not even the despicable Pinochet of Chile went there.

Etc.

Millions of people are without power thanks to the hurricane.

Things are very slowly getting back on track.
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Lance Armstrong remains an admired figure throughout the world:

Adelaide, Australia:

The Australian city of Adelaide has stripped Lance Armstrong of its highest honor — the key to the city — following the removal of his seven Tour de France titles.

Edenbridge in the U.K.:

The disgraced American cyclist has been chosen as the latest celebrity to be burned in effigy during an English town's nationally famous Bonfire Night celebrations.

Edenbridge in southeast England has built a 30-foot model of Armstrong, who was stripped recently of his seven Tour de France titles for doping offenses.

The effigy, to be burnt Saturday, sports a sign saying "For sale, racing bike, no longer required."

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I will make a prediction for Tuesday: Senate stays Democratic, House stays GOP though it loses some seats, and Obama will carry all of the states he carried in 2008 except for NC and IN but still will win.

The election was over when Mitt messed up with the Libya question in the second debate. The October Surprise with the weather sealed the deal.

Speaking of the election, lots and lots of letter writers decided to give the Des Moines Register a piece of their collective minds after that paper decided to endorse Mitt Romney.
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The WSWS had a nice write-up on the late senator George McGovern. His campaign and defeat are seen as pivotal in the rightward lurch of the Democratic Party.

The Case Against Voting for Obama (and Romney, Too)

There is a lot of outrage over these shitty major party candidates, but people don't have to take it anymore.

I think if Obama pulls his compromising shit on "entitlements" to make nice with the party he truly belongs to, there will be a major, major split in the Democratic Party.

Arguing for the re-election of a person who so clearly is a danger to the nation and to the world is at best illogical, and at worst is immoral. The time for defending tiny victories should end. Barack Obama and the Democrats should know that their critics mean business, and will cease supporting them. Racist statements from right wing pundits and bizarre statements about rape and pregnancy shouldn’t fool anyone into supporting policies that are wrong for this country and for the world.

On November 6th it is perfectly acceptable, morally right, and politically principled to boycott the election or to vote for a party other than the Democrats. Hand wringing about a Romney victory is mostly phony, and geared to keep progressives silent in the face of each new assault. Obama may win after all, but it shouldn’t be because people who claim to be on the left are complicit and a party to his wrongdoing.

We need a second party in this country.

Why I Am Voting Third Party

This post explains why I feel total frustration at the "choices" we have been given this year.

Waste v. Wasteland is right. Some may say my vote for Justice Party presidential candidate Rocky Anderson is itself a wasted vote, but I simply cannot bring myself to vote for that closet Republican in the White House. I might just as well vote for Mitt as do that.

That "reaching across the aisle" shit and his extremist views regarding "entitlements" and public education were the last straws for me with regard to Obama.

At least Oregon is not in play and probably never will be again, so at least I will have somebody to vote FOR.

I haven't had that option since 2004.

Is It Over?

More evidence the GOP plans to throw the election, at least the presidential contest:

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Because Democrats Are So Eager for Those Corporate Dollars,

they have been willing to sell their party--and by extension the American people--down the river in pursuit of those funds. And because the party's standardbearer, Obama, is all too willing to implement everything in the right-wing agenda, the party has alienated enough people that somebody like Mitt Romney, the very symbol of what has caused the world economy to melt down, could actually have a chance of winning the presidency:

The fact that Barack Obama needed a Himalayan mountain range of cash and some rather extreme last-minute incompetence on Romney's part to pull safely ahead in this race is what really speaks to the brokenness of this system. Bruni of the Times is right that the process scares away qualified candidates who could have given Obama a better run for all that money. But what he misses is that the brutal campaign process, with its two years of nearly constant media abuse and "gotcha" watch-dogging, serves mainly to select out any candidate who is considered anything like a threat to the corrupt political establishment – and that selection process is the only thing that has kept this race close.

Barack Obama is hardly a complete Wall Street stooge. The country's most powerful bankers seem genuinely to hate his guts, mainly because they're delusional and are sincerely offended by anyone who dares to even generally criticize them for being greedy or ethically suspect, as Obama has with his occasional broadsides against "fat cat bankers" and so on.

On the other hand, Obama's policy choices in the last four years have made it impossible for him to run aggressively against the corruption and greed and generally self-obsessed, almost cinematic douchiness that Romney represents.

With 300 million possible entrants in the race, how did we end up with two guys who would both refuse to bring a single case against a Wall Street bank during a period of epic corruption? How did we end up with two guys who refuse to repeal the carried-interest tax break? How did we end with two guys who supported a vast program of bailouts with virtually no conditions attached to them? Citigroup has had so many people running policy in the Obama White House, they should open a branch in the Roosevelt Room. It's not as bad as it would be in a Romney presidency, but it comes close.

How can I even argue with this? Our political system is completely broken, and I am not sure it can be salvaged anymore thanks to the legalized bribery of public officials.

If Obama Loses Nevada, He Will Lose the Election

It's that simple. Nevada, a red state when I moved there 28 years ago and trended blue when I moved from there two years ago, has picked the president in EVERY election since 1964.

Mitt is popular with Republicans down there. He won the caucus back in 2008 when the GOP race was more hotly contested than this past election year. One should not overlook the sizable Mormon vote in the state.

Etc.

Obituary: Jon Lord, 71, a co-founder of the rock band Deep Purple, lost his battle against pancreatic cancer although the official cause of death a pulmonary embolism.

He remained with the group until his retirement in 2002. Lord played keyboard with the band. The original lineup was perhaps the best in the group's history.

An example of his playing during the early years in this instrumental:



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Obama has his work cut out for him to carry Nevada this time. Washoe County, suffering horribly from the economy, will play a key role in his re-election or lack of it.

Nevada has picked every single president since 1964.

The Las Vegas area suffered the most, but Reno was not far behind. And economists and local officials say much of the damage to Reno-area tourism is probably permanent.

Unlike Las Vegas, with its international reputation, Reno has always been more of a regional attraction, drawing tourists from Northern California and the Pacific Northwest. With the advent of large, full-service Indian casinos in Northern California, many of those tourists have no reason to visit anymore.

Bill Eadington, an economics professor and director of the Institute for the Study of Gambling and Commercial Gaming at the University of Nevada, Reno, said his studies showed that gambling revenues from tourists in Reno declined by two-thirds between 1990 and 2010.

And, he added, "The business isn't going to come back."

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