The Election Thread

[Serephino]

Actually, if you look at how Massachusetts voted, I think we just dodged a big bullet.  Those people had the man for governor, and only what, 38% wanted him as President?  That's... sad...  I guess enough people felt like I did and didn't appreciate being  thrown under a bus for political gain, because that's what happened.  The Republicans did everything they could to keep it so President Obama couldn't get anything done, then gleefully pointed out how little he got accomplished during the campaign.  Real people suffered because of that, and I'm really glad it didn't pay off for them.

[Callie Del Noire]

Think this put a bullet in Mitt's career or will we see him running again around March or May?

[Avis habilis]

Dude, I'm afraid the 2016 cycle starts today.

[Valerian]

Dude, I'm afraid the 2016 cycle starts today.

Yes, true, sadly.  Unless they arrest Walker soon, he'll be trying his best to get in on that action.  *shudder*

Overall, though, judging by how the GOP treated people like Palin and Bush, Jr., I'm thinking Romney's done for, yep, though I can't imagine he'll accept that calmly.

I'm pretty sure they also won't support Tommy Thompson running for anything again, thank goodness.  Those years as a lobbyist destroyed every last shred of his integrity.  But as a rule, the Republicans seem to have a habit these days of discarding their failures and pretending they never happened.

[gaggedLouise]

Short of going to jail and having your family turn your back on you, losing a U.S. prez election is probably one of the hardest come-down defeats one could ever face. The stakes and the effort being what they are, it would leave anyone drained and aching now and then for a long time.

Dude, I'm afraid the 2016 cycle starts today.

Just saw a neo-con troll at IMDB saying that when Obama has been in power four more years and "spent money like an obese 19-year old black chick" and driving the USA into the ground, Marco Rubio will come in and clear things up. Yes, the next round will be on soon.

[LunarSage]

"spent money like an obese 19-year old black chick"

How does that even make sense?  o.O

[gaggedLouise]

Racism, I suppose. Of course that guy didn't miss the chance of bolding "Hussein" and hinting that Obama would be selling the nation out to the muslims. 

[LunarSage]

I like to point out Snopes to the people who think Obama is a Muslim (not that it would matter if he was), his birth certificate is fake or that he passed 923 Executive Orders in four months. 

[ReijiTabibito]

Most presidential candidates have had the decent courtesy to take their one shot, and if they miss, then they don't bother running again.  Take Al Gore.  Gore ran against Bush in 2000, but did we see Al Gore for President in '04?  No.  So, as long as Romney is willing to uphold the tradition, then I don't see him running in 2016.

My personal guess for the Right's '16 candidate?  Gov. Christie.  They were really trying to pull him in to replace Romney, and this whole thing that just happened with Sandy might be what he uses as proof that he can work with 'the other side.'

Even though the other side is still made up of people, and everyone should be working together towards the common goal of putting America back on track.

[Valerian]

Some people are guessing that Paul Ryan ( ) will be a popular choice in 2016, though I can't imagine why.

The VP pick for any presidential ticket is supposed to guarantee that person's home state.  Instead, Wisconsin voted for Obama 52.8% to 46.1%.  (Yay!)  Two of the three counties that are wholly in Ryan's congressional district voted for Obama.  And despite outspending his congressional opponent, Rob Zerban, by about four to one, he kept his congressional seat with 54.9% of the vote to Zerban's 43.4%.  Compare this, however, with Ryan's own predictions (he did his own polls because I guess he didn't like the real ones that showed the race was closer).  In June he predicted he'd win 63% - 29%, and in September he was claiming 58% - 33%.

Ryan lost a lot of ground because Zerban was out actually talking to people, whereas Ryan barely set foot in his own district throughout the race, also flatly refusing to debate Zerban, even though Zerban collected 50,000 signatures from Ryan's constituents asking him to do so.

Even so, I almost hope they do try to run him for president.  He'd get flattened.   

[Skynet]

Just saw a neo-con troll at IMDB saying that when Obama has been in power four more years and "spent money like an obese 19-year old black chick" and driving the USA into the ground, Marco Rubio will come in and clear things up. Yes, the next round will be on soon.

The neo-con might not be trolling; she/he might genuinely mean it.

[Serephino]

We didn't see much of Paul Ryan in this election, and I don't think we'll see much of him ever again.  Seriously, he was nominated, appeared with Romney a few times, did that one debate, and then... nothing...  When it got close to election time he was shoved in a closet, probably because of his extreme views.  Romney was, after all, trying to pander the moderates and independents. 

I hoped the GOP would get flattened, and I hoped, and still do, that they learn a lesson from this.  The huge sums of money didn't help them.  Kissing tea party ass didn't help them.  They need to put on their big boy panties and realize they have to adapt with the times, and actually learn what compromise means again.  On Anderson Cooper live this morning they were talking about how some of them have popped their heads out of their asses to announce it's spring, and they realize they alienated younger people and minorities.   

[Stattick]

I think that's an image of Mitt just before he went out to give his concession speech. I can't tell, since I can't read the article it came with.






At any rate, if that pic is what I think it is, I don't think we're going to be hearing from Mittens any time soon.

[Oniya]

Google translate does a pretty fair job with it.  The article talks about all the things that went wrong with Mitt's campaign, and how even his own party was critical of him.

[Callie Del Noire]

We didn't see much of Paul Ryan in this election, and I don't think we'll see much of him ever again.  Seriously, he was nominated, appeared with Romney a few times, did that one debate, and then... nothing...  When it got close to election time he was shoved in a closet, probably because of his extreme views.  Romney was, after all, trying to pander the moderates and independents. 

I hoped the GOP would get flattened, and I hoped, and still do, that they learn a lesson from this.  The huge sums of money didn't help them.  Kissing tea party ass didn't help them.  They need to put on their big boy panties and realize they have to adapt with the times, and actually learn what compromise means again.  On Anderson Cooper live this morning they were talking about how some of them have popped their heads out of their asses to announce it's spring, and they realize they alienated younger people and minorities.   

Till the moderate Republicians can leverage control of the party from the old leadership who are so willing to sell their souls to keep control of the party long past the point where they took control from their predecessors. In fighting to keep control of the party they have mortgaged their principals and let scum like Karl Rove to evolve to 'help' them

[ShadowFox89]

ELECTION SPECIAL: Barack Obama Singing Can't Touch This by MC Hammer

[Vekseid]

Racism, I suppose. Of course that guy didn't miss the chance of bolding "Hussein" and hinting that Obama would be selling the nation out to the muslims. 

Kind of like people taking that extra effort to glorify the Constitution as it was originally written, ranting about the 14th amendment.

[Stattick]

[ShadowFox89]

 It's funny, because in Tim Allen's current show he's playing a hardline conservative....

[Oreo]

Glad California passed that one a while back. It's been put to good use here. <_< Not for me, but other family members. I was following the National Geographic story of what was happening in that Colorado town and the ambitious ex-sheriff (edit, I think it was the mayor upon reflection). I gave out a big whoop for the family when the Colorado legalization passed.

[Teo Torriatte]

A fuck awesome tweet from Alec Baldwin-

"You know your party is in trouble when people ask did the rape guy win, and you have to ask which one?"

[Valerian]

We've got two elections that still aren't officially over.  There's a state assembly race where the Republican candidate has claimed victory, but his opponent hasn't yet conceded because there's a difference of just 114 votes and the official results aren't yet entirely tabulated.  There will almost certainly be a recount there.

And state senator Jessica King (D), who won in the recall election, hasn't yet conceded to Republican Rick Gudex, who has 590 more votes.  Sadly, that one probably won't change, though, unless something odd happened.  I'm alarmed because Gudex looks to be not just ultra-right-wing, but so scary ultra-right-wing he refuses to detail his stance on just about everything.  He wouldn't let votesmart.org post anything about him, and he also deleted his own web page where he talked about his views on the issues.  This isn't the district I live in, but I'm still crossing my fingers for this to turn out to be an error of some kind... even though that probably won't be the case.  I don't think there are a lot of electronic voting machines in that area, for instance. 

[Stattick]

[Callie Del Noire]

And what pray tell is that supposed to show us?

[Oniya]

That correlations between unrelated things can be found if you look hard enough.  Like Redskin home games and presidential elections.