respublica

Electoral college maps-final 2004

                           

Bush 286  Kerry 252  via Yahoo news  Finally New Mexico is red.

                         

Red State/Blue State by county.  How did your county vote?   Check out Alaska...No Blue.  Same for Oklahoma, looks like Kansas almost made it all red.

Carville rehashes for St. Louis

James Carville came to St. Louis yesterday and spoke twice, to the students and faculty of Maryville University and at Powell Symphony Hall as part of the university's featured speaker series.

His television brashness was missing and a sort of resigned depression took its place.  However, his remarks did echo the thoughts of the democratic letter writer which is found directly below this.  Neither man is clenching their fists, scrunching up their brows and muttering about values, morals, evangelicals.  While they are both on the same page, the question will come down to how they change their party to make it viable to voters across the country.  Let's be honest, there is a resentment against East Coast pretensions.  A James Carville quote from yesterday:

The Democrats' message? It was all over the board, Carville indicated. They talked about everything from war to stem cell research, he said.  "We need to get off the somewhat correct perception that we're an accumulation of interest groups," he said.

Echos of the letter to the editor, no?

Calling Mary Poppins

We love to laugh
Loud and long and clear
We love to laugh
So ev'rybody can hear
The more you laugh
The more you fill with glee
And the more the glee
The more we're a merrier we!

This may be the result of election fatigue, but have a look. Join Mary Poppins and Bert in singing: We love to laugh. via Frank at IMAO

Head scratching the election results

I was watching MSNBC often and on yesterday and so much of the news panel discussions were centered around the Bush electorate. The feeling seemed to be that his victory was due in large part to millions of what they were describing as "Evangelicals" or the church goer voters. The belief on the part of the experts was that many of these people did not vote in 2000, but did this time and that made the difference.

I don't know, not being an expert in election statistics and the truth may not be available for some time, but I do know this just from reading the paper today. Bush received 44 percent of the Hispanic vote as opposed to 35 percent in 2000. He also received 16 percent of the African American vote up 7 percent from 2000. Those two groups alone would have made the difference in his margin of victory nationwide. Just a thought, the postmortems by those who do this for a living will come later.

Quotables

A couple quotes from around the Daily Show regarding the election.

New York senator Chuck Schumer: "The problem with increased turnout was that it came from all these places you never heard about that had churches." My thought "oh brother"

He also said: "That instead of Will and Grace, conservatives want "More Bonanaza reruns."
Jon Stewart, the host, had said: "I think its revenge for liberals controlling the TVs." Ah, he admits it.
And the lightbulb goes off in Stewart's head: "The big shock is that there is more of that than everyone realized. The thought process that maybe the country doesn't agree with what a lot of us assume are bedrock values."

Last weekend my whole family met up in Chicago to see my father get an award for being a long time church and community volunteer. My Kansas sister, who is also a strong democrat, was describing how funny she finds the Daily Show. I was annoyed by this in an affable way, but because I was in high anxiety mode over the impending election couldn't enjoy the humor. Today is different. It's pretty funny now. note: No family feuds, just interesting conversation.

From the show's web site: There ain't no way the Daily Show's going to be making erroneous predictions this time around.

Recap from the Horserace

Sometime this evening, Jay, over at the Horserace site is going to have his final reflections on the election and polling and all the rest. I have been bragging on him for about a week now and he deserves the national spotlight. He is one of the few who have had a darn good view of how the presidential race was falling out as well as good analysis on how he arrived at it. He calmed me down big time yesterday afternoon when I heard all the pro Kerry exit polls. And, I think he is an Illinois guy. Even better. Give him another look or a first look.

President Bush

One Country, One Constitution, One Future that binds us.

It's pretty official

George W. Bush wins 4 more years. Congratulations to him.

Senator Kerry concedes. I respect him for that. For not dragging the country into a 2000-like quagmire. Congratulations to him. Now lose that jacket.

This is how we feel today

What are they saying?

Quick links to interesting views of yesterday's election results. Have a look.

From Vodkapundit: The Gloating List

Ann Althouse. If you don't read Ann Althouse you are missing some of the best writing on the internet.

Alarming News: "Young people don't vote." "The pollsters don't know anymore than you or I do, maybe less." Excellent wrapup piece.

Truth Laid Bear: Memo to Senator Kerry

Daily Kos: Democratic blog. Interesting reflection on the aftermath of the election.

Dick Morris: He's a little too over the top for me, most of the time, but I like what he has to say about yesterday's disasterous exit polling data. "It takes a deliberate act of fraud and bias to get an exit poll wrong.' "But these exit polls were wrong. And the fact that they were so totally, disastrously wrong is a national scandal."

What does the Daschle loss to Thune look like from South Dakota? Enjoy this from South Dakota Politics!

Much much more later, check back.