Elections 2012: BFP Watch Party

[Medusa]

I bet Linda McMahon feels like an asshole after trying to buy a Senate seat with 100 million of her own money.

[DMW]

In Florida there are 71228 votes not counted yet
and Obama leads by 47028...I wonder what precincts are not done?
I hope orange isn't counted in yet because that helps Obama significantly
with florida win.

Just kills me ...with a Republican Ohio gov and a Republican Florida gov..
It is so obvious how they tried to do it again.

Heitkamp in north dakota
Tester in Montana...
we need them
380 fillibusters or more in the senate in the last 6 yrs...so abbynormal
Mitch McConnell
and the house threatening to default on the American debt ceiling.
rediculous...
and we lost so many good moderates...
They don't sincerely care about americas future....the teaparty congress
ie...marco rubio...and need coffee
Boehner needs to bend over to the US not the new young teaparty congress
At least Toomey is out.
Is Ron Johnson of wisconsin still in the house?
God i miss Feingold

[princessbelle]

What a beautiful day!!!!!!! The air is a little lighter, the wind a little softer, the smiles a little brighter.

Our Guidance. Our leader. Our hope. Our President.

[ruffryder]

Originally Posted by DMW

In Florida there are 71228 votes not counted yet
and Obama leads by 47028...I wonder what precincts are not done?
I hope orange isn't counted in yet because that helps Obama significantly
with florida win.

...

Orange already went Democrat with 58.6 to Obama/40.5 Romney. Obama also won St Lucie, Hillsbourough, Palm Beach, Monroe, Alachua, Jefferson, and by a landslide Gadsden, Miami Dade, Leon, Osceola, and Broward. The news talked about Obama winning the Interstate 4 corridor and called him a winner due to that.

I believe they are pretty much done counting, not sure what is going on. Obama wins FL I believe. It' is showing 100% of the precints reporting and Obama at 49.8% to Romney 49.3%. It's more over 100,000 votes difference and should not bring a recount. Can't put it past this state, FloriDUH!

Barr got almost 8000 votes here!

[DMW]

Ruff....That is what i am thinkin'... that it is done....

So cool about Palm Beach too. Some of those counties....
God bless the Jewish people that live there.
and the Canadians that have duel citizenship.
ANd of course....the puerto ricans...for the other counties
Awesome
Thanks for the Info Ruffryder

Eric Cantor...he is another horrible republican congressman

The redistricting....has kept some of these republicans safe from being ejected.
Should be illegal. Because the majority of people in whichever state you want
to pick...would have voted against re-election..and would want these people out of congress.
But the redistricting...took those people out of those counties... therefore, the didn't get to vote the rotten eggs out .Should be illegal. Need new (fair) redistricting Laws established.

[dreadgeek]

1) The Southern Strategy of race -baiting is now dead. The GOP can never again do the wink and nod and use things like "we want to teach blacks how to work" as a way of gaining votes. The GOP will have to change its tune on immigration and send the Muslim-baiting folks like Bachmann (who won) and West (who didn't) into political Siberia.

2) The country has turned a corner on gay rights. We were running 0 for 32 until last night and we swept on marriage equality so we are now 4 for 32.

3) The end of the drug war may not be in sight but we just passed the beginning of the end of the drug war.

4) The pendulum has swung and America is now course-correcting back to a more liberal-centrist position.

5) The GOP is going to have to drop the anti-birth control insanity and they will have to moderate their anti-abortion stance.

Cheers
Aj

[pinkgeek]

In Hawaii we voted to make it so that if you are involved in redistricting you can't run for office for ____ period of time. It's not a perfect solution, but it's something. Hoping it passed!

Originally Posted by DMW

The redistricting....has kept some of these republicans safe from being ejected.
Should be illegal. Because the majority of people in whichever state you want
to pick...would have voted against re-election..and would want these people out of congress.
But the redistricting...took those people out of those counties... therefore, the didn't get to vote the rotten eggs out .Should be illegal. Need new (fair) redistricting Laws established.

[Sun]

Arizona is still counting the votes on the Senate race and I am hoping that Kyrsten Sinema will be the winner. The race is very close. 2,000 votes are left to be counted.

[DMW]

Originally Posted by ruffryder

Orange already went Democrat with 58.6 to Obama/40.5 Romney. Obama also won St Lucie, Hillsbourough, Palm Beach, Monroe, Alachua, Jefferson, and by a landslide Gadsden, Miami Dade, Leon, Osceola, and Broward. The news talked about Obama winning the Interstate 4 corridor and called him a winner due to that.

I believe they are pretty much done counting, not sure what is going on. Obama wins FL I believe. It' is showing 100% of the precints reporting and Obama at 49.8% to Romney 49.3%. It's more over 100,000 votes difference and should not bring a recount. Can't put it past this state, FloriDUH!

Barr got almost 8000 votes here!

This is what bothers me....
Voter Suppression

A stunning 23 percent of African Americans, the highest figure in the nation, cannot vote due to laws on felon disenfranchisement in Florida. Gov. Rick Scott (R) has made it harder for ex-felons to restore their eligibility and in 2011 signed a law cutting early voting days nearly in half. The result has been chaos during early voting in places like Miami-Dade County, where people have waited in line for as many as eight hours. Florida also has a photo ID law.

And then....the other votes that could have gone eitherway...
70,953 that didn't go to Obama or Romney that went to other candidates.


Right now,
The count is Obama leads by 47261
with 71278 left to be counted

which is a difference of 24017 votes...


I often wonder if the republicans pay and support other candidates to
take away from the dems...that is 70k plus votes.
or, to rig the machines to a loss. scramble the numbers etc..put em somewhere

It is a matter of priciple....that bothers me. the truths that exist and that are denied.

thank God for the majority population and that their votes got counted.

[pinkgeek]

For the 2nd time in my voting life I'm proud to have been raised mostly in America. No President is perfect and in a year most will be gripping, but this reelection means a step forward. It means we might win the fight against AIDS, it means marriage equality will continue to move forward, it means DOMA will go away, it means that the first election wasn't a fluke, it means Latino voters (all voters of color really) have gone from being the "one election voter group" to an irrefutably powerful demographic that the Republicans will never again try to ignore, it means all Americans will see some justice in health care. With my whole heart I believe the stage is set for the greatest era of civil rights and equality in American history.

[DMW]

Ey Oh....way to go OHIO

[nomedia="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HA56J8zlAdo"]The Pretenders - My City Was Gone - YouTube[/nomedia]

Love Chrissy Hynde...talent...pure talent

and another song
[nomedia="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_0vHvI3kms"]Chrissy Hynde and the City of Akron. - YouTube[/nomedia]

[DMW]

Awesome post!

Originally Posted by pinkgeek

For the 2nd time in my voting life I'm proud to have been raised mostly in America. No President is perfect and in a year most will be gripping, but this reelection means a step forward. It means we might win the fight against AIDS, it means marriage equality will continue to move forward, it means DOMA will go away, it means that the first election wasn't a fluke, it means Latino voters (all voters of color really) have gone from being the "one election voter group" to an irrefutably powerful demographic that the Republicans will never again try to ignore, it means all Americans will see some justice in health care. With my whole heart I believe the stage is set for the greatest era of civil rights and equality in American history.

[Martina]

Prop 30 -- a raise in income tax for those making over 250k -- passed. This is good news for education in California -- and good news for me.

[Zimmeh]

Omg!! You just had me cracking up laughing at work

Zimmeh

Originally Posted by Medusa

I'd load up a rocket launcher full of pissed-off honeybadgers and lob them at him while he wore one of those pink jumpsuits that he thinks is so awesome.

[Martina]

I just wanna say to all my white born again relatives, you will never ever have the power to decide the Presidency again. Demographic changes mean that you will never ever be able to impose your ignorant standards on others. You think that you are true Americans. You are not. No one running for President will be obliged to pander to you ever again.

You lost more than this election tonight. Your time is over.

Karl Rove, your day is over too. Genius, my ass.

edited to add -- Does anyone remember what hell the eighties were when the Moral Majority intimidated anyone running for election? Who could have imagined this day coming. Those folks will NEVER ever hold significant power on the national stage AGAIN.

[Kobi]

Originally Posted by dreadgeek

1) The Southern Strategy of race -baiting is now dead. The GOP can never again do the wink and nod and use things like "we want to teach blacks how to work" as a way of gaining votes. The GOP will have to change its tune on immigration and send the Muslim-baiting folks like Bachmann (who won) and West (who didn't) into political Siberia.

2) The country has turned a corner on gay rights. We were running 0 for 32 until last night and we swept on marriage equality so we are now 4 for 32.

3) The end of the drug war may not be in sight but we just passed the beginning of the end of the drug war.

4) The pendulum has swung and America is now course-correcting back to a more liberal-centrist position.

5) The GOP is going to have to drop the anti-birth control insanity and they will have to moderate their anti-abortion stance.

Cheers
Aj

Aj I love your brain but are you serious on this?

I am suspecting just the opposite. When the dust settles and they analyze what went wrong, the GOP is going to be back on the warpath with a vengence.

The reason? The close popular vote - last count I think was 48.8-48.4. Swing states, tho successful, were won by the hair on someones chinny chin chin. Thats still a shitload of hatred and division in a very polarized county.

Congress has the same composition with some new faces and there is no reason to think the stalemate of the last 4 years will end. And, I dont see an appreciable difference on the local level where the war on women and others is still being waged.

And, unfortunately, in 4 years, there will be no charismatic Obama leading the way. Biden is not an Obama. Hillary, I love, but she isnt an Obama and barring some unforeseen change of heart, this country is not ready for a woman to lead it.

On the other hand, the GOP has a lot of up and coming white male stars they have been and will be grooming and investing in. And, they now know to focus better on potential groups who may help push them over the top. They will not lay down.

Personally, I am going to enjoy the victory, but this was just another successful skirmish in a very big ideological war.

[Soon]

[dreadgeek]

Originally Posted by Kobi

[COLOR="Navy"]
Aj I love your brain but are you serious on this?

Serious as a heart attack Kobi. Now, I might be wrong that has happened more times than not but I don't think I'm wrong for a few reasons:

1) A number of true conservatives (as opposed to right-wing reactionaries who call themselves conservative) who have been talking about the GOP's demographics problem for a while now have already started the conversation about how to gain more minority voters. The percentage of the American electorate that is white keeps ticking downward. 74% in 2008, 72% in 2012 and on track for 70% in 2016. There's simply no mathematical way that the GOP can be nationally viable trying to court only the white vote and pealing off a few scattered black and Latino votes here and there. Mathematically impossible. Obama won 75% of the Latino vote (13% of the population) and 91% of the black vote (10%). That means that if the GOP continues going on as it has, it could lose substantial majorities of almost a *quarter* of the population. That's not total numbers, those are actual votes.

2) The GOP lost women voters by a full 19% on the national level. That's devastating. That can be tied to their stance on women's health issues, abortion, birth control and equal pay for equal work. They can't suffer that kind of thing again.

3) It's clear that the nation has moved on gay rights. We were 0 for 32 until last night and we were 4 for 4 in the cycle that finished yesterday. That's two of the pillars of the culture wars that the GOP can no longer rely on to push them over the top. Does that mean that America turns into queer nirvana tomorrow? No, it will be hard to be queer in Alabama for a long, long time to come. It does mean that the GOP is going to have to face the fact that the culture war is over and they lost.

The country is certainly as divided as you say it is and we will have contentious elections for some time to come but 2012 is the Republican's 1968. In that year, the Democrats lost badly an election that should have been winnable and five cycles later (1992) nominate Bill Clinton, a centrist Democrat. The GOP will win more elections and they will win more presidential elections but they have no choice but to change their tune. The consequences of the near total epistemic closure on the right is now coming home and from what I have read on conservative blogs that are sane (so not Drudge, Red State or WND) they are waking up to the fact that they did this to themselves.

Like I said, I might be wrong but I think we've seen a sea change in American politics.


Cheers
Aj

[DMW]

Update on Florida
this is interesting...
the counts on florida
now, obama leading romney 47261 and 50072 votes left to be counted

[JustJo]

I hope that dreadgeek is right...and I fear that Kobi is.

I'm beyond relieved and thankful that Obama won. Romney, and his crazy woman-hating, racist cohorts scare the crap out of me.

The worst thing, to me, is how freaking close this race was. The Republican platform was a call to hatred, to racism, and to repression.

And it was a close race.

That scares the hell out of me.

I hope that, in 4 years, the numbers will have shifted. I hope that the sane Conservatives (who I have no issue with) will figure out that they need to rid themselves of the insane fringe element of haters in their party.

I hope so.

I'm just not betting on it.

I'm not really celebrating....I'm breathing a sigh of relief. I feel like we just dodged a really big bullet, and we have a small reprieve.