Election Results and Returns
Monday night Erin told me she wanted to watch the Comedy Central election night show, Indecision 2008, with Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert. When it came on I put that as one of the jump channels and flipped between Foxnews and CNN to see what the news agencies were reporting. Interestingly enough, Erin let me watch the returns (not exactly exciting) and Foxnews was far more liberal about awarding states (to Obama) than CNN had been most of the night. I started watching when most of the East Coast had finished and much of the Central States were reporting and before the Mountain States and definitely before the West Coast. As I watched, and Obama was already reporting about 200 electoral votes, I pointed out that California had 50+ (55 actually) electoral votes and all Obama had to do was win the west coast, which has gone Democrat since Reagan, and that with the early returns it was easy to state that Obama had won. Within a couple of hours, and after laughing our way through Indecision 2008, Obama went from about 200 electoral votes to nearly 300 when the west coast reported and the outcome is that he had an electoral landslide. This is what was expected for last night and it was interesting to watch it take place.
The event that really impressed me about the night was when John McCain, the maverick, got up in Arizona and in front of a crowd of supporters, announced that he’d been defeated and that the results were clearly in favor of Obama. When the crowd boo’d, he silenced them. And as he spoke he spoke of the need for the nation to get behind “his” president, President-elect Obama because it was time to support the man who won the election. Of all the things I’ve watched McCain do, this was, possibly, the best speech he has ever given. It was gracious, it acknowledged his defeat, it called his supporters to move forward in support of Obama, and it allowed the world to know that through this process a new leader had been chosen and that leader was going to get his support. I don’t recall either AlGore or John Kerry doing as much and their individual reactions resulted in the nation feeling a split between candidates and parties and having a real and leaving a feeling as though half the nation was disenfranchised. The outcome of McCain’s remarks is healing and as a result Obama taking over will be that much easier.
Yes, I am glad he won; but more, I am glad that things are starting off on the right foot to bring the nation back together.
John Hattaway | smokingpen | Alicia Grey | Clockwork Princess | Cassandra West
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