I say yes, you say no, OR People are Strange

In Florida, Obama leads by 47,000 votes but the Miami Herald reports that absentee ballots are still being counted - there are about 20,000 of them. If Romney were to win all of those ballots, Obama would still lead but state laws would mandate a recount - that is my understanding, at least.

Trend from the sore losers...........the word humble and humility. Apparently some think our President needs to humble himself before them for some reason I can't fathom. Methinks they want to paint a picture of the President approaching them hat in hand to beg their cooperation.



Sadly given some of the comments from the wing nuts, the gridlock in congress will continue and little may be accomplished. They will take no accountability for it. 2016 needs to see another Democratic administration or there is little hope that the Republican Party will ever push the whack jobs and fear mongers to the curb.

RR - I wish we could tax the Rich in Texas for California's problems.  It was the Enron debaucle we are still struggling our way out from under.

Since this is a bi(+)national thread, thought I'd cut and paste this from an (American) friend's FB status:

Foreign Policy magazine (11/12): "Sometime this past summer, the average net worth of Canadians surpassed that of Americans. Adding insult to injury, Canadians have universal health care and a lower unemployment rate too. But you know what really makes it sting? They barely even worked for it. The average employed Canadian works 85 hours fewer each year tn the average American."

Canadian sisters, please don't gloat too much!  (I was actually quite surprised by the net worth statistic, which I hadn't seen before.  I assume it's because Canada wasn't hit as hard by the housing crisis.  Does that sound right?  Were you in Canada aware of this stat?)

Linda

In teresting NYT piece of GOP analysis of why they lost - they can't agree, as usual:

Senator John Cornyn of Texas, the chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, captured the feelings of many Republicans when he said in a statement that “we have a period of reflection and recalibration ahead for the Republican Party.”

“While some will want to blame one wing of the party over the other,” Mr. Cornyn said in a statement, “the reality is candidates from all corners of our G.O.P. lost tonight. Clearly we have work to do in the weeks and months ahead.”

There was no shortage of theories — sometimes contradictory — from inside and outside party in the first hours after the 2012 elections.

Some analysts and Republican strategists argued that the party could not win while alienating the growing Hispanic vote with its tough stance on immigration, could no longer afford to nominate candidates who fired up its conservative and Tea Party wings but turned off the more moderate voters in general elections, and that it had to find ways to win more support from women and young voters. But some conservatives took the opposite view, arguing that Mitt Romney had been essentially too moderate, a candidate who had won the minds if not the hearts of the party’s base.

But a number of Republican strategists who have worked on recent presidential campaigns argued that demography is destiny, and that the party was falling out of step with a changing country.

John Weaver, a Republican strategist who worked on the presidential campaigns of Senator John McCain and Jon M. Huntsman Jr., has long argued that the party’s reliance on the votes of older white men was putting it on a demographically unsustainable path.

“We have a choice: we can become a shrinking regional party of middle-aged and older white men, or we can fight to become a national governing party,” Mr. Weaver said in an interview. “And to do the latter we have to fix our Hispanic problem as quickly as possible, we’ve got to accept science and start calling out these false equivalencies when they occur within our party about things that are just not true, and not tolerate the intolerant.”

......

But not everyone was urging the party to run to the center. “No doubt the media will insist that Republicans must change, must sprint to the center, must embrace social liberalism, must accept that America is destined to play a less dominant role in the world,” Fred Barnes wrote on the blog of The Weekly Standard. “All that is hogwash, which is why Republicans are likely to reject it. Their ideology is not a problem.”

“But there is also a hole in the Republican electorate,” he continued. “There aren’t enough Hispanics. As long as two-thirds of the growing Hispanic voting bloc lines up with Democrats, it will be increasingly difficult (though hardly impossible) for Republicans to win national elections. When George W. Bush won a narrow re-election in 2004, he got 44 percent of the Hispanic vote. If Romney had managed that, he would have come closer to winning. He might even have won.”

And Erick Erickson made this plea at RedState.com: “Just please, G.O.P., PLEASE — in four years let’s not go with the ‘he’s the most electable’ argument. The most electable usually aren’t.”

More here: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/08/us/politics/obama-victory-causes-republican-soul-searching.html?hp

And there it is -- the burgeoning civil war in the Republican Party.  Crazies on one side and pragmatists on the other.  Right now the crazies seem to outnumber the pragmatists.  And you know, I forgot about Huntsman as a potential leader ... but he may be tainted by Romney's version of Mormonism.  And the party may not want him because of his Mormonism (tagged by Romney).  And Huntsman is relatively moderate (as compared to the bagger wing).  Huntsman is about the only Republican I can think of who I would be willing to hear what he has to say.

L

(((R_R))) . . . so sorry about your father-in-law. 

At its best, this site really does offer that kind of lifeline, doesn't it?  Very glad it helped you feel less alone.

Linda

Lewing - let the Mods delete your message if they must. Never bow to pressure to delete your truthtelling. And if they were to request as much, I would hope they (meaning Next Door thread members) would have the bigness to do so in public (not going to happen, I know.....)

Athena - you might as well put that back on ignore.  They don't understand how these things work.  FEMA is not an "army of government men."  And I'm sure Chickadee could address this particularly....I work within an agency that has their mini-FEMA structure (though we originated what FEMA uses, so I should say "the" structure, for emergencies).  They use armies of govt men and women, actual Armies, volunteers, but also many many private entities.  They coordinate between all of these entities and between governments at different levels.  I hate the ignorance, but finally America does too.  Ignore.

Edited: And ofcourse, volunteers will also work, on their own, or as adjunct to any government structure that is facilitating in any geographical area.  The beauty of it is the structure that holds it together and makes things happen in an efficient way.

Just got back from my all-clear colonoscopy! Yay! Now I don't have to go back for 5 years! Had a bacon, egg, and cheese biscuit from McDonalds on my way home. I was sooooo hungry!

Now, I'm going to nap for awhile. 

I've really enjoyed reading the election discussion here. I know I don't say much, but that doesn't mean I'm not devouring every word. 

Thanks for being there!

Mary

Congrats Mary! One thing about that miserable procedure is you really enjoy your first meal afterwards!

White House link (meaning, the communists haven't destroyed it) on how to give of your private means to help Sandy victims:

http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2012/10/31/how-help-survivors-hurricane-sandy

Oh, RR, I am so sorry about your FIL.  It must be so very difficult for your husband as well.  You aren't alone -- we are right here with you.  I'm glad we can provide some distraction ... I always feel better when I come here and to my friends on FB to talk about things like this and know that we are not alone.

I, too, love our reasoned and thoughtful discussions here.  I think that our discussions about "whither the Republican party" are going to be very interesting as we watch them struggle for a meaningful place in the political culture of this country.  It will be fascinating to watch it play out.

And it will be wonderful and heartening to have you all here to celebrate the President's victories.  I expect this term will see even more great accomplishments!

Linda, Athena, I am not surprised that people who live in the alternate reality through the looking glass (which I imagine looks like a Salvador Dali painting!) are fully capable of twisting facts to suit their distorted world view.  I expect they are also simply ignorant, not bothering to look to see how FEMA and the Red Cross and private disaster relief organizations function together as a multiplier of each other's efforts.  Sad, really -- to be so selfish and shortsighted that they cannot see good in anything that their Fox masters don't bless.  Vitriol and bitterness from losing overflow.  Thanks to those trying to set it to rights.

L

No worries, Athena - I was OK deleting the post to keep the peace in this instance.  I thought it might be OK to respond directly (it certainly felt more mature!), but if feelings are too raw, then that's OK. 

I just wish that anyone who thinks there's some sort of contradiction between voting for Obama and supporting private relief efforts could be here in Park Slope, where the President probably got 99.98% of the vote (I hear rumors there are a couple of Republicans over on 10th St) and there has been a truly amazing outpouring of direct, voluntary, hands-on action in support of our neighbors in Red Hook, Coney Island, Staten Island the Rockaways and elsewhere. 

Linda

Oh, Mary, I forgot -- congrats on the all-clear!  I love that first bite of something good after a colonoscopy -- I hate, hate, HATE to be hungry!  Enjoy your nap!

L