After Action Report

Congratulations to President Elect Barack Obama. May God grant him the wisdom to lead for the next four years, may God keep us and bless us as a Nation, as he has ever done, amen.

On a personal note, I will hold President Obama's feet to the fire, but I will not degenerate into the same kind of hysterical screechy ODS that was so typical of the left's reaction to George Bush's election and subsequent re-election. I have more respect for myself than that.

So, what have we learned?

The first thing I hope we have learned is that mavericky RINOs who delight in sticking their thumbs into their conservative base's eyes don't win elections. McCain's vote tally, even with the support of the PUMAs, was more than SEVEN MILLION less that George W. Bush won by in 2004. Sarah Palin's addition to the ticket, rather than being a drag, improved that figure slightly by giving conservatives something to vote for, but in the end it wasn't enough. I don't have any numerical evidence for that last line, but I do know of several people (myself included) who decided to support the Republican ticket only because of the selection of Sarah Palin as VP.

UPDATE: His Rottiness, Emperor Misha I, has the proof that you seek.

Hopefully the Republican party learns the lesson that they obviously failed to learn when they were banished back to the political hinterland from whence they came in 2006, and we will have actual conservatives (Palin/Jindal?) on the ticket for the next election cycle. If not, this will be another long walk through the political wilderness, and they will have earned every step of it. You own this one, RNC. Enjoy it.

The second thing that we have learned is that the projected huge youth vote once again failed to materialize. There was certainly some improvement, but even with that, coupled with the historic turnout of the black vote, Barack Obama was elected with only 400,000 more votes than George W. Bush won with in 2004. The net total is 3 and a quarter million less votes for this election than for the last. Some of McCain's missing seven million, I am certain, showed up to vote for Obama. The rest of the Republicans either stayed home or did not vote for a Presidential candidate. I base this assumption on the fact that the down ticket races did not see a huge increase in voter totals, either. The Democrats picked up some seats, as expected, but did not get the desired super majority. Also, since the third party candidates did not fare any better than they usually do, it's pretty evident that the Republicans did not come out to pull a lever for them either.

The third thing we have learned is that if you are a Democrat running for election in Pennsylvania you can call your prospective constituents all kinds of names, insult their honor and intelligence, and promise to bankrupt their biggest industry, and still get elected. Apparently the insults to their intelligence was, in large part, deserved. Barack Obama was elected despite his bitter, gun and god clinging remarks and Jack Murtha was re-elected despite his crucifiction of the Haditha Marines and his "my constituents are racist morons" remarks. Congratulations to the Keystone state, you have, as a group, won the coveted Electoral Idiocy Award.

Second runner up could still very well go to Minnesota. At the time of this writing, with a spread of only 500 votes or so, Norm Coleman and Al Franken (really?!?) are statistically tied for the Senate race. When the final results are tallied the judge (me, of course) will announce his decision.

UPDATE: Now it looks like the Democrats want to make up. That's nice. Hat tip to Sockless Joe over at Alabama In Between.