Mixed Bag - Glad it's over edition

Wow, what an election. When you look all the way back to the start of it and think of how far it's come, it really was an unbelievably interesting election for the last year and a half. On top of that it was a historic election which ultimately saw the first African American President, but also saw the first serious female candidate, and also saw the first vice presidential candidate to have ever hunted wolves from a helicopter.

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First off, congratulations to anyone that voted for, worked for, supported, donated to or advocated on behalf of Barack Obama. Last night was the culmination of a campaign that was the most remarkable campaign in recent history. The most remarkable thing about the campaign was that it didn't have any leaks unless they were deliberately misleading (see fundraising totals/New York Times). As remarkable as the campaign was, the candidate was better.

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I thought John McCain was gracious in his remarks, in the end, he went out with his dignity. I was sarting to feel bad for him late in the campaign, because he clearly reached for the ring and compromised his principles to get it. Things got out of control and caused for more reaching. In the end, I doubt ANY republican could have come closer to winning than McCain did. That said, If he didn't pick Palin, I suspect he would have been closer.

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Speaking of Miss Wasilla, unlike McCain, I hope this one doesnt go out with dignity in tact. Today the post mortems began as it was revealed that Randy Scheunemann was fired for leaking infromation to the press about her aides not handling her right because he fell in love, I mean befriended Sarah during the debate prep. Also, more stories about the shopping spree are more amusing than the initial stories like this one from Newsweek:

One senior aide said that Nicolle Wallace had told Palin to buy three suits for the convention and hire a stylist. But instead, the vice presidential nominee began buying for herself and her family—clothes and accessories from top stores such as Saks Fifth Avenue and Neiman Marcus. According to two knowledgeable sources, a vast majority of the clothes were bought by a wealthy donor, who was shocked when he got the bill. Palin also used low-level staffers to buy some of the clothes on their credit cards. The McCain campaign found out last week when the aides sought reimbursement. One aide estimated that she spent "tens of thousands" more than the reported $150,000, and that $20,000 to $40,000 went to buy clothes for her husband. Some articles of clothing have apparently been lost. An angry aide characterized the shopping spree as "Wasilla hillbillies looting Neiman Marcus from coast to coast," and said the truth will eventually come out when the Republican Party audits its books.

Note: also worth going to the Newsweek article for the story on both campaigns having their computers hacked.

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The psot mortems will begin to focus on the winners and losers of the campaign, my lead candidates for losers are Fox News, Matt Drudge, Joe Leiberman, Appalachia (more on that later), and lastly and most lasting, the GOP.

The GOP in particular is taking it's well deserved beating. They need to lick their wounds and decide the future direction of their party. That may sound like it is overstating since the Democrats had to ask themselves the same things after 2004, but in the GOP's case it is far more serious. The two largest growing voter blocks are youth/first time voters and Hispanics. Both groups are rejecting the GOP in such large numbers that it is hard to see that changing without a sharp new course for the party. Their first steps should be to look at their embrace of scoical conservatism.

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I love this map. Blue areas voted higher percentages for Obama than Kerry and red went more for McCain than Bush. Okay, southern Louisiana I can understand because that area went through a drastic population shift after Katrina. Look at Arkansas, Tennessee, West Virginia,south west Virginia and barely touching south western Pennsylvania and south eastern Ohio. I wonder what is happening in those areas (which include Real Virginia and the patriotic portions of our country. Or maybe there are a lot of people that don't like the idea of voting for a black President. I wonder indeed.

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In case your rationale for liking Sarah Palin is that she must be reasonably smart, she got elected Governor, consider this.....Alaska just voted for a 85 year old convicted felon. Maybe they are tired of trying to secede from the union and are hoping that we will kick them out.

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Lastly, I hope that President Obama makes a serious effort to reach across the aisle even though with expanded majorities it is not necessary. Obama will need to reign in Reid and Pelosi's attempt to rule by acclimation and ignore the Republican's as the GOP did to them during the early part of this decade. One only needs to look at last nights results to see that the public wants the political parties to work together and end the permanent campaign. Obama won the election, but the mandate went to 'change'.