US Elections 2008: The Results, Voting Experience and Consequences

[Belinda]

So glad that Obama won he may not have much experience as people say,but his so called Vice President to be has much experience so he will get his help from him.

 

[TRIFORCE89]

Now that the Republicans are continuing their downfall, the Conservative movement, the Smaller Government movement, the liberty movement, the fiscal responsibility movement, the free markets movement, the GOP itself-all have been terminally damaged from the implosion of the Bush Regime.
I'm expecting this Democratic majority to last MUCH LONGER than 40 years-maybe even permanently! (forget the mantra from Karl Rove about a "permanent Republican majority"-any hopes of such were hosed long time ago by the Bush Regime and its tactics.)
According to "Digital Driver" at the Great Lakes Atrium forum (and another Libertarian, similar to me):


Anyways, with Obama now President-elect, maybe the nightmare caused by the Bush regime will finally end, but I'm not too confident that it will.

On to the state and local-level races...

Spoiler:

Diane Hathaway has been declared the winner of Michigan Supreme Court Justice. (I bet Mark Brewer at the Michigan Democratic Party is celebrating-the MDP has wanted Taylor out for years!) This also breaks the "conservative" (corporatist) 9-year long 'lock' in the State Supreme Court. Cliff Taylor was originally appointed in 1997 by then-Governor John Engler.
Roddis got 11%, better than I expected. (part of his votes stemmed from the fact that this campaign was very negative.)

In Congressional District 10, Candice Miller has been declared winner of re-election, 67% with 85% precincts reporting.

Both of Michigan's ballot proposals passed. Proposal 1 received 62%, while Proposal 2 received 52% (even though it lost the majority of counties, including Lapeer. Most of the heavier-populated counties passed it, including Genesee, Oakland, Macomb, Wayne, and Washtenaw).

In the 9th Congressional District, Knollenberg is out, Gary Peters is in. Early on as the vote returns were being received, some analysts speculated that some Republican-held county offices in Oakland County (which the 9th Congressional District serves) would be lost to Democrats. These included Sheriff Mike Bouchard and Executive L. Brooks Patterson (who endorsed Knollenberg). However, both these officers won by reasonable margins. Bouchard and Brooks Patterson are "household names" in Oakland County.
The 9th Congressional race was also quite negative-I saw numerous attack ads from both Peters and Knollenberg on Detroit area TV stations.
Controversial assisted-suicide doctor Jack Kevorkian got 2% of the vote.

Another GOP incumbent, Tim Walberg, lost to Democrat Mark Schauer 48 to 46%.

Of the few GOP Congressional candidates that won, Candice Miller appears to have got the most percentage-wise. (Miller is another "household" political name in Michigan-she was the Secretary of State from 1995-2002, and as I said in another thread, is a rumored candidate for Governor in 2010. Also, demographically, the 10th District is generally Republican-voting.)

The Democratic majority in the State House of Representatives, as expected, grew some more. Democrats will very likely also get the majority in the State Senate-up for re-election in 2010, every 4 years, with the Governor. All but a few of the incumbent Senators are term-limited out, including my district's senator (25th, Judson Gilbert, R-Algonac)

In my state House District, Republican Kevin Daley has won by 53% over Democrat Bill Marquardt.

Dana Miller (R) won the Lapeer County Treasurer spot over Democratic challenger Michelle Perry. Incumbent Treasurer Sally Eilerson (R) was voted out in the August 5 state primary.
Prosecutor Byron Konschuh won re-election.
A lot of the other county-level offices, including sheriff, clerk, and register of deeds, had Republicans running unopposed.
All seven of the County Board of Commissioners seats, one Democrat (which is my Commissioner), the rest Republicans, ran unopposed.


In a twist of irony, in Genesee County's Thetford Township Supervisor race, Republican candidate Clyde Howd won that seat over Democratic candidate Cynthia Hicks. (in general, Genesee County is heavily Democratic) Incumbent Supervisor Duke Hatchett (Dem) was ousted in the August primary election in a "very negative" campaign. (in the summer prior to the primary, I saw attack-ad yard signs saying "AX HATCHETT" with an ax falling on the name Hatchett!) In adjacent Vienna Township, the incumbent supervisor Anthony McKerchie (D) lost the primary election to Nancy Belill. McKerchie attempted to re-enter the race as a "write-in" candidate, but Belill won.
Both Hatchett and McKerchie faced recall attempts during their terms in office.
In fact, 13 of Genesee County's 17 townships had supervisor races, and 9 of them kicked out incumbents in the August Primary-including aforementioned Thetford and Vienna Townships.


http://abclocal.go.com/wjrt/story?section=news/politics&id=6489604&rss=rss-wjrt-article-6489604
http://www.mlive.com/clio/index.ssf/2008/10/cindy_hick_and_clyde_howd_duke.html
http://www.clickondetroit.com/politics/17895926/detail.html
http://www.clickondetroit.com/politics/17896065/detail.html
http://www.clickondetroit.com/politics/17889183/detail.html

I hope there's never a majority held for that long from any party - let alone permanently. That would be horrible. It's all about checks and balances.

 

[Aurafire]

I hope there's never a majority held for that long from any party - let alone permanently. That would be horrible. It's all about checks and balances.

As well as being horrible, it would never happen. In today's rapidly changing world, it's just not possible for a party to hold power for that long without the people becoming upset. Just look at the current cycle. Since 1984, power has switched four times, including Obama's win. No party since then has controlled the White House for more than 12 years.

 

[Guest123_x1]

I hope there's never a majority held for that long from any party - let alone permanently. That would be horrible. It's all about checks and balances.

As well as being horrible, it would never happen. In today's rapidly changing world, it's just not possible for a party to hold power for that long without the people becoming upset.

I would tend to agree with both of you but like I said, the Bush Regime damaged the GOP and the conservatives so badly with its hypocrisy, massive deficit spending, corporatism, statism, and relentless growth of government I can't even begin to describe it.

Worse yet-the previous Republican-majority Congresses went along with both Clinton and Bush to greatly expand the size of government and federal spending, when most of them campaigned for smaller government!

According to Ryan McMaken at LRC:

The Bush presidency killed the conservative movement. It went on life support in 2001, and finally dropped dead for good in 2003 after the war in Iraq began. Conservatives, who claimed Bush as their own, either actively cheered or were too spineless to oppose the greatest expansion of government power since FDR.

...Logically speaking, it is impossible to be both for small government at home and for empire abroad simultaneously. Eventually the conservatives had to choose one or the other, and they chose empire over liberty.

...Conservatism latched onto the popularity of libertarian ideals of small and controlled government, and proceeded to pile on an endless array of contradictory big-government theories of militarism, nationalism,and protectionism while endlessly peddling nostaligia for the good ol' days.

 

[JX Valentine]

I would tend to agree with both of you but like I said, the Bush Regime damaged the GOP and the conservatives so badly with its hypocrisy, massive deficit spending, corporatism, statism, and relentless growth of government I can't even begin to describe it.

So, on that note, any bets on whether or not a third party will pop up to replace the Republicans? I mean, that's what happened way back when in cases like this, right? Whigs ticked off their own members, so the Republican party was born as a splinter group. Republicans ticked off their own members in the mid nineteenth century, so the Democratic party (by old definitions) was born...

I mean, times are different now, so it's possible for the Democratic party to simply hold power for as long as you're predicting thanks to the weakened Republicans, but because we're so used to what is essentially a two-party system, I'm wondering if another party will come along from the people who are fed up with the Republican party but just aren't willing to join the Democrats. (As in, honest curiosity as to what people better versed in politics think about this idea.)

 

[GunSaberSeraph]

I think it's a fair trade-off. (I've always supported the thing with "everyone has roughly the same amount of money")


I just hope the Secret Service does a VERY good job protecting Mr.Obama =/
The ONLY thing I don't like about this is that for the next 4 years I'll have to listen to my grandfather whining about a black guy being president (and various other negitivity against Obama)

I was just talking to my friend about that, and his father said that if Obama were to get assassinated, then it would cause racial firestorm across the country. I have faith that the secret service will do a good job though.

 

[Extric]

I was just talking to my friend about that, and his father said that if Obama were to get assassinated, then it would cause racial firestorm across the country. I have faith that the secret service will do a good job though.

They better do. There's a group of KKK at my school and all day they were talking about how the hit on Obama's head got 10x larger than what it was before.

 

[Netto Azure]

=D

They better do. There's a group of KKK at my school and all day they were talking about how the hit on Obama's head got 10x larger than what it was before.

I hope secret service does their job. i'm SOOOO Happy on the Historic landslide Obama Win. ^_^ I'll comment more later.

 

[zsaberslash]

I'm just glad that it's all over, news programs here in Britain just wouldn't shut up about the election. ¬_¬

 

[Netto Azure]

Hmmm...

Now that we have had a day to celebrate, reflect, or digest President-Elect Obama's and the stronger Democratic Congress win. Let us talk about what the next administration should do on this nightmare of problems. =/ What should he tackle first as I have put up on the new poll.

How should he use his newfound international and political goodwill? Which major problem should be tackled first after the economy, Healthcare or the Environment? (Energy Independence)

 

[TRIFORCE89]

Well...the networks had a list of issues and how they ranked to voters and the economy was first and the environment was last. So, I would say he should tackle it in that order.

 

[Extric]

Even though I don't like it, I've accepted him as President. When he officially gets the office in January he might as well as start off with the Economy.

 

[bugbite250]

Whoops!

Election Results​

Barrack Obama has been declared presidential elect by winning 284 electoral votes.​

Actually 364 votes! Oh well. I was rooting for McCain...

 

[Guest123_x1]

about the poll

As for the issues mentioned in the poll above...first I think the new administration/regime will take up financial "reform" (which will be giving more power to the Federal Reserve and global elitists); environmentalism (which will be imposing carbon taxes and Wall Street-style cap-and-trade programs, mandates for even more ethanol production, among other things); education reform (which will involve universal preschool-through-doctorate, with mandatory full-day kindergarten and continued attendance through at least age 18 or high school graduation, whichever comes later, maybe as high as 21 and/or a bachelor's degree!); and health care (which will involve mandatory health insurance for all, just like Massachusetts, and HillaryCare II, and Ah-nold's proposal).


What they REALLY should be doing (but of course they won't):

• Rein in out-of-control federal spending and needless programs.
• Put an end to our imperialist foreign policy of toppling Middle East dictators to install puppet "democracies" in the name of "preventing another 9-11" and "promoting freedom".
• Change our proven to be disastrous boom-bust monetary policy-at least subject the Federal Reserve to audits (although I'd rather just have the FED shut down altogether-although an audit could very well be a first step to shutting this monster of a bank down for good.)
• Repeal all these so-called "free trade" agreements (NAFTA, CAFTA, PNTR) and withdraw from the WTO-all these agreements and organizations have done is promote one-sided preferential trade, blow up our trade deficit, and put us at even greater risk of "trade wars". (How can there even be free trade with multi-hundred page "agreements" and numerous provisions granting preferential treatment to certain "trade partners"?)

Here's just two things they definitely WON'T do:

• Repeal the HMO Act, repeal provisions in the tax code that unfairly gives preference to employer-provided health insurance over consumer-chosen plans. Also abolish all federal mandates for specific areas of health insurance coverage.
• Abolish the unconstitutional monstrosity known as the federal Department of Education. Where in the Constitution does it give the Federal government the authority to fund or regulate education? The more money they throw at schools, the worse things are-even though the political establishment and their friends in the mainstream media want you to believe that we need to keep spending more money on schools to "improve student achievement" and "be more globally competitive".

 

[Phixum]

I think the economy situation is the most urgent problem that requires an immediate response. If the economy gets better, health gets better too. That's because studies have shown that there's a linear trend between health of individuals and their socio-economic status. Improving the global (or at least American) economy will enhance the economic status of Americans, which would reflect on their health.

Terrorism and wars in the Middle East... I think this could be easily be solved by withdrawing the US army from the Middle East and not interfering with domestic relations.

 

[Red1530]

I hope secret service does their job. i'm SOOOO Happy on the Historic landslide Obama Win. ^_^ I'll comment more later.

While it is true that Barack Obama won in a landslide in the Electoral Collage, he did not in popular vote. The popular vote was 52.49% to 46.21 in favor of Obama. This article explains the concept of a landslide.

I am congraduating President-Elect Obama on his historic win and will hope he will goveren bi-partisanly.

 

[The Infinite Devil Machine]

Now, let's wait to see if anyone besides me actually LIKED of feels sorry for McCain!

~Mooshykris

I feel sorry for the man. He's given so much for the country he loves, and the purpose of his campaign was to serve again. He'll never have the chance now. Maybe he's not the right candidate for the office, but I have nothing but respect for him.

 

[Netto Azure]

Hm..yeah

While it is true that Barack Obama won in a landslide in the Electoral Collage, he did not in popular vote. The popular vote was 52.49% to 46.21 in favor of Obama. This article explains the concept of a landslide.

I am congratulating President-Elect Obama on his historic win and will hope he will goveren bi-partisanly.

Your right the Popular vote was close, about an 8 million vote difference. =/ But the Electoral College difference was great, No doubts like 2000 or 2004 =/ (He symbolically won North Carolina by a small margin)
But yes I hope he leads Bi-Partisanly because even though I might look heavily Liberal here, I'm still afraid of too much extremism. D=

 

[TRIFORCE89]

There's been some reports of Powell and even McCain being in his cabinet

 

[Netto Azure]

now....

There's been some reports of Powell and even McCain being in his cabinet

That's what I call Bi-Partisanship. XD Has anyone heard about "change.gov" ? Talk about using the Internet for transparency and taking comments. O_O