The Election: Interesting and Dangerous Times Ahead

I have been asked why I haven’t written anything about the recent election. There are several reasons. Some personal, such as very busy with work, and some repairs that were needed due to a summer storm but the main reason is that I didn’t want to be a reactionary or defeatist about the election and what it meant and what it means.

First, Barack Hussein Obama won the election. He is to be congratulated. He’s won the largest victory margin of any Democrat since Lyndon B. Johnson. Bill Clinton never reached 50% in his two elections. Jimmy Carter barely beat Gerald Ford in 1976. So this was a clear victory for Obama.

Republicans were generally wiped out across the country, but not with the same difference in spread as the Obama win over McCain. For instance, in my own district, Tim Walberg lost to Mark Schauer by a very small margin. I went to bed on election night with Walberg winning, but when I woke up in the morning, Schauer had won. It’s this way across the country, with a few exceptions. I give the credit for that to Obama. Had the election been similar to the Clinton elections, I believe that Republicans wouldn’t have lost as many seats. The margin would still have been close, but many would have been reversed with the Republicans maintaining their seats. You may feel differently, and that’s fine. It’s just my opinion that Obama brought the Democrats over the finish line with his wider than expected margin of victory.

Obama should have won this election handily. In that, I think he failed. John McCain is not a conservative. I’ve been saying this since the Michigan primary back in January. It still holds true. John McCain is a moderate. Remember, this is a man that was tempted to leave the Republican Party in 2000. He was also considering running as John Kerry’s Vice Presidential candidate in 2004. He’s been a co-sponsor on campaign finance reform (those limits proved successful, eh?), immigration reform and others. Remember McCain/Feingold? McCain/Kennedy? McCain/Lieberman?

It amazes me that the Republicans chose McCain as their candidate after his complete failure in immigration reform. He wanted amnesty and the people of this country rose up and defeated it. If the people hadn’t spoken by their own choice when writing, faxing and calling their elected officials in opposition to the immigration reform package, we’d be operating under a completely different system.

Does all of this mean that I voted for Obama? Absolutely not! The decision I made prior to the Republican National Convention was that I would hold my nose and vote for McCain because Obama would be (and now will be) worse for this country than McCain. But something changed. At the Convention, McCain chose Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate.

My vote then became a vote for Palin and McCain just happened to be on the ticket as well.

We’re in for some fun, as well as dangerous times for this country in the next four years, but one thing is certain. This will be an interesting four years.
Your comments are welcome.

Brett