Damn Obama is such a good speaker. I'm glad I waited up to hear his speech.
2012 Presidential Election Discussion
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Congrats America with the re-election of Obama
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we can all go to bed now
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worth the wait but i hear that. night AP.
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Bachman lost her leeeeeEEEEaaad, Bachman lost her leeeEEEEeeeaaad!
Now it just needs to keep trending that way.
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Great speech from Obama. Let's see how the next 4 years go..
Aaaaaand now I'm going to sleep.
powerslides out of the thread
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Kudos for Obama. Never doubted him.
For now, I'm just waiting on whether a California Prop 30 passes preventing deep cuts in my state's education budget or not. It's pretty nerve racking and the results are really close.
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Minnesota, 83% of the vote tallied, 51% are against ban on gay marriage and 49% for.
That margin has held for a long time now.
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OTHER STUFF
- Maryland, Washington, Maine voted for marriage equality; Minnesota voted not to ban it
- Akin and Mourdock were voted out
- Colorado and Washington legalized recreational marijuana usage; Massachusetts legalized medical marijuana
- First openly gay senator elected
- Puerto Rico might become the 51st state
Good luck to Californians with prop 30, hope that passes.
Nate Silver is going to be so smug after this, it'll be great.
Originally Posted by CCC
Man, woman, who cares!? Sure, they love show tunes, but who doesn't?
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Allen West also lost his race in Florida lol.
And mother of fuck if Bachmann is gone….
It's the perfect storm if so. -
OTHER STUFF
- Maryland, Washington, Maine voted for marriage equality; Minnesota voted not to ban it
Where is this one confirmed? I've seen the trending info, but nowhere has confirmed this lost yet. I'd REALLY like to see it confirmed as lost.
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Where is this one confirmed? I've seen the trending info, but nowhere has confirmed this lost yet. I'd REALLY like to see it confirmed as lost.
http://www.twincities.com/elections/ci_21945639/gay-marriage-amendment-too-close-call
Definitely trending towards a lose.Gov. Brown says prop 30 passed. Congrats Californians!
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http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2012/11/06/politics/elex-night-marriage-amendment/
Bachmann's race is still close and might trigger a recount; even if she does win, keep in mind that this was a district gerrymandered specifically to add Republican votes. Had it been her old district, she probably would have lost outright.
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Overall, I am happy with the way this election turned out. Three of the four candidates I wanted to see elected got elected, which is a small miracle in itself in the Hoosier state.
Opinions on said races after the spoiler:
! *Obama won a second term.
! Not my ideal choice, but a hell of a lot better than the alternative. I have issues with his defense policies involving drone strikes, his signing of NDAA, and I think the Affordable Healthcare act could have been better. However, "Obamacare" is a step in the right direction, I like his stance on easing student loan debt, and Joe Biden is one cool dude.
! *Donnelly won, which would have been a surprise had Murdock not gone all wonky and said that god wanted you to have that rape baby.
! I personally probably would have voted for Lugar had this Tea Party nut-ball not defeated him in the primary. Lugar was to the right of were I like to vote, but his tenure brought prestige and expediency to measures he would have introduced. He would work with Democrats on measures and refused to sign the Norquist tax pledge. Also, he had a great reputation for his work in pushing for nuclear weapons disarmament. I was sad to see him lose the primary because it meant that asshole Norquist had won and the advantages we had from his tenure and experience vanished in a puff of kooky tea party smoke.
! *John Gregg, who has a pretty sweet 'stache, got defeated by Pence for Indiana Governor. Also, Survivor Rupert Boneham ran as a libertarian candidate and wound up with 4 % of the vote.
! I was expecting Pence to win, but it was closer than I thought it would be. I would have liked Gregg to act as a buffer measure to the overwhelming Republican majority in the state legislature, thanks gerrymandering, but alas it was not to be. Also, did I mention a survivor contestant got 4% of the vote. This boggles my mind but to his credit Rupert did run a pretty decent platform based on prison reform and rehabilitation.
! *Finally, in what I consider the sweetest victory of all, Glenda Ritz defeated Tony Bennett for Indiana State Superintendent.
This was a race that was supposed to be in the bag for Tony who raised roughly $2 million to her measly $200,000. However, a huge grassroots campaign grew from the teaching community which spread to the parents because Bennet was royally trying to fuck over public school teachers. You know stuff like trying to limiting collective bargaining for the Indiana State Teachers Association, trying to introduce private school vouchers, and general shit that they use to undermine the public school system. Then after they do that they would point and say "Hey look how bad these public schools are becoming, let's privatize the whole shebang." Ritz has a sound plan to which surprisingly is mostly within her new powers without having to go through the current state legislature, which is kind of awesome. Also, Bennett was bitter as fuck in his concession speech which cements him even further as an unlikable asshole in my mind.
! So that's my thoughts on the few races I had to follow. -
Yes! He won! I'm really glad right now =D
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http://dailycurrant.com/2012/11/06/george-bush-accidently-votes-obama/
If this is true then loooooooooooooooooooooooooool
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Fuck yeah, America.
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@Thousand:
http://dailycurrant.com/2012/11/06/george-bush-accidently-votes-obama/
If this is true then loooooooooooooooooooooooooool
It's satire, sadly. Something of a second-rate The Onion.
Anyway, true to my promise, I'm drunk off my ass on a bottle of champagne with my best bro and his mom, watching Japanese game shows. Good times.
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@Monkey:
Maine legalized gay marriage!!!!!
AND I LIVE THERE!!!
GLORY TO THE UNION!!!!! -
Has Romney conceded yet? If not, I think I know what he's in for:
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Romney conceded around 1AM. It was a short speech and he looked relieved for this to be over.
http://elections.nytimes.com/2012/results/president
NYT says that with 100% of Florida precincts reporting, Obama has a narrow lead there, making it 332 to 206 EVs. I imagine once the West Coast finishes tallying, Obama will also have a narrow lead in the PV, although it's probably too much to ask for 47% of the PV to go to Romney. -
Aw. Part of me wanted to see him fight the losing battle; to watch him go down in smoke and fire like the Hindenberg along with the spirit of crazy conservatism, but I guess I'll take the victories in whatever form they appear, haha.
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Ok, Obama is cool and all, but the news that really impressed and intrigued me…
Puerto Rico wants to be a state?!?
How does the process work now that they've voted on it? -
Congress has to ratify it or whatever they call it (it's been a long night). It'll be interesting to see what the GOP does: accept PR into the union at the risk of even more Democratic voters or risk disenfranchising Hispanics and Latinos even more?
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Well, the GOP really can't alienate people any further, so they might as well admit PR.
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Obama winning is good. But the senate is now majorily democrat? That's great! Congratulations. Now things can really be changed right? Now Guantanamo bay can finally be closed for one. Very glad to hear this about weed and gay marriage. The US is already on the way to becomming a much better country it seems.
My mother was ridiculously worried about Romney winning, even though we're dutch, lol. She told me how she almost didn't dare to see the news. Last time Obama won everyone here was saying how happy they were about it, so I can safely say once again by far most of us Dutch are real happy for you Americans. Looking forward to seeing what's gonna change over there in the next 4 years. -
Obama winning is good. But the senate is now majorily democrat? That's great! Congratulations. Now things can really be changed right? Now Guantanamo bay can finally be closed for one. Very glad to hear this about weed and gay marriage. The US is already on the way to becomming a much better country it seems.
My mother was ridiculously worried about Romney winning, even though we're dutch, lol. She told me how she almost didn't dare to see the news. Last time Obama won everyone here was saying how happy they were about it, so I can safely say once again by far most of us Dutch are real happy for you Americans. Looking forward to seeing what's gonna change over there in the next 4 years.As long as the house remains republican, nothing will get changed. At least until gubernatorials in 2014. But we'll be fine.
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As long as the house remains republican, nothing will get changed. At least until gubernatorials in 2014. But we'll be fine.
Something has to change though for any sort of progress to be made in this country. Otherwise it's going to be two more years of standstills.
I still like to hope that it's actually possible for our two parties to work togetherand get the important shit done. -
@Cyan:
Well, the GOP really can't alienate people any further, so they might as well admit PR.
Except that to them, that would be adding a state that they would basically never be able to win.
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My mom and brother tried queueing in a voting line yesterday
Turned out it was a food line
At least they got some delicious hot dogs out of it
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The best argument against PR being admitted to the union is that the flag will have to change
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I don't know, that's a pretty compelling argument actually! Look at this beautiful thing:
Originally Posted by CCC
Man, woman, who cares!? Sure, they love show tunes, but who doesn't?
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I don't know, that's a pretty compelling argument actually! Look at this beautiful thing:
Obama, gay marriage, weed … did America become a hundred times cooler? Or is it just from that flag alone?
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This one works too:
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Don't think it's necessarily a given that PR would wind up being democrat. Well, assuming the republicans stop making it their job to make hell for Hispanic people. With that issue aside, most Latino values are rather conservative and would resonate well with republican values.
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Good to see that Obama won.
Not that Romney had much of a chance.
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Don't think it's necessarily a given that PR would wind up being democrat. Well, assuming the republicans stop making it their job to make hell for Hispanic people. With that issue aside, most Latino values are rather conservative and would resonate well with republican values.
That doesn't stop nearly every Hispanic bloc except for Cubans from voting heavily Democratic. And younger people in general tend to be Democratic than not.
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Congratulations with your new old president, parkers of America.
Right now the choice you made looks worth it.
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Not like there were very many viable alternatives anyway.
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Congrats Obama & Democrats. Four years ago on the night of the election I had a nightmare in which McCain won so I rushed to see the outcome when I woke up. Felt good back then. Feels good now.
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I don't know, that's a pretty compelling argument actually! Look at this beautiful thing:
Beautiful. A Globe full of Stars….
@CCC:
And I'll make Obama Brownies for the staff tomorrow. It will be beautiful.
Omgggg, I MUST see your Obama-Brownies! At least take a picture~~!!!
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Obama winning is good. But the senate is now majorily democrat? That's great! Congratulations. Now things can really be changed right? Now Guantanamo bay can finally be closed for one. Very glad to hear this about weed and gay marriage. The US is already on the way to becomming a much better country it seems.
My mother was ridiculously worried about Romney winning, even though we're dutch, lol. She told me how she almost didn't dare to see the news. Last time Obama won everyone here was saying how happy they were about it, so I can safely say once again by far most of us Dutch are real happy for you Americans. Looking forward to seeing what's gonna change over there in the next 4 years.in 2008 when Obama came in office didn't he have both house and senate majority?
Why didn't he close Guantanamo then? wasn't that the first thing he was going to do day 1 in office?
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Except that to them, that would be adding a state that they would basically never be able to win.
Except that the final ultimate slap to the face of Hispanics would be rejecting HISPANIC ISLAND, and than they would basically never be able to win also.
This is almost like an incredibly well written story. It near immediately pushes the next big story element right into contention that forces an either/or, both of which will be fascinating to watch.
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in 2008 when Obama came in office didn't he have both house and senate majority?
Why didn't he close Guantanamo then? wasn't that the first thing he was going to do day 1 in office?
There was some mess with how to deal with sending the inmates places. Since we didn't really want them on the mainland, so we had to look for other countries willing to take them or something. Which has proven incredibly hard.
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That isn't exactly true. The Democrats had the House and Senate for the first two years of Obama's term, but the Senate was debilitated by GOP filibusters, giving basically any and all legislation a 60 vote bar. The Democratic caucus in the Senate had 60 votes for a time, but it was far from the full 2 years (remember, 2010 brought the Tea Party with it). Al Franken wasn't seated in the Senate until July 7, 2009, and even then there weren't really 60 votes because of Robert Byrd's death on June 28. A temporary successor for Byrd was appointed on July 16, which gave them nominally 60 votes (again) although actually getting all 60 was difficult with Ted Kennedy being terribly ill and unable to attend Congress. Kennedy died on August 25, leaving Democrats with 59 votes until Paul Kirk was appointed as a replacement September 24th. That supermajority lasted until February 4, 2010, when Scott Brown was seated after winning the MA special election. :getlost:
tl;dr: you only even had the potential for a supermajority in the Senate from July 16 to August 25, and also between September 24, 2009 to February 4, 2010. And as for the House, it was never really a sure thing for the Democrats anyway.
Granted, Obama absolutely should have tried to close Guantanamo sooner when he had the 'mandate' but it's not entirely his fault he was obstructed on a lot of things much of the time. Like Monkey King said, there was some mess about what exactly to do with the inmates.
Originally Posted by CCC
Man, woman, who cares!? Sure, they love show tunes, but who doesn't?
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That isn't exactly true. The Democrats had the House and Senate for the first two years of Obama's term, but the Senate was debilitated by GOP filibusters, giving basically any and all legislation a 60 vote bar. The Democratic caucus in the Senate had 60 votes for a time, but it was far from the full 2 years (remember, 2010 brought the Tea Party with it). Al Franken wasn't seated in the Senate until July 7, 2009, and even then there weren't really 60 votes because of Robert Byrd's death on June 28. A temporary successor for Byrd was appointed on July 16, which gave them nominally 60 votes (again) although actually getting all 60 was difficult with Ted Kennedy being terribly ill and unable to attend Congress. Kennedy died on August 25, leaving Democrats with 59 votes until Paul Kirk was appointed as a replacement September 24th. That supermajority lasted until February 4, 2010, when Scott Brown was seated after winning the MA special election. :getlost:
tl;dr: you only even had the potential for a supermajority in the Senate from July 16 to August 25, and also between September 24, 2009 to February 4, 2010. And as for the House, it was never really a sure thing for the Democrats anyway.
Granted, Obama absolutely should have tried to close Guantanamo sooner when he had the 'mandate' but it's not entirely his fault he was obstructed on a lot of things much of the time. Like Monkey King said, there was some mess about what exactly to do with the inmates.
Speaking of last night lol.
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Watch as, when Clinton steps down, Kerry becomes SecState. Then Massachusetts has to hold another special election. Brown runs. Warren resigns her seat to run against Brown and wins Kerry's seat. Brown runs again in the regular election. So on, forever. :ninja:
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@Monkey:
Except that the final ultimate slap to the face of Hispanics would be rejecting HISPANIC ISLAND, and than they would basically never be able to win also.
This is almost like an incredibly well written story. It near immediately pushes the next big story element right into contention that forces an either/or, both of which will be fascinating to watch.
Well, I certainly agree there are reasons why the republicans wouldn't want to alienate the Hispanics even more. But worrying about the more tangible short term (yet permanent) issue seems more their style. It seems like a tough choice for them to make, and I'm simply predicting they go the route of suppressing the minorities where they can. But who knows, maybe they'll surprise me.
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Well, I certainly agree there are reasons why the republicans wouldn't want to alienate the Hispanics even more. But worrying about the more tangible short term (yet permanent) issue seems more their style. It seems like a tough choice for them to make, and I'm simply predicting they go the route of suppressing the minorities where they can. But who knows, maybe they'll surprise me.
If they do that, they can kiss 2016 goodbye.
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Why didn't he close Guantanamo then? wasn't that the first thing he was going to do day 1 in office?
Quite a few Democrats went against him on that note. For one, then-Governor of Kansas Kathleen Sebelius, now Secretary of Health and Human Services, publicly opposed the idea of relocating the prisoners to the maximum security facility at Fort Leavenworth. Same thing for other potential sites in other states.
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@Monkey:
If they do that, they can kiss 2016 goodbye.
I think you severely underestimate how much the Tea Party hates Latinos.
Complicating things since 2009.
