I’m sure you’ll all indulge me in my own thread. What’s one more when there are already about a million of them?
As I watch the returns from halfway across the Earth from Kwajalein, I see that Bush now has an almost insurmountable lead in the electoral college. As I listen to the talking heads discussing the possibility of legal action, I note that Bush is outpolling Kerry nationally by nearly three million votes based upon the popular vote.
I think it’s time for us to reflect upon everything we’ve said here over the last four years.
The electoral vote is outmoded and should be replaced with popular voting.
Response: Without the electoral vote Kerry would not have done as well as he has here.
Bush stole the election in 2000 since he didn’t win the popular vote.
Response: Would you want your guy to be guilty of the same thing? If Kerry wins he will be exactly the same as Bush in 2000. Does anyone really want to see that happen again? Does anyone want to see a disputed President try to govern this nation?
Bush was appointed by the Supreme Court.
Response: And that is exactly what you would want to happen to Kerry? I wouldn’t wish that on any President.
I think it’s time for us to call it a night, guys. It was a good run, Kerry gave it his best, but it’s over. At this point any other result would be just like 2000, and I for one am sick to death of it all anyway. I’m not sure whether the sadness in my heart is because my candidate lost, that my previous candidate betrayed my trust, or that we have the gall to think that we can do fair elections elsewhere but we can’t even take care of our own without lawsuits.
Let’s set the example here. Kerry, I call upon you to concede. Bush, I would ask that you do better in the next four years than you did in the first four. And to everyone at the SDMB, I hope that we can get along somehow, however difficult that may be, for the next four years.
A Kerry concession now would deny America the opportunity to examine exactly what congress and the states did to ‘fix’ the problems in the 2000 elections. That’d be bad for our freedoms.
It’s funny that I’m still sitting here watching the returns and Bush STILL doesn’t have 270 electoral votes.
Oh well…I’m not saying he WON’T win, but as of this moment. He is still short even with Ohio. Did’ya hear that…even with Ohio, he doesn’t have 270 votes.
Now say what you want, but until he actually gets 270 electoral votes he hasn’t won the election. Am I wrong?
Maybe it was a bit more one-sided when you went to bed? I don’t know what the count was at that time but right now it’s down to a few electoral votes that are still out. We’ll see, you are probably right but right now, at about 4:30am central it’s still going. see ya later…t/k
They’re not calling Ohio for Bush (well, NBC and Fox News and I guess a few others have called it, but not everybody) but it looks like Bush will get it. At least that’s the word from the people behind the scenes in Ohio. The numbers just can’t add up for Kerry, even when you take into account provisional ballots and everything. (If people are presenting the numbers right—which I’m guessing they are. They seem pretty adamant.)
So it pretty much looks like it’s over for Kerry, unless somebody pulls a major miracle out of their hat, or unless somebody (a lot of somebodies) are bullshitting us about the numbers we’re seeing right now. Which could happen, I guess, but nobody’s holding their breath.
Hey…there are three states still highly questionable as to who will get them.
I’d almost concede ohio…the point is even if Bush does get Ohio he can’t get 270 votes without winning the others, They are seriously debating a tie RIGHT NOW.
I know Bush wins a tie…but to say it’s a done deal is wrong.
As of right now, CNN.com says 254-252 Bush, with Ohio still out.
Its not over til its over.
It is hard to be outside the US right now - I’m in Beijing and have been reciving updates via cell phone texts and internet cafes. (Including one recieved while we were in the middle of the Forbidden City saying Bush won. It was awful…)
The polls reported that the LAST vote was finally cast in Ohio at 3:55am.
There are still hundreds of thousands of votes left to be counted. Excluding the absentee votes which are undetermined. BUT I’m not even talking about OHIO.
Right now Iowa is having problems with their ballots and the republican party has flown “experts” in to help solve them.
99% of the precincts are in in Ohio. It looks like Bush’s lead is holding. I’m not ready to say Bush has it socked in for absolutely sure, but it just doesn’t look good for Kerry at all. Of course all the votes should be counted, but the people running the polls and the officials in charge of everything know more about what the odds are than we do, and they don’t think Kerry has much (or any) chance.
I’m still reserving a small granule of judgment, though. Anything can happen, but the impression I’m getting is that it’s just really, really, REALLY long odds that Kerry will turn this around.
(On CNN.com’s (front page) map, those states are the same color as the background. Which makes Lake Superior look like a state. Freaked me out for a second. (Also, Michigan’s lower peninsula looks like it’s giving the finger.))
Looks like Kerry is pretty much done for. Right now there are still four too close to call but they are leaning in the direction of the President.
There is also the GOP majority in both the House and Senate that has been increased in this election.
What can we expect to see happen in the next four years? Is talk of war in Iran just talk? How about the reversal of Roe vs Wade? Constitutional ammendments? The repeal of pollution controls or whatever else any corporation wants? Same minimum wage as living costs go up?
More importantly, can the Democratic party survive in later elections as a major party or will it diminish to a weak one that loses seats every election for the next few?
How can the Democratic party stop such a scenerio?
