# The official post-Election Day thread:11/7/12 **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [November 7, 2012, 5:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-official-post-election-day-thread-11-7-12/640177 "2012-11-07T05:00:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 8
**Author:** ![drewtwo99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d07c76/32.png) [@drewtwo99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewtwo99)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2012, 4:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-official-post-election-day-thread-11-7-12/640177/141 "2012-11-08T04:39:50Z")
> [@Sal\_Ammoniac](#): > > \*\*Leaper \*\*was right to doubt. Hawaii came in at 70.6% for Obama. I’m sure Vermont is having an existential crisis about that, and wondering whether it too should move to the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Phew!!! I was getting worried, ever since that poll that came out in 2004 showing Hawaii going to Bush… ---
**Author:** ![Leaper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4bbf92/32.png) [@Leaper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaper)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2012, 4:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-official-post-election-day-thread-11-7-12/640177/142 "2012-11-08T04:51:24Z")
> [@Nzinga\_Seated](#): > > I like you Leaps. I’ve been watching you throughout this election season. Stalker! Stranger danger! Stranger danger! (But I’m fine now, really. I think I may have actually come off a little worse “in print” than I was IRL.) ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2012, 4:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-official-post-election-day-thread-11-7-12/640177/143 "2012-11-08T04:57:41Z")
Meanwhile, in Florida… [http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/politics/sns-rt-us-usa-campaign-floridabre8a702f-20121107,0,2643110.story](http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/politics/sns-rt-us-usa-campaign-floridabre8a702f-20121107,0,2643110.story) > [@](#): > > Some political pundits say the delays highlight Florida’s seeming inability to hold elections that are free of controversy and public mockery. > > “There are so many different potential sources of interference and conscious efforts to muck it up, we won’t know for a while yet who to point the finger at,” said Seth Gordon, a former political consultant based in Miami. > > “We could have been there in the bulls-eye of the whole works looking idiotic just like last time,” he said, referring to 2000, when George Bush won Florida by 537 and captured the White House. > > “We may be just as idiotic this time, but it doesn’t matter because no one is watching,” Gordon said. “Last time, we held up the entire country.” Yep, idiotic and someone is still watching, it was only thanks to other states that you were spared an invasion of lawyers and the contempt of the entire world once again. I have seen reports that a total preliminary count is likely to be reached by the weekend. ---
**Author:** ![Kozmik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/8dc957/32.png) [@Kozmik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kozmik)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2012, 4:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-official-post-election-day-thread-11-7-12/640177/144 "2012-11-08T04:59:45Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > Let it sulk in a corner; it’ll be over it tomorrow. \*\*BrianGlutton \*\* gets it. ---
**Author:** ![Leaper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4bbf92/32.png) [@Leaper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaper)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2012, 5:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-official-post-election-day-thread-11-7-12/640177/145 "2012-11-08T05:58:55Z")
Here’s a question: a couple of commentators, seeing the Democratic advantage repeat itself from 2008, think that this may be a sign that the increase in minority and youth participation from that last election are sustainable, and reflect a major change in the voter demographic. Do you think this is the case? Will they turn out for the next D nominee for President? Certainly, the Democrats have learned a lot about organization from the Obama campaign, but can they keep it up without the charisma and knowledge of the man/group that put it together to begin with? Or are is this a secondary factor, now that said minorities and young people have tasted what it’s like to wield power at the ballot box? ---
**Author:** ![Leaper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4bbf92/32.png) [@Leaper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaper)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2012, 6:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-official-post-election-day-thread-11-7-12/640177/146 "2012-11-08T06:07:26Z")
Another comment: I read Grover Norquist opine that Romney and Ryan “fondled the third rail of politics” (Medicare) and almost won, implying that he believes that in the future, it’s ripe for gutting. I’m not so sure about this, considering all the effort they went to to _swear_ that’s not what they were going to do, but tossing it out there nonetheless. ---
**Author:** ![LinusK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/258eb7/32.png) [@LinusK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LinusK)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2012, 6:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-official-post-election-day-thread-11-7-12/640177/147 "2012-11-08T06:09:24Z")
> [@Jophiel](#): > > I voted for and support Obama but I don’t doubt his election is immediately contributing to the market. > > Obama as president and a Democratic senate means more fighting with the GOP House over the pressing fiscal issues on the horizon. We already saw one credit downgrade due to that bickering and now we’ll see more of the same. > > Had the GOP won the presidency and took the Senate, the market would feel much more secure. Maybe the nation wouldn’t like the GOP “slash-and-burn the domestic policy” answers but they’d at least be answers. No, no, no, no, no. You know what the market likes? It likes free money and low interest rates. It likes Bernanke. The last thing in the world it wants is European-style austerity. ---
**Author:** ![Locrian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/locrian/32/14146_2.png) [@Locrian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Locrian)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2012, 7:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-official-post-election-day-thread-11-7-12/640177/148 "2012-11-08T07:16:09Z")
**OMG, ABC!** You were too young to vote in 2000? My first election I voted for Reagan. And then the thrill wears off. Trust me. The older men in your life who claim to know why a party pr candidate is the “right” candidate just gets filed in the bullshit file in the late 20s. 😃 I am registered as independent and have no love for either Reps or Dems, but looking back from the onslaught of idiots the Reps initially put up for nomination, then seeing an apathetic party “settle” for the rich guy in times like this, especially with a male version of Palin as VP, it had to end. ---
**Author:** ![lisalisaapril](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8baadc/32.png) [@lisalisaapril](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lisalisaapril)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2012, 7:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-official-post-election-day-thread-11-7-12/640177/149 "2012-11-08T07:31:38Z")
I thought romney was a great candidate, just not a great campaigner. And being rich by earning it, unlike obama, oh the horror. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2012, 7:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-official-post-election-day-thread-11-7-12/640177/150 "2012-11-08T07:56:35Z")
> [@lisalisaapril](#): > > I thought romney was a great candidate, just not a great campaigner. And being rich by earning it, unlike obama, oh the horror. Obama didn’t earn the royalties from the sales of his books? Please proceed, **lisa**. ---
**Author:** ![Bosstone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/22d042/32.png) [@Bosstone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosstone)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2012, 7:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-official-post-election-day-thread-11-7-12/640177/151 "2012-11-08T07:58:29Z")
> [@lisalisaapril](#): > > I thought romney was a great candidate, just not a great campaigner. How could you tell? He didn’t have any positions that lasted more than a couple of days. > [@](#): > > And being rich by earning it, unlike obama, oh the horror. You got your names mixed up. Obama earned his way. Romney was born into wealth and plutocracy. ---
**Author:** ![jsc1953](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5daacb/32.png) [@jsc1953](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsc1953)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2012, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-official-post-election-day-thread-11-7-12/640177/152 "2012-11-08T14:41:46Z")
> [@Sal\_Ammoniac](#): > > \*\*Leaper \*\*was right to doubt. Hawaii came in at 70.6% for Obama. I’m sure Vermont is having an existential crisis about that, and wondering whether it too should move to the middle of the Pacific Ocean. D’oh! I forgot to click on Hawaii. Probably because they’re not really part of the US. ---
**Author:** ![Enginerd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/bcef8e/32.png) [@Enginerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enginerd)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2012, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-official-post-election-day-thread-11-7-12/640177/153 "2012-11-08T14:48:28Z")
> [@lisalisaapril](#): > > I thought romney was a great candidate, just not a great campaigner. And being rich by earning it, unlike obama, oh the horror. Indeed. Young, scrappy Mitt fought tooth and nail every inch of the way until he finally emerged from his mother’s vagina as the son of a millionaire auto-industry executive. If that’s not a triumph of the human will, I don’t know what is. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2012, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-official-post-election-day-thread-11-7-12/640177/154 "2012-11-08T21:48:30Z")
This doesn’t really mean anything in the grand scheme of things, but I thought it was funny: Romney got about 37 percent of the vote in Massachusetts. That’s the worst home state result for any presidential candidate since John C. Fremont in 1856. Fremont was the first Republican presidential candidate, and he finished third behind James Buchanan and Millard Fillmore 48%-33%-19%, giving Buchanan California’s 4 electoral votes. Fremont finished second to Buchanan countrywide. There were about 4.1 million votes cast in the entire U.S. that year, and 110,000 in California. In more-real news, the Florida vote total is not official yet, but the Romney campaign agrees that Obama won the state. ---
**Author:** ![With\_Rye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/838e76/32.png) [@With\_Rye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/With_Rye)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2012, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-official-post-election-day-thread-11-7-12/640177/155 "2012-11-09T00:53:59Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > This doesn’t really mean anything in the grand scheme of things, but I thought it was funny: Romney got about 37 percent of the vote in Massachusetts. That’s the worst home state result for any presidential candidate since John C. Fremont in 1856. And this was a man whose opponents accused him of cannibalism. ---
**Author:** ![DSYoungEsq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c6cbf5/32.png) [@DSYoungEsq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSYoungEsq)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2012, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-official-post-election-day-thread-11-7-12/640177/156 "2012-11-09T01:32:32Z")
I grew up about 40 mi. north of Fremont Peak in California. It’s a lonely, relatively short butte out in the middle of the desert not really close to anything. I’ve always thought it the perfect legacy for Fremont. I also grew up next to Walker Pass, the Owens Valley, and a number of other more prepossessing geographic marvels wearing names of people who tramped around California at the same time. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2012, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-official-post-election-day-thread-11-7-12/640177/157 "2012-11-09T02:03:17Z")
> [@sachertorte](#): > > Gridlock is a result, NOT a goal. > > Reviewing the quotey quote I see that whoever that was did say what you say here as well. The perspective I was referring to as strange was the idea that, “as far as I can tell, America voted the way I did: splitting its ticket to maintain status-quo gridlock.” Which is what I found to be an odd perspective. As if, the voting were done for the goal of gridlock. It’s not that I see gridlock as an end in itself, but as a means to an end. I think the Democrats have some good ideas and some utterly wretched ones. I think the Republicans have some good ideas and some utterly wretched ones. So if _ **either** _ party has carte blanche, I figure we’ll see a parade of utterly wretched ideas get rubber-stamped into law – but if each party can stymie the other, then everything slows down to a crawl. Well, not “everything”. Whenever both sides figure something is A Good Idea, the government can of course take swift action; someone upthread mentioned the response to Sandy, which is actually kinda sorta my point: _ **that’s** _ the pre-election status quo I want to keep on keeping on post-election, where glaringly obvious stuff gets done and less-obvious stuff gets debated in slow-motion – with each side pitching the public as best they can until one issue or another shifts into the “obvious” column. Whenever we have the time, I want us to tease apart the good ideas from the utterly wretched ones; as it becomes increasingly obvious whether it’s a good one or utterly wretched, I figure the parties will act accordingly. And to the extent that I figure my ideas are good rather than utterly wretched, I figure they’ll win in the long run – and I figure a general condition of obstructionist gridlock will foster that, sure as I figure it’s a fine defense against utterly wretched ones, and so it’s a goal of mine. ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2012, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-official-post-election-day-thread-11-7-12/640177/158 "2012-11-09T02:15:13Z")
From [Political Wire](http://politicalwire.com/archives/2012/11/08/romney_shellshocked_at_loss.html): > [@](#): > > Mitt Romney was “shellshocked” at losing the presidential race, an adviser tells CBS News. > > “They thought intensity and enthusiasm were on their side this time – poll after poll showed Republicans were more motivated to vote than Democrats - and that would translate into votes for Romney. As a result, they believed the public/media polls were skewed – they thought those polls oversampled Democrats and didn’t reflect Republican enthusiasm. They based their own internal polls on turnout levels more favorable to Romney. That was a grave miscalculation, as they would see on election night.” > > Said the adviser: “We went into the evening confident we had a good path to victory. I don’t think there was one person who saw this coming.” That strikes me as fucking insane that this delusion and self-created blindness carried all the way to the top with Romney himself. It’s one thing to assume that the campaign and the GOP intelligentsia were just bullshitting the rank-and-file voters with the “we have the momentum and great internal polls” talk but to hear that Mitt Romney actually _believed_ that the Unskewed Polls dipshit was a more credible source than the wealth of real polling data just blows my mind. Thank God that moron wasn’t elected. THAT was the hard facts and data driven economic stewardship we had to look forward to? ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2012, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-official-post-election-day-thread-11-7-12/640177/159 "2012-11-09T03:11:26Z")
Romney’s draft transition website revealed: [Mitt Romney Transition Website Draft Uncovered | HuffPost Latest News](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/07/mitt-romney-transition-website_n_2090531.html?ncid=wsc-huffpost-cards-headline) It just occurred to me… the Dem presidential candidate has now outpolled the GOP candidate in five out of the last six elections. That’s 1992, 1996, 2000, 2008 and 2012 (GWB had a slim majority in 2004). Woohoo! ---
**Author:** ![gamerunknown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/6bbea6/32.png) [@gamerunknown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gamerunknown)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2012, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-official-post-election-day-thread-11-7-12/640177/160 "2012-11-09T20:53:25Z")
> [@ralph124c](#): > > Think of this period as akin to the end of the pre-WWI world order. The whole structure is rotten, and needs to be razed to the ground. I doubt many people in this thread really appreciate what an idyll America was before women were enfranchised and the Voting Rights Act passed. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-official-post-election-day-thread-11-7-12/640177.md?page=7) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-official-post-election-day-thread-11-7-12/640177.md?page=9)