Tuesday, November 02, 2004
Some Thoughts Regarding the Election
Yeah, I was nervous. I guessed early in August that the election would be a landslde for Bush. I think Bush owes a great debt to the Swift Boat Vets. When Kerry saluted and said he was reporting for duty, at the convention, he made Viet Nam an issue. The Swift Boat Vets eroded that image. Finally "Stolen Honor" had to have had some effect of diluting the very corrosive Fahrenheit 9/11. As we got closer to the election, I kept seeing lots of Kerry signs and the negatives about Kerry were not widening Bush's lead. Doubts crept in!
I watched FOX for most of the evening tonight and I thought they kept track of the EV votes so that Bush only trailed once early on. It seemed they had learned something from Bush-Gore, and were very conservative in announcing a state going one way or the other. I thought they were more conservative calling states for Bush than for Kerry; requiring greater evidence of a win. The vote for Bush seemed impressive generally 55-45%, except for the national vote.
I predicted that all ballot measures amending constitutions to ban gay marriage would pass. I was right and it appears those people voted for Bush. I think Bush did a very good job, this time, motivating the evangelical or "Born-Again" vote. It didn't hurt him to be criticised for being too religious. The two blue states that had a gay-marriage ballot ban were Oregon and Michigan. Here, their votes didn't carry the states. In a way that's interesting. Oregon went against its liberal tendencies to vote a gay-marriage ban. Could this be a backlash against the way the Multnomah commissioners handled themselves?
Not much has changed in four years, we remain divided between the coasts and fly-over country. I think attitudes have hardened. There seems to be no way to bridge the gap between Bush and Kerry voters.
Going forward, I would say that Bush needs to convince Americans that we are at war. There is a disconnect between what we see on TV and what we see moving about our city.
Bush needs to tackle again the issue of the draft. Many people remain convinced and worried that their children will be drafted to serve in a widening war. How do we fight Iran and N Korea with the troop levels we have?
Bush needs to educate the nation about economics. He needs to teach us about our options with Social Security. We have four(4)options: Raise the eligability age, decrease benefits, raise the social security tax rate OR privatise social security.
He needs to let people know that we cannot continue to run huge trade deficits, spend more money than we earn, and continue on our debt binge.
I am happy Bush won. If you are a Kerry supporter, I feel badly for you, but relieved. I know you feel strongly about issues. The country, I suspect, has changed since the 60's and you need to move toward the center and be part of the solution to some very tough problems.
Mover Mike
I watched FOX for most of the evening tonight and I thought they kept track of the EV votes so that Bush only trailed once early on. It seemed they had learned something from Bush-Gore, and were very conservative in announcing a state going one way or the other. I thought they were more conservative calling states for Bush than for Kerry; requiring greater evidence of a win. The vote for Bush seemed impressive generally 55-45%, except for the national vote.
I predicted that all ballot measures amending constitutions to ban gay marriage would pass. I was right and it appears those people voted for Bush. I think Bush did a very good job, this time, motivating the evangelical or "Born-Again" vote. It didn't hurt him to be criticised for being too religious. The two blue states that had a gay-marriage ballot ban were Oregon and Michigan. Here, their votes didn't carry the states. In a way that's interesting. Oregon went against its liberal tendencies to vote a gay-marriage ban. Could this be a backlash against the way the Multnomah commissioners handled themselves?
Not much has changed in four years, we remain divided between the coasts and fly-over country. I think attitudes have hardened. There seems to be no way to bridge the gap between Bush and Kerry voters.
Going forward, I would say that Bush needs to convince Americans that we are at war. There is a disconnect between what we see on TV and what we see moving about our city.
Bush needs to tackle again the issue of the draft. Many people remain convinced and worried that their children will be drafted to serve in a widening war. How do we fight Iran and N Korea with the troop levels we have?
Bush needs to educate the nation about economics. He needs to teach us about our options with Social Security. We have four(4)options: Raise the eligability age, decrease benefits, raise the social security tax rate OR privatise social security.
He needs to let people know that we cannot continue to run huge trade deficits, spend more money than we earn, and continue on our debt binge.
I am happy Bush won. If you are a Kerry supporter, I feel badly for you, but relieved. I know you feel strongly about issues. The country, I suspect, has changed since the 60's and you need to move toward the center and be part of the solution to some very tough problems.
Mover Mike
