Election High, Post-Election Crash
Nov. 6th, 2008 06:52 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dreamsharkTuesday was a gorgeous day in Minnesota, defying earlier predictions of stormy weather. I took the day off from work. At about 10am I walked down to my polling place (ML King Park, appropriately enough) and found no line at all. Apparently the long lines from the morning rush had just cleared out. It was a nice walk there and back with clouds of golden leaves drifting through the air, passing smiling neighbors on their way to the polls (it's a heavily DFL neighborhood). I had a long, happy conversation with Brendan, our neighbor across the alley and invited him to drop by later to watch the results. He didn't, but seemed to appreciate the offer. I drove down to the Richfield Obama office at noon for a shift of GOTV and was assigned to the neighborhood just north of The Hub. In principle I'm glad I volunteered just to be a part of the whole thing. But honestly, canvassing a working class neighborhood in the middle of the afternoon is pretty much a waste of time: nobody's home. My partner and I did find one Hispanic family that hadn't voted yet and seemed a little nervous about it because two of them had to register at the polls. We verified that they had ID so they didn't need us to find them a voucher, and we gave them lots of encouragement, which they seemed to appreciate. I think they would have voted any way, but maybe we made it seem a little less intimidating. Then there was the house where the guy on our list wasn't home because he'd just died. I mean JUST died - the house was full of mourners. Awwwkward. Probably the high point of my canvassing shift was the black guy who passed us in the street and gave us a thumbs up and a big smile.
Tuesday night was pretty awesome, watching the Obama Tsunami roll across the country! We stayed home with the TV, radio and Internets, drinking beer and eating pie. A couple of friends (![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
mgs and huladavid) joined us to make our little party a bit more festive. Thanks, guys! It was nice to have some company on this historic night!
There really wasn't a lot of doubt who would win, but like liberals and progressives everywhere I couldn't stop worrying that "they" would somehow cheat their way to victory. For the last few weeks before the election I was on edge all the time waiting for a Republican-engineered October Surprise - a terrorist attack or something like that. Instead, September and October brought an unpleasant surprise for the Republicans (proving once and for all how little central control the powers that be really have over the economy). True, gas prices dropped precipitately, but since this time it seemed to be caused by the nation plummeting into an economic depression it didn't do much to help the incumbent party.
All the evidence suggested that the nation's electoral infrastructure had improved since the last election and an army of lawyers was poised to pounce on any electoral irregularities. But all those frantic paranoid emails and blog postings were starting to get to me ("The election is already stolen!!!"). So what a relief it was to hear of record turnout all over the country but no significant problems beyond long lines and occasional soggy ballots. Even more of a relief to see those TV images of joyous crowds in the streets of New York, Chicago and wherever that camera crew was stationed in Kenya, and NO VIOLENCE ANYWHERE. No riot squads descending on crowds of minority citizens waiting to vote, no racial tension in the streets, no fake anarchists with Republican tattoos tossing Molotov cocktails. Just smiling faces and dancing in the streets.
After weeks of obsessively checking the electoral map sites and reading poll results, I was hoping for a decisive early victory call in Virginia with the race effectively over by 8 pm. When the early returns from Virginia put McCain ahead and even Pennsylvania looking a little shaky I started to get nervous. But then all the networks called Ohio and after that it was just a matter of waiting for the polls to close on the West Coast so they could make it official. It does seem a little odd that the victory and concession speeches had both been made before the votes were actually counted in more than half the country, but there doesn't seem to be much doubt about the result (in the Presidential race anyway).
Obama's speech was eloquent and moving - no surprise. The real surprise was McCain's concession speech. After months of looking and acting like his head was about to explode, he now seemed relaxed and dignified. Almost presidential in fact. His congratulations to his victorious opponent sounded unexpectedly sincere, and there was no mistaking his annoyance when his crowd of loyal supporters started the traditional booing every time the opponent was mentioned. In fact, his eyes shot daggers into the crowd every time they did that, and by the third mention of Obama's name they'd cut it out. He went on for quite a while, delivering a message of hope and healing. I found myself thinking about halfway through the speech, "Hey, I think I'm starting to like this man again."
I wish I'd posted yesterday when I was still feeling exhiliarated. Today was sort of a letdown. I was absolutely worn out from a combination of lack of sleep, tired legs from GOTV, and just plain nervous exhaustion. A hectic day at work didn't help any, and I ended up so exhausted that I skipped my skating class, something I've never done before. I came home and ate way too much (which I tend to do to stay awak when I'm tired). I fell asleep at 10:30 anyway, but woke up before dawn and couldn't get back to sleep. Which is why I'm posting to LJ before 7am. Sheesh. If I'm this strung out, I can only imagine how my friends who were deeply involved in the campaigning must be feeling.
Tuesday night was pretty awesome, watching the Obama Tsunami roll across the country! We stayed home with the TV, radio and Internets, drinking beer and eating pie. A couple of friends (
mgs and huladavid) joined us to make our little party a bit more festive. Thanks, guys! It was nice to have some company on this historic night!There really wasn't a lot of doubt who would win, but like liberals and progressives everywhere I couldn't stop worrying that "they" would somehow cheat their way to victory. For the last few weeks before the election I was on edge all the time waiting for a Republican-engineered October Surprise - a terrorist attack or something like that. Instead, September and October brought an unpleasant surprise for the Republicans (proving once and for all how little central control the powers that be really have over the economy). True, gas prices dropped precipitately, but since this time it seemed to be caused by the nation plummeting into an economic depression it didn't do much to help the incumbent party.
All the evidence suggested that the nation's electoral infrastructure had improved since the last election and an army of lawyers was poised to pounce on any electoral irregularities. But all those frantic paranoid emails and blog postings were starting to get to me ("The election is already stolen!!!"). So what a relief it was to hear of record turnout all over the country but no significant problems beyond long lines and occasional soggy ballots. Even more of a relief to see those TV images of joyous crowds in the streets of New York, Chicago and wherever that camera crew was stationed in Kenya, and NO VIOLENCE ANYWHERE. No riot squads descending on crowds of minority citizens waiting to vote, no racial tension in the streets, no fake anarchists with Republican tattoos tossing Molotov cocktails. Just smiling faces and dancing in the streets.
After weeks of obsessively checking the electoral map sites and reading poll results, I was hoping for a decisive early victory call in Virginia with the race effectively over by 8 pm. When the early returns from Virginia put McCain ahead and even Pennsylvania looking a little shaky I started to get nervous. But then all the networks called Ohio and after that it was just a matter of waiting for the polls to close on the West Coast so they could make it official. It does seem a little odd that the victory and concession speeches had both been made before the votes were actually counted in more than half the country, but there doesn't seem to be much doubt about the result (in the Presidential race anyway).
Obama's speech was eloquent and moving - no surprise. The real surprise was McCain's concession speech. After months of looking and acting like his head was about to explode, he now seemed relaxed and dignified. Almost presidential in fact. His congratulations to his victorious opponent sounded unexpectedly sincere, and there was no mistaking his annoyance when his crowd of loyal supporters started the traditional booing every time the opponent was mentioned. In fact, his eyes shot daggers into the crowd every time they did that, and by the third mention of Obama's name they'd cut it out. He went on for quite a while, delivering a message of hope and healing. I found myself thinking about halfway through the speech, "Hey, I think I'm starting to like this man again."
I wish I'd posted yesterday when I was still feeling exhiliarated. Today was sort of a letdown. I was absolutely worn out from a combination of lack of sleep, tired legs from GOTV, and just plain nervous exhaustion. A hectic day at work didn't help any, and I ended up so exhausted that I skipped my skating class, something I've never done before. I came home and ate way too much (which I tend to do to stay awak when I'm tired). I fell asleep at 10:30 anyway, but woke up before dawn and couldn't get back to sleep. Which is why I'm posting to LJ before 7am. Sheesh. If I'm this strung out, I can only imagine how my friends who were deeply involved in the campaigning must be feeling.
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no subject
Date: 2008-11-06 01:48 pm (UTC)The let-down started to hit me when I was working on the church bulletin, transcribing a hymn that begins, 'put not your faith in princes.' I was reminded that however great a leader Obama may be, he is still a human being and has his limitations, and has to work in the material world with all its pitfalls and complications. I'm convinced he's the best man for the job, but the job is a big one, and ultimately we may be expecting more of him than is humanly possible.
no subject
Date: 2008-11-06 06:14 pm (UTC)And thank goodness for that. If it had turned out in retrospect that we were electing a deity it would have been even more nerve-wracking an election. ;-)
The POTUS may (arguably) be the most powerful man in the world, but his power is still extremely limited. I think Obama will be a very good, possibly a great president. But even if he never rises beyond well-intentioned, just the fact of his election has made a world-changing difference to the way the world looks at the United States and the way we within the USA think about race.
no subject
Date: 2008-11-07 02:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-11-06 02:41 pm (UTC)Canvassing seems like a waste of time during the day when you think that talking to voters is the most important thing you are out there for. But just leaving a door hanger might be enough to remind someone, too. The walk packets were going to go out three times, so the "not homes" would be returned to. Overkill is what gets the job done.
I was making phone calls until 7:50 PM on election day.
Yesterday, I was pretty much incoherent. I slept until 10:30, napped all afternoon, and went back to bed at 9:30. This explains why I am up now.
K.
no subject
Date: 2008-11-06 06:16 pm (UTC)I'll bet you are!! You have far more excuse for that than I do.
Fortunately you have lots more experience than I do with overcoming jet lag, so you'll probably be back on your feet faster than I would in similar circumstances. But still... take the next week off! :-)
no subject
Date: 2008-11-06 07:10 pm (UTC)I still have things to do that must get done today. Happily, none of them are INCREDIBLY URGENT.
K.
no subject
Date: 2008-11-06 03:15 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-11-06 10:59 pm (UTC)The networks "calling" the election and declaring the winner really bugs me, especially when they are basing their decisions on less than 1% of precincts reporting, plus various exit polls. We might as well not have elections at all, just polling! Choose the President with Nielson ratings!
The other thing that really bugs me about the network coverage is how they portray the incoming results as if it's an ongoing contest: "McCain has to [do xxx] in order to catch up to Obama in [state xxx]" etc. Come ON, people, the votes are already cast and the candidates can't DO anything any more. It's like taking a Polaroid photo of a cat and a dog and then watching the image appear, cheering, "Come on, Cat! You can do it!"
If I was the boss of the world, the news agencies would not be allowed to have voting results from any given state until at least 90% of precincts on the West Coast have reported in.
(Boy, am I grouchy!)
no subject
Date: 2008-11-07 07:14 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-11-07 06:48 pm (UTC)