Mediocreblogging: Election Boogaloo

Mediocreblogging covers the US Presidential Election throughout the day with random thoughts from Mediocre Minds writers. Feel free to join the discussion and add your own comments.

paladinz, 12:26 am: As far as my final thoughts... I think more than just electing the nation's first African-American president, this election will be important because it changed the way campaigns are run. No major news outlet is talking about it, but the Obama campaign mobilized the youth vote, targeted the Internet and video games, hit up social networking sites... they basically ran a 21st century campaign. The first 21st century campaign.

I agree with Binkley's last comments, especially about an increasing fight for same-sex marriage and rights. Changes are coming to the political landscape, slowly but surely. The Chinese may consider it a curse, but I don't: we live in interesting times.

paladinz, 12:20 am: Alright, it's getting late and it has been almost a full 24 hours since we started. I'll leave you with links to the two elections we've been following closely. Right now, Ted Stevens leads Mark Begich by 1% with 66% of the precincts reporting. CNN hasn't updated that race in about 30 minutes now, so it's possible we won't hear anything more until tomorrow morning. With 56% of the precincts reporting, California Proposition 8 leads 52.5% to 47.5%. I don't think it'll pass.

Binkley, 12:17 am: One last comment from me. I think John McCain got jacked by his party, a party that is going to have seriously regroup and reconsider what their core message and base is. Or maybe things will be ok if everyone hates Obama in 4 years (j/k lolz). I would still love to see Ted Stevens somehow win and prop 8 fail, but even if prop 8 passes I think we'll see a major gay rights movement within a decade as other states attempt to ban gay marriage (apparently Florida is already there).

paladinz 11:47 pm: Oh yeah, one thought. That McCain we heard giving the concession speech today - I hope that's the real John McCain. Hearing that speech made me remember why I used to like the man. This campaign has been ugly, probably out of necessity for him. I am not sure I will ever like him as much as I used to... but as this election has shown, things can (and do) change.

paladinz 11:39 pm: Back after hanging out at a friend's place. It's basically down to watching the Ted Stevens race (he's leading right now somehow... but let't not underestimate the fact that he's basically a legend in Alaska) and California Proposition 8 (which is leading right now, in what I consider to be very disappointing news.

Binkley, 9:39 pm: The local race I've been following is for the San Gabriel Valley Municipal Water District. It's between the incumbent Reichenberger who has a lot of experience and Wong who is a hot shot with no experience but lots of Asian/Chinese group endorsements. Right now Wong is losing.

Binkley, 9:21 pm: Obama's speech heavily emphasized uniting America. Now the hard part begins....in January.

Binkley, 8:31 pm: McCain's speech had a lot of people booing during mentions of Obama. They also chanted Sarah a lot. It seemed like a small minority but still, stay classy Arizona.

Binkley, 8:27 pm: It's nice to see America live up to its ideals. Time to start following California State Propositions. Oh and Ted Stevens is done, dang.

paladinz, 8:07 pm: And there we go. Amidst a series of overly-emotional journalists and video screens showing people watching them watch them, CNN projects that Barack Obama is the President-Elect. Commence overloading the word "historic" into oblivion.

paladinz, 7:44 pm: CNN must've spent a lot of money on these graphics. Unfortunately, they're pretty but not as informative as they should be.

Binkley, 7:30 pm: CNN just had a Valkyrie trailer. This is the greatest election ever.

Binkley, 7:26 pm: So you might be wondering what to watch if the Electoral College is a blowout (which is what it's looking like). I have some suggestions:

• Senator Ted Stevens is running for re-election in Alaska (polls open late since it's West Coast!). Yes, he's the "Internet is a series of tubes" guy but he's ALSO a convicted felon. If he wins re-election I think he'll be the first US Senator in recent history elected.
• Propositions in California (West Coast again) include Prop 4 which is about parental notification for abortions and Prop 8 which outright bans gay marriage. These are issues that many see as being tested in this state; the outcomes will affect other states future propositions.

paladinz, 7:16 pm: Man, the ABC News guys aren't very good at using their fancy touchscreen graphs, and they keep standing in front of it, which makes it impossible to see whatever they're trying to show.

paladinz, 7:02 pm: Old white guy on CNN:

Is America still a center-right country? Some people think it is.

Some people also think the Earth is flat, but they're wrong. I'm not saying America has radically changed... but to call it center-right given what is happening at the moment would be crazy.

paladinz, 6:55 pm: Obama wins Pennsylvania, Ohio, and New Mexico, the latter two being states that Bush won in '00 and '08. I think we can call the Presidential results pretty much sealed now.

Comedian Al Franken may soon be known as Senator Al Franken; CNN has him leading over the Republican incumbent in Minnesota.

paladinz, 5:30 pm: From CNN:

When Will Bower, an ardent Hillary Clinton supporter and lifelong Democrat, founded PUMA, Party Unity My A**, his mission was to express frustration in the Democratic Party.

Bitter much, Mr. Bower? I personally think he formed PUMA to hook up with some dissatisfied middle-aged women.

paladinz, 5:18 pm: CNN's exit polls show that 51% of voters think the government should do more to solve the nation's problems and 43% think the government is doing too much. However, support for the $700 billion bailout package lags 40-56.

paladinz, 4:30 pm: McCain takes Kentucky; Obama takes Vermont. McCain leads 8-3... give up now, Obama! It's all over!

paladinz, 4:20 pm: Okay, first of all, this idea is ALL MINE. No one try and copy it.

Fantasy Government. Seriously. Think about it. Apparently we already have Power Rankings for the Senate and Congress.

This makes me wonder: what kind of performance enhancers is Harry Reid on? His score is over 40% higher than any other senator!

Binkley, 4:10 PM: This is pretty interesting... check out the dynamic between Obama and McCain supporters.

Masakun, 3:50 PM: Looks like the internets are going to be set ablaze tonight with curious onlookers (including myself).

I will be checking the FiveThirtyEight.com Election Night thread throughout the evening to keep track of what's going on. They split up states into these categories:

Called -- states actually called by the Associated Press
Safe -- states that look almost completely safe, e.g. a 99.5% probability of victory or higher.
Likely -- somewhere in the 80% certainty range
Lean -- 60-80%
Toss-Up -- No clear favorite

Binkley, 3:15 pm: In the spirit of that LHC site...(I checked there's no McCain one.)

paladinz, 2:14 pm: While we'll have to wait a few hours for Presidential results to start rolling in, the AP has a good article listing controversial propositions on state levels.

Primary among them is California's Proposition 8, which seeks to ban gay marriage. The result will serve as a template for the rest of the states; much of the $70 million for the Yes on 8 campaign has come from out of state (especially the Mormon Church). South Dakota has an initiative that would ban abortion except in cases of rape, serious health problems for the mother, or incest. This would directly challenge Roe v. Wade if passed and would surely make it to the Supreme Court.

Binkley, 1:18 pm: Apparently New York has all the good free stuff on election day, including sex toys!

Binkley, 12:07 pm: I guess high voter turnout is jacking our antiquated polling system:

"We have a system that is traditionally set up for low turnout," said Tova Wang of the government watchdog group Common Cause. "We're going to have all these new voters, but not a lot of new resources. The election directors just have very little to work with."

I KNEW high voter turnout was un-American!

paladinz, 12:05 pm: Truly, this is American ingenuity:

Rain in parts of North Carolina caused some early problems for voters using optical scanner ballots Tuesday, but a memo about using paper towels seemed to dry up the problem

Apparently voters, wet from the rain outside, were getting the ballots wet, which was causing the voting machines to jam. You know what else would have worked in clearing up this problem, guys? Towels. Or electric heaters. Or a tent. Or wiping your hands on an article of dry clothing. Or putting your hands in your pockets.

I like how this required a memo for people to figure out a solution.

Binkley, 12:01 pm: This would ensure good voter turnout (from Explosm):

paladinz, 11:33 am: In recent memory, no Republican candidate has won the Presidency without winning Ohio. RCP's averaged numbers show that Barack Obama has a 2.5 point lead in the state.

Binkley, 11:26 am: I heard on the radio that the "experts" are predicting a turnout in the 70+% range. That's crazy! Are we living in Europe now or something? O_o

paladinz, 10:22 am: Apparently, we're not the only ones that voted today in California:

paladinz, 10:16 am: It's a surprisingly sunny day here in Northern California, despite the light showers a few days earlier. I voted at 9:20 am and there was no line. My voting place is my old elementary school library so going there always invokes interesting memories of when I first moved to the country when I was 10 years old. It's a good place to remind me of American ideals.

Masakun, 9:58 am: America doesn't let me vote so I am stuck here watching the elections go on on a computer. San Diego is being peppered with light showers as I type; I doubt that'll stop people from voting today. I have placed my bets on Obama losing out to McCain, and have a glass of beer on the line to show for it. Tom Bradley effect all the way!

Binkley, 9:45 am: I showed at my polling place at 7:45. There was actually a line but it wasn't too bad. It was about as long as the line for Starbucks which is giving out free coffee today. Krispy Kreme is giving out a free donut, and later in the day Ben and Jerry's is giving out a scoop of ice cream (5-8PM). There's something awesomely American about giving free junk food as a tie in to voting.

paladinzus, 12:33 am: One of the closest California races for us writers will be Proposition 8, which seeks to ban gay marriages in the state. Early polls indicated that it would pass but a recent surge in marketing and campaigning by those opposed to it have brought poll numbers nearly even. It helps when big name Californian companies like Google and Apple throw their support behind it.

paladinzus, 12:26 am: Welcome to Mediocreblogging. Today, November 4th 2008, is national election day here in the United States and we'll be covering it for you periodically throughout the day.

In the Presidential election, it certainly appears that Barack Obama is poised for victory. FiveThirtyEight is projecting that he will win with 98.1% confidence with over 346 electoral votes out of a required 270. We will have to wait and see if the Bradley Effect rears its head today.

November 4th, 2008 / paladinz / Tags: politics, mediocreblogging / Trackback / Comments

Robocop on a Unicorn for President

You may be wondering who Mediocre Minds endorses for President in this upcoming election. (I have personally received several emails from high-level senators and senatorial aids asking just this question.) Well, after considering all the facts, we have come to a decision.

Olav Rokne's Flickr set entitled "Robocop on a Unicorn" contains this gem, asking us to vote for Robocop on a Unicorn for President this November. And when you think about it... doesn't that make a lot of sense? Wouldn't Robocop be tough on crime and terrorism? Wouldn't Unicorn take care of working class families and their problems?

Vote for Robocop on a Unicorn... unless you're not patriotic.

October 21st, 2008 / paladinz / Tags: robocop, unicorn, politics / Trackback / Comments