Post-election thoughts

Well, I guess I can say it was nice not having to stay up all night if I wanted to hear the results.  The McCain campaign pretty much unofficially conceded to news reporters at about 9:00 when it was announced that Obama had won Ohio.  And I will of course take this moment to remind you of this statement made by yours truly back in February:

Many conservatives will not vote.  Obama will take the "undecided" vote and will be the first president in a long time to mobilize the young vote.  There will be those that vote against him because he's black, but it won't be enough to give McCain a win.  Obama will get at least 55% of the vote.

So there you have it.  Barak Obama will be the next president of the United States.  Any of you who are fearful of this need to get used to it now.

So yeah, Obama didn't get 55% of the vote, and that is likely due to McCain being able to inspire the evangelical vote more than I anticipated with his choice of Sarah Palin as VP.  But I was still RIGHT for the most part.  Obama won because he mostly had people voting FOR HIM.  McCain lost because he mostly had people voting AGAINST OBAMA.  You cannot win an election if people's motives are to keep the other guy out of office.

And reports last night and early this morning are that Obama was able to mobilize the young vote, which is something Democrats have tried to do for years with little success.  We should all at least be able to recognize that he ran a really organized an effective campaign.  He raised the money he needed to raise and he used it wisely.

And Democrats did not get the filibuster-proof majority that the press was salivating over and that was scaring some conservatives into voting for McCain.  It's not what the Democrats wanted, but it does put Obama in a good position to push his real agenda.  So now maybe we'll find out what that is exactly.  :)

I also think it's interesting that some of the most moderate Republicans lost their seats last night.  Everything is being set up nicely for a major movement back to the RIGHT.  The Democrats will not lead this country in the direction that their liberal constituents want them to, but their agenda will be liberal enough to fire up a conservative backlash.  We've voted out the folks on "our side" who weren't conservative enough.  Now it's time to go back to the drawing board and find the folks that are.