A few more election day thoughts

Here's a shot of Hal doing his civic duty. The other two are from The Obama Pajama Party at the Garage MaHal.

And what a fine party it was - food and drink in a celebration of an historic election day with a crowd of like-minded friends and neighbors.

I arrived just before 4PM, when the first of the polls were closing on the East Coast. I fired up my baby laptop, and Dave had his going, so along with a couple of TV's and multiple websites, we weren't going to miss a thing. There were no surprises early on, but as more and more states were called I began to get concerned. Obama wasn't flipping any previously red states. Both of the early states I expected to flip, Virginia and North Carolina, were too close to call. But Obama was ahead in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and even Indiana, so my knickers weren't too tightly twisted. Once those states fell, it was in the bag even if the networks hadn't called it yet. At one point, the tally was up to 200 for Obama, with nothing west of the Mississippi included. A little quick math to add up the in-the-bag states - +55 California, +7 Oregon, and +11 Washington - made it a done deal. I'm glad that I was able to observe and participate in a good day and a good time.

I had listened to Limbaugh on Monday to hear what the lunatic fringe was spouting, and was somewhat dumbfounded. I thought he was supposed to have his finger on the pulse of some segment of the population, but it's got to be a pretty small segment. He ranted on and on about socialists, communists, Marxists and even Bolsheviks. Who the hell was he talking to? The Berlin Wall came down 19 years ago! You've got to be over 40 to have any memories of the Cold War. Is communism a real force anywhere in the world? Does anyone really believe in a communist international conspiracy anymore? I could have understood rants against the Islamo-fascist forces in the world, or a not-so-subtle racist appeal, but Marxism?!?!? And he's paid something like $40M a year for his schtick?! Unbelievable.

Obama's got to feel like the dog who was chasing the bus and then finally caught it. What to do now? He's inherited one hell of a mess, with two wars, the markets melting down, with no easy solutions, and no money or room to maneuver. Those problems are beyond the control of any mere mortal. I think the best he can hope for is to do no further harm and to use the power of the bully pulpit to give the US and the world enough confidence and optimism to somehow muddle through it all.