So: Today’s the Day

Posted By: Peter DavidPosted On:

It’s all come down to this. Several years after Mitch McConnell declared that the GOP’s top priority was making Obama a one-term president, we now learn whether or not they’ve managed to accomplish this. We will be heading over to yet another polling place (the third in as many elections after twenty years of being in the same place) to cast our votes, and we encourage everyone else to do the same.

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47 comments on “So: Today’s the Day”

  1. We’ve got mail-in ballots. But since we are now allowed to drop them off at polling places, and a polling place is across the street, that’s what I’ll be doing at lunch today.

  2. Be zipping out to vote in just a few.

    Figure it’s going to be a long, rocky election night. I’m thinking the results will be Romney with 51% of the popular vote while Obama grabs the electoral college with a slim lead of around 271 for Obama and 267 for Romney.

      1. How is that pessimistic?

        I’m not looking at one set of numbers. I’m looking at most of them and averaging. Granted, I’m leaving out complete nuts like unskewed.com or Ðìçk “How Do I Even Still Have Job” Morris, but that still shows a tight race without their delusional predictions.

    2. Two weeks ago, I would’ve agreed with you. (And, I would’ve been happy, because Republicans losing electorally to a Democrat might’ve finally lead to doing away with the Electoral College.) But I suspect Obama’s response to Sandy will give him an edge in the popular vote, too. (But less than 50% of registered voters will probably vote, which will allow conservatives to point out Obama didn’t have a majority.)

      1. But less than 50% of registered voters will probably vote, which will allow conservatives to point out Obama didn’t have a majority.

        Well, they shouldn’t have a leg to stand on with any of that kind of stuff.

        The 2000 election was a split in their favor due to the EC, and Nate Silver is currently predicting a popular vote in Obama’s favor about equal to Bush over Kerry in 2004.

        But hey, they like a lot of things when they’re the party in power, then suddenly don’t when they’re not.

      2. I voted on Friday. There was an extremely long line to early-vote in a Republican county of NC. We’ll see if that translates into the Democrats having a goal of making Romney a one-term President.

        (But less than 50% of registered voters will probably vote, which will allow conservatives to point out Obama didn’t have a majority.)

        Nice of you to generate talking points for us based on your understanding of how conservatives think. Tell me, what should I have for dinner?

        Besides, I doubt voter turnout will be down more than 1/5 since 2008. Also, the point of an election is to get a majority of the voters that actually turn out, so I’m not sure what point you’re trying to make here.

      3. “Nice of you to generate talking points for us based on your understanding of how conservatives think. Tell me, what should I have for dinner?”

        Lots and lots of rat poison…

      4. Ignore the lunatic fringe, David.

        I’d suggest something festive for dinner like we’re having at my house. Chicken wings, popcorn, drink of choice (I’m strictly coffee and soda) and election results.

        You may want to have some antacid on hand for about 2AM as well.

      1. Sorry to lump you all into the same box, David. I was going by my own experiences with some conservatives where I’ve worked in the past. In the elate 90s, I knew several people who belonged to a church with very conservative beliefs. One of them told me that Clinton shouldn’t be president because he didn’t have a majority of the vote. She believed he actually had less votes than Dole in 1996, basing this on a misunderstanding of some of the pundits on talk radio and Fox News. I had to explain what was actually meant by what was being said. Plus, over the years, I’d seen a good number of letters in the newspaper from people saying the same thing about Clinton being a “minority” president. As the place I lived before Kansas was Northeast Indiana (the congressional district which first elected Dan Quayle to politics), I feel I got to know the beliefs of conservatives over the years. I won’t say these are the beliefs of ALL conservatives. But many of them do seem to share these ideas.

      2. Plus, over the years, I’d seen a good number of letters in the newspaper from people saying the same thing about Clinton being a “minority” president.

        In fairness, Clinton was our first black president. 😉

  3. I had a 5 Step Plan for voting this morning.
    1. Wake up
    2. Shower
    3. Drive to polling place
    4. Cast vote
    5. Post about voting on FB

    I accomplished my 5 steps this morning before going to work.

  4. Voted early. Somewhat pointless in a Red State, but miracles do happen.

    Besides, it’s my permit to bìŧçh for the next four years. 🙂

    1. I know what you mean, Brian. I’ve been stuck in Kansas for my job for 2-1/2 years now. When I voted in the primary, my choices were Republican or unaffiliated.

      My comment about Kansas is that it isn’t a red state.

      It’s infrared.

      1. I lived in Kansas City (the Missouri side) for my job as well, for 11 years. I was SO glad to move back to the coast in 2000. It is so backwards there, progressive-wise.

  5. We have mail in ballots, and we dropped ours off at the ballot box in front of the library a couple weeks ago – the very next day we got them in the mail. I do miss going to the polls and voting though. But I wouldn’t trade it at all for Florida-style nonsense, however…

  6. They tried to make Clinton a one-term president, too. We see how well that went.

    And while the Constitution was amended to limit presidents to two terms, I don’t recall anything in that amendment that specified that the terms must be consecutive. Just sayin’.

  9. We will be heading over to yet another polling place (the third in as many elections after twenty years of being in the same place) to cast our votes, and we encourage everyone else to do the same.

    You want us to cast your votes? 😉

    1. S’funny how, whenever someone audits the scanners at cash registers, if there’s a mistake in how much an item scans for it’s typically in the store’s favor.

      Or when a voting machine “randomly” changes a vote it’s in favor of the Republican.

    2. Well, Jerry, just popping in to say that obviously I was very wrong about how tonight would go. Very wrong. You were right. A very difficult night for us all…..

      3. No biggie. Everyone wants to believe that their team has it in the bag. Besides, if you’re in love with the process enough to separate yourself from the results for a while, this is the kind of race that makes it fun.

        Man… I so miss having Tim Russert calling the races. His love of the process was infectious. He made “the game” something you could love even if you didn’t like the results.

      4. I do love the process. And your gratious attitude is very much appreciated. I honestly believed what I was saying, but I was pretty overbearing. Win or lose, no excuse for that. I sincerely hope that this is not a replay of 2000. We’ll just have to wait and see…

      5. Ah, stuff all the other bickering. Tonight’s about the process. The process is a beautiful thing. We can bicker, argue and flame any time over the next four year of whoever is in.

        Tonight we witness and celebrate the process that we all can agree about (or should be able to at least) as being an amazing thing. No matter the levels of hate we’ve seen over the years, decades and centuries in heated political climates, we all come together in the process and agree that we will abide by the process and at the very least acknowledge that the winners that come out of it, agree with the outcome or not, will be our leaders until the next time.

        No bloodshed. No gunfire. No political or military coup d’état. We the people make it happen.

        Tonight is a thing of beauty. We can always bicker later.

      6. Tonight is a thing of beauty. We can always bicker later.

        Dammit, give me the pessimist back already! 😉

  12. Wow…

    I gave Romney Wisconsin on my political map. I knew it was tight, but I figured that they had a better Republican ground-game.

    If the “safe states” for Obama and Romney remain constant in the west, all Obama really has to do is get Ohio and it’s a done night.

    2. It will be interesting to watch the actual counts in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. I think they were called too early.

      1. Yeah, I completely agree with you on Pennsylvania. That one surprised me with the early timing of the call. If we see it bumped back in play by 10:30, it’s in play. If no bump by 11:00, maybe they had more solid info than I think they have on the call.

      2. Great. Confirmed voting fraud in Ohio. Election judges removed. Don’t know how wide spread or if it will have any real impact on the race. Nothing like some mud in the water during an insanely tight race. What’s wrong with these people?

      3. 0.o

        Stupid. If Florida tips Obama, it might not matter. If Florida goes Romney, that stuff in Ohio will be a serious bone of contention with many on both sides and rightly so.

      4. Agreed. Important to point out that the voter fraud in Ohio is not being reported as a partisan issue. Unregistered voters allowed to vote even though they weren’t on the rolls. Not necessarily favoring a candidate. Just favoring idiocy.

      5. Not sure what’s going on in Ohio today, but their Secretary of State already has much to answer for from the last few days, possibly along with some of these groups that show up to ‘monitor’ elections.

  13. Ohio has just been called for Obama.

    If that holds for the next hour, the game is done. That puts Obama over 270.

    1. You’re being very cautious. I’d call it miraculous if Romney was able to pull this out. But I will say that calling Ohio at this point was another premature call. 28% of the vote is still out there, and Romney has been closing the gap strongly. We’ll see……

      1. Cautious because I think it’s a tad early of a call given some of the precincts still out and the tight margin of victory. Although Fox News is calling it as well now and I think they would wait until there was no other option.

        Romney camp just told an NBC reporter that it’s not over for much the same reasons I just typed above.

      2. NBC just went over why they called Ohio: 200k votes still to be counted in heavily-Democrat Cuyahoga County, with what’s been counted in the county so far in Obama’s favor at about the same margin as 4 years ago. Which means something like 150k additional votes for Obama.

      3. Further number from NBC:
        They estimate about 140k votes left to be counted in Romney-leaning counties.
        But 750k votes left to be counted in Obama-leaning counties.

        It also looks like there’s little chance of Romney winning the popular vote, not with it so close as is right now yet you have situations like the above Ohio, and then votes to be counted on the West Coast.

      4. I know. I’m actually watching NBC.

        I’m just of the nature that you wait until you have it a little more solidly in the bank. It avoids stuff like having states go in, out, in, out and then back in a win column (which has happened before) and you eliminate issues in extremely close races where people question the legitimacy of the results and the system.

      5. Well, I’d rather there be no ‘projections’, but that they actually just count the dámņ votes and we go from there. 🙂

        But at least NBC made the effort to explain why they made the projection they did, which is something I’m not sure we got in 2000.

        At any rate, it doesn’t look like some sudden victory in Ohio will be enough for Romney anyways.

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