"Undermining my electoral viability since 2001."

Hillary is In

The doubting is over, Hillary Clinton is almost certainly going to run for president:

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.) is to step down soon from her position in the Democratic leadership, a move that clears the deck for her ambitions outside the Senate.

Clinton is also keeping her campaign offices in New York and Washington operational despite the fact that she does not face reelection for six years, and had scant opposition last Tuesday.

Many in the progressive online community will wince at this. She's not very well liked, and a lot of people have The Fear about her. They both doubt her worth as a leader -- too corporate, lacking in principles, too related to a recent President with an iffy policy legacy -- and fear her power as a totem to rally the orcs at the GOP base. The dittohead horde has been fed for a generation on tales of "the Hildebeast." She would stoke their passion like almost no other.

To me, Hillary has been a rather unexciting politician since getting kicked around on that Health Care thing back in 1993-94. I find her public persona to be almost unbearable -- a transparent exercise in very bad acting -- although I've been assured by more than one person who's worked with her closely that in-person she's great. If that's so, she'd better start showing some greatness in public, because really if you try and watch her do her thing at a podium it's pretty piss poor.

Perhaps this is because on the inside she longs to be a revolutionary firebrand, and because (like a certain former Veep who worked with her Husband) she doubts this inner flame and calculates her positions to retain her position, rendering her hopelessly without courage or any semblance of conviction. I dunno. I really have no idea who these people are or what drives them. I just know she's a C+ performer at best on the stump.

Start practicing, Hill. Dig deep.

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Final Graphic

Blue wave

Kudos to Mike, Molly and Mark (and Mark's brother) for pulling it together. Onward!

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Youth Power The Wave

UPDATE: RUMMY RESIGNS!

It's a wave election. Where's that wave coming from? Millennials:

Millennial wave 2

Republicans were rejected across the board, but the 18 - 29 year old bracket is what made this wave election possible.

Millennial wave

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Strong

HFS! I did not expect for this to be a sweep! It looks like (recounts permitting) Webb and Tester are in, which would mean that Democrats + Lieberman would control the Senate. You can bet Holy Joe will milk that, but in terms of setting the agenda and taking control of committees, it's a shift.

It looks like the GOP is out of power in the Legislative branch. They also lost governorships and state legislatures to boot. It really was a national wave (as big a deal as 1994 for sure) and a resounding vote of no-confidence by the people against Bush's agenda.

Closer to home, my man Jerry McNerney beat corrupt oil-company shill Richard Pombo like a drum down in the 11th district. That was my $250 well spent I think.

Other notes:

  • Young voter turnout (ages 18-29) was way way up vs 2002, and was the most partisan segment of the electorate.
  • Anti-choice ballot initiatives failed in several states.
  • Bans on same-sex marriage passed in several red states, but failed in Arizona. This one's going to look real different in ten years, I think.
  • Minimum wage increases in several states. Expect a bump in the federal minimum as one of the first things the new Democratic congress does.

Should the Democrats shore up their position here and govern well, I can see national health care front and center once Bush is out.

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Results

Early (read: unreliable) indicators are good. Turnout appears to be high. Exit polls suggest a national referendum election. There seems to be a strong investigative response to most reports of problems.

In any event, I'll be lurking around kos and mydd, watching TV (prolly MSNBC and Olberman, who's one of the few personalities I can stand) drinking and enjoying the returns.

First real results in 5 minutes or so.

...

There's a strong push from the talking heads (who I don't watch much for this reason) to push the narrative that this election is about "moderate Democrats," with anti-choice Bob Casey (who won in PA) as the poster-boy.

This is pretty much nonsense, or at least it's not grounded in emprical reality. Check my dawg Sterling Motherfucking Newberry for the details.

But basically this is a great example of how insular the world of the DC power elite -- political careerists and the media figures who they mingle with -- really is. As I'm fond of saying, adult life is disappointingly like highschool. That unfortunately means that these narratives can be quite powerful, because in spite of the facts "everyone knows" that it was moderate/centrist candidates who made the difference.

...

Another observation, not a mention has been made as to "what are the Republicans going to do?"

...

What's really hillarious is that presumptive Speaker Pelosi is deemed as too conservative in her home district of San Francisco. Egad!

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You Know What Day It Is

GO

VOTE,

MOTHERFUCKER



Having Trouble?
Phone Numbers and Websites for reporting problems.

My Exercise of the Franchise

To the polling poace
The Fire House
Vote Here

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Closing Time

Just read a very nice post by Chris Bowers about the new emerging progressive political culture that rings very true to me. He's got a neat video at the end which I'll stick down at the bottom here too. Anyway, it's election day on Tuesday. Go vote, sucka.

I cracked the election book tonight to start sorting out ballot measures, etc. On candidates I'll probably vote the D-line. After my experience in 2000, I don't support third-parties as a gesture, only when there's a real chance for something to happen, though your mileage may vary.

Nationally it's looking like the Democrats will take the House, which would be an important and good (if not foolproof) check on the GOP/Bush power. That's exciting, most of all because it will mean a change in the atmosphere and a lot of new energy to mix it up. We need that.

Locally we don't have much. I live in an unincorporated community (just a water district) so pressing issues like potholes are solved ad-hoc by people getting fed up enough and buying some gravel. County elections are in an off year, and the state scene is pretty dull.

However, down in town there are a few zingers. My favorite is Measure W, which seeks to remove Fluoride from the drinking water. There's a pretty decent round-up of the issue in the North Coast Journal that sums it up in reality, but I just love the whacky symbolism of protecting our Precious Bodily Fluids.

Protect Our Precious Bodily Fluids

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Evangelical Leader Likes To Party With Tina

Ted Haggard, leader of the biggest Evangelical Church in America, and a regular chit-chatter with President Boosh (good background from Harpers magazine), apparently likes to get high on meth and down with male prostitutes:

The accusations were made by Mike Jones, 49, of Denver, who said he decided to go public because of the political fight over the amendments.

"I just want people to step back and take a look and say, 'Look, we're all sinners, we all have faults, but if two people want to get married, just let them, and let them have a happy life,"' said Jones, who added that he isn't working for any political group.

Jones, who said he is gay, said he was also upset when he discovered Haggard and the New Life Church had publicly opposed same-sex marriage.

"It made me angry that here's someone preaching about gay marriage and going behind the scenes having gay sex," he said.

Jones claimed Haggard paid him to have sex nearly every month over three years. He said he advertised himself as an escort on the Internet and was contacted by a man who called himself Art, who snorted methamphetamine before their sexual encounters to heighten his experience.

This is going to be a hard thing for a lot of people to deal with, and it's too bad this guy's life is probably ruined now, that his family's going to be all weirded out. Still, I find it hard not to appreciate the irony, especially considering I think what Haggard was doing with his life previously was destructive to society.

Someday, when we as human beings cease to be sheep and blind-believers in significant number, this sort of thing is going to stop being so surprising. Those who thunder hardest against what they consider sin and vice are usually battling some internal discrepancy in themselves.

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Photograph your Polling Place!

The Polling Place Photo Project (PPPP). Cool. This is the sort of low-cost activity that can roll up to being meaningful over time. I'll be snapping some shots of the Westhaven Volunteer Fire Station next tues.

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The Revolution, Visualized

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Thanks to Juls and Mystery Pollster, here's a fascinating graph charting party-affiliation with age. I'm a bit suspicious as to how they're calculating for the 33%+ of people who don't self-identify with any party, but the overall visualization of the waves is awesome.

Quick takeaways:

  • The velvet revolution is at hand. In the coming decade a strongly GOP-leaning wave is going to expire as the most progressive generation in history comes on-line.
  • The GOP is good at politics. They've managed to build power without real majorities among the public. This is done through slick communications, driving up apathy among the general public while stoking their base, and by marginalizing Democrats among the power-elite so that there appear to be no clear alternatives.

But basically this means that the people want a progressive future and as long as we stay on target we'll win over time. My generation knows that politics matters and knows that the 24/7 cable newsmedia is not really a good source of information. I like our chances. Health care here we come.

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