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Final Countup

Whoops! I was right about Missouri's electoral votes, but not the Omaha Nebraska vote. It looks like they counted absentee ballots last in Nebraska, and they went overwhelmingly to Obama. So the final total for the Great Election of 2008 ends up being 365 for Obama to 173 for McCain.

This vindicates the Obama campaign's decision to spend some time and money in Omaha in the final days of the campaign. That in turn vindicated the Nebraska legislature's decision to split their electoral votes that way. Given this result, I have to wonder if any other states that got neglected this cycle are going to follow Nebraska's lead.

Where We Go From Here
There are still a couple of Senate races to be decided, but this pretty much wraps up the Presidential campaign news for 2008.

For those of you wondering we at the campaign will be doing now that the campaign is over, I had wondered that myself.

Greg I know is planning on helping in the Great Crusade to take our state back for The Light ... if he doesn't get called up to DC, which I understand is a possibility. Mary Jo and Blanca I know will continue fighting until the day the Good Lord calls them Home. That's just the way they were made.

As for me? Calvin Rees at DemoOkie has graciously offered to add me as an author there. When I started this effort I did a survey of every Democratic and progressive blog and message board in the state that I could find. Calvin runs the best general-purpose Democratic message board in the state, and his blog has become an important resource for me here at Oklahoma For Obama, so I was very honored to accept. If you are interested, my first post is already up. See you there!

Results - Friday

Another day out, and we still don't have a final count. North Carolina did finally come in, so we do now stand at 364 to 173. However, it now looks like Obama is likely to get the Omaha EV from Nebraska, (still not Missouri though). It's nice to see some vindication for Nebraska finally in their decision to split their EV's this way. Let's hope this causes some other larger states to follow their example.

Its two days later, and we still don't have all the EV's in. However, the final Nebraska EV and the ones for Missouri look like they are going to go McCain. North Carolina is still a tossup, but one where Obama is slightly ahead at the moment. So the final count looks like it will probably be 364 to 173.

Obama has named his transition team. No names on it I recognize by sight, but that's typical for a transition team. The main transition news is the on again off again talk about Rahm Emmanuel becoming Obama's Chief of Staff. He's got a rep as a real down and dirty take no prisoners kind of guy. I'm not sure how comfortable I'd be with him anywhere else in the Administration, but Chief of Staff is a good fit for that. If Obama doesn't want to hear from you, you will not be getting by Rahm.

One of the big questions a lot of us on The Left have about the aftermath of the election has been, will the Reps Get It? Will they accept the repudiation the country has handed them with, and do the soul-searching required to rebuild their party, or will they find a couple of convenient scapegoats and go on using their same old message that worked so well in 1980 when they crafted it? Frankly the longer they stay in denial, the better off we will be.

So far, Denial seems to be winning. There's been a fair bit of blaming Palin. It turns out she spent even more on clothes than was reported. She had her staffers buy her stuff on their credit cards, which are only now being charged back to the campaign for reimbursement. It would be funny if it weren't so...aw heck, it's funny.

There's also a lot of talk that they lost because they weren't "conservative enough". I call this the Tinkerbell theory. If you believe enough in Conservatism, it will work. If you failed, that's proof you didn't believe enough!

So it's likely that we are going to see more sillyness in the future from the remaining Republicans in Congress (for example, our entire Oklahoma delegation). Fortunately, they are no longer in power, so it shouldn't be too damaging, just entertaining.

Awwww...they're so cute when they get all 1980 like that.

Oklahoma, The Land that Time Forgot

Sadly things did not go well here in Oklahoma. Obama did not win a single county. Every Democrat running in a statewide race lost, as did Oliver for Tulsa's representative.

While the rest of the country was having a transformational election, we seemed to be stuck in 2004. The results were exactly the same.
Here are the numbers from the state election board:

2004:
JOHN F. KERRY       DEM   503,966   34.43%
GEORGE W. BUSH      REP   959,792   65.57%
2008:
BARACK OBAMA        DEM   502,329   34.36%
JOHN McCAIN         REP   959,808   65.64%

Landslide

I'd like to say "the results are in", but as I write this the 26 electoral votes for Missouri and North Carolina are still up in the air. There's been some kind of weirdness in Georgia too, something about the vote totals being rediculously low, so some folks have thrown their 15 EV's back out too.

However, even without them Obama has the largest electoral victory since Regan. When you add in what happened with the house and senate races, it's clear the Republicans got spanked.

I was expecting the win of course, but the implications of it didn't actually hit me until it was announced. It is very hard indeed not to see this as a vindication our the ideals of freedom and equality that we have strayed so far from these last 8 years. This is both due to the personal story of the winner, and the resounding nature of the defeat of the current party holding the White House.

Perhaps my favorite story of the night was the impromptu celebration that started (in the rain) in front of the White House. (DC, of course, voted %93 for Obama). From CNN:

At least 1,000 people gathered on Washington's Pennsylvania Avenue in front of the White House late Tuesday night, shouting "Obama! Obama!" and "Yes we can!" Uniformed Secret Service officers were overheard, saying they'd never seen anything like it.

Of course celebrations weren't even limited to this country. Kenya, the birthplace of Obama's father, has declared tomorrow a national holiday. While other countries aren't going quite that far, there are reports of celebrations all over Europe, Africa, and in parts of Asia.

The more interesting (and perhaps relevent) thing is what this does for US clout. For example, European leaders are openly expressing worries that requests from President Obama for more support in places like Afghanistan are going to be difficult to turn down, due to his popularity with their own constituents.

Watch Parties

I just got back from driving a voter to the polls, so now its time to go over the area watch parties.


Tulsa County Democratic Party and
Senator Nacy Riley (SD37) and
George Bullock (HD71) and
Seneca Scott (HD72)
at 7:30 pm
Transport Workers Union Hall
11945 East Pine Street, Tulsa

Senator Tom Adelson (SD78)
Representative Lucky Lamons (HD61)
Representative Jeannie McDaniel (HD78)
7:00 pm
Baxter's Interurban Grill
717 South Houston Avenue, Tulsa

Sebastian Lantos (HD67)
7:00 pm
Bluestone Steakhouse & Seafood Restaurant
10032 South Sheridan Road

Karen Keith (Tulsa CC2)
7:00 pm
Leon's - South Peoria
33rd & Peoria, Tulsa

Georgianna Oliver (1st Congress)
7:00 pm
Downtown Doubletree
616 West 7th St., Tulsa

General
6:00 pm
Jazz Hall of Fame
111 East 1, Tulsa