I’m going to start this post with a prediction for the 2012 presidential election:
President Barack Obama 56% and 516 electoral votes
Sarah Palin 29% and 22 electoral votes
A third-party candidate with libertarian views 14% and 0 electoral votes
Palin will carry her home state plus Idaho, Utah, Wyoming, and Oklahoma. Obama will carry the rest of the nation. No idea who the third-party candidate will be, but what the heck, I’ll take a wild guess… Jesse Ventura.
What a great night. I started celebrating as soon as Ohio was called, after quickly doing a little math and realizing that California, Oregon, Washington, and Hawaii, surely in the bag for Obama, would get him to 270. Others refuse to believe it until the polls closed in those states at 10 PM, and they were called for Obama at 10:00:03 PM. We all gathered at Calhoun’s to watch the returns. Here’s a pic of the gang, taken shortly after 10 PM:
Horrible pic of me, but great pic of everyone else on one of the nights we will truly remember for the rest of our lives.
I have to give the Republicans credit – John McCain was very gracious in defeat in his acceptance speech, and sounded like a true statesman. The Republicans in the bar with us at Calhoun’s were also equally gracious – a Republican volunteered to take the picture above, as a matter of fact.
As for Obama, he sounded like a uniter in his speech, saying he hoped to mend fences with those who didn’t vote for him, and be their president too. Certainly a different tone than George W. Bush’s acceptance speeches four and eight years ago.
The only thing I can’t understand is the state of Alaska. The Senate race there hasn’t been called yet as of the time of this post, but it looks as though they’re going to give convicted felon Ted Stevens another ticket back to Washington. My only guess why is that it’s a strategic vote – they know the Senate will surely expel him first thing in January, and that will open the door for Sarah Palin to run.
What a great night. After decades of division and ugliness and nastiness toward one another, we’ve elected a man who can hopefully unite the nation. I can’t wait for January 20 to get here.