A Blog About Election Results (No question mark)

Well, this long and arduous process known as the American presidential election is finally behind us. Congrats to President-elect Obama; this was a truly historical election and it speaks a lot about our country that so many people came together over our first minority President. Here are some quick thoughts about the election that I have:

1. This is the time, whether you voted for Obama or not, to stand behind him. I did not vote for him (it was a protest vote) but I am now proud to call him my president. He deserves a chance to govern, and hopefully he will do this from the middle. I think it's also important that Republicans do not act like he owes them or has to cater to them now that the election is over. This is how Democrats felt in 2004 and it really annoyed me. You won an election; you get to work on your ideas.

2. The Republican campaign of John McCain failed because it was never about ideas. It was about personalities and attacks. Example: McCain had a genuinely interesting idea about health care. Would it work? Maybe, maybe not. But it was something he needed to explain and debate. Illegal immigration - get out there and talk about the ways in which we can ensure the rights of these workers in our country! Social Security is about to fail in America; it will start drawing from the trust fund it set up in something like 2017, and it won't be long before it is bankrupt. Discuss ways in which we can either fortify this system or move away from it! Instead of talking about "ensuring the right to a private ballot in a union election", talk about ways in which you could amend labor law to negate the extremely unfair advantage given to employers in a union election (I can talk about this in depth if you are interested). These ideas never materialized. Instead, it was "I'll cut taxes for everybody" and "I'm the guy you want in charge of the military". People didn't buy this.

3. One more thing about this: McCain was a bad candidate. The party with the better candidate wins. End of story. For examples, see Al Gore, John Kerry, Michael Dukakis, Bob Dole...and those are just from my lifetime.

4. One thing to watch is the composition of the federal judiciary now that the White House is switching parties. Under Bush, Democrats filibustered many judges. McCain was part of the Republican group that felt this was wrong, and he joined the "gang of 14" - 7 D's and 7 R's - to get votes on the floor for judges. Now that there are only around 41-43 R's in the Senate, it will only take a few of them to join to break a filibuster on judges. Will McCain become the 60th cloture vote? An interesting position for him.

5. Sarah Palin has got to run for Ted Stevens Senate seat in the special election, doesn't she? Imagine her filibustering on the Senate floor! Maybe she'd do her Tina Fey impression?

6. The apparent thing about this contest was that it is way too long. There needs to be a law on the books about how the presidential process works. The money spent on this campaign is disgusting ($5.3 billion!). My proposal: allow candidates to file and start fundraising on Jan. 1 of the election year (2012 in this case). Have a national primary - maybe April 1, or somewhere in there. Allow every state an equal voice in the primary process, which doesn't happen now. After the primary, fundraising and campaigning allowed with restrictions for two months. On June 1st, we swing into full campaign mode. Vice Presidential candidates must be chosen within a 6 week window from June 1 to July 15. Conventions in August. Boom! You've cut at least 10 months out of the process. And I wouldn't have a problem with moving these timelines back.

7. One thing this election crystallized for me is how important the sanctity of life really is to me. I am going to join the Allegheny County chapter of the PA Pro-Life group. They have a chapter in the North Hills, one in the South Hills, and are trying to start one downtown. A quote that they have on their website really symbolized the way I feel about this. It was something to the effect of this: "When a fireman comes to a burning house, I don't care about his tax policy, his stance on Social Security, or whether he wants to deny equal rights to gays. All I care about is that he saves mother and child." We can't worry about anything else if we don't protect the innocent children that are slaughtered selfishly every year. If you are interested in joining me and my mom in this endeavor, let us know!

8. Reports that Rahm Emanuel has been chosen to be Obama's Chief of Staff are a little troubling. He's a fellow Chicagoan (cronyism!) and he has served in the Clinton White House (change??). He's also highly partisan (a uniter??) who once reportedly told Republicans that they could "f--- themselves". It's a bad foot to start on, in my opinion, for this President.

That seems like enough election analysis from me.