Since everyones been waiting with baited breathe for my post-election post I thought I'd get to it. Actually no one has inquired about the post, probably because all my peeps are conservatives and they know I'm intelligent, therefore, I am a liberal. You couldn't ask for a more exiting election night. Unless you count 2004 when the major networks awarded John Kerry the victory before changing their minds and turning the landslide victory over to President Bush. Oh, right, and then there was that time in 2000 when the networks awarded the state of Florida (and the Presidency) to Vice President Gore, but then reworked the data and found Mr. Bush to be the victor. In 2000 and 2004 I couldn't tear myself away from NBC, which featured Tim Russert and his whiteboard, earlier than 3 AM. Last night the best coverage belonged to CNN. Anderson Cooper is sooo dreamy. He kept me up until 1:30.
Last night I also campaigned for Civil Court nominee Shari Michels. Shari grew up in Washington Heights, and actually made an effort to reach out to the Jewish community in the neighborhood. She even stopped by a Saturday night event at Mt. Sinai and danced with us on Simchas Torah. What I liked best about her was when I invited her to dance with us, she just said "Hi, I'm Shari", not "I'm Shari, running for Civil Court Judge". I thought that was cool and knew that was somebody I'd vote for. Turns out she had a long history in the Jewish community and my friend Rochie's family was close with the Michels. So Rochie and I volunteered to help distribute flyers and stuff at a polling station in the neighborhood. The highlight of my evening was when a big, burly guy in his twenties was walking by and I asked if he'd voted yet. He said no. So I reminded him that polls closed in under an hour and he turned right around and walked across the street to the polling station, after of course I handed him information about my candidate. He came walking out 10 minutes later and when I thanked him for voting he had a big smile of his face. Might have been his first time to vote.
So we all know by now that the Democratic party has (finally) reclaimed the House and needed to win 3 of 4 close Senate races to steal the Senate as well. So far it looks like the Dems have safely taken 2 seats in Missouri (yay, stem cell research!) and Montana (yay, dude from Mr. Tester's campaign who followed around Senator Burns, and caught him sounding like an idiot on camera and then posting the videos on YouTube for me to laugh and laugh) with the race in Virginia too close to call. Come on people! In 2000 you called the race in Florida for Gore at like 10 pm. Now we've got a candidate like 7,000 votes ahead and we are going to wait it out? Seriously?! As my friend AG just asked, "do you think we'll ever again have another election without a formal recount?"
Virginia is an interesting race. George Allen has big-mouth syndrome. Here's a dude who could have sat on his couch watching Family Guy reruns and eating Cheetos for the past sixth months and would have cruised to victory. Instead, he has insulted Indian Americans, African Americans, and Jews. When he discoved his geneology includes a long line of successful Jews, he boasted about the ham sandwich he had for lunch and how great his mom's pork chops are. What a schmuck!. A friend I knew in high school sent out an email saying his father went to high school and was a football teammate of Senator Allen and he used racial epiphets (including the N word) often and without hesitation. He opened his big mouth and now may very well have lost his job and it seems handed the Senate to the Democrats on a silver platter. For that, George, I thank you.
President Bush today had a press conference at 1 pm to discuss the election aftermath and commented on his disappointment. The reporters did not let him off easy. My favorite part was this exchange between the reporter Rutenberg and the Prez:
Q I wanted to ask you about the thumpin' you took at yesterday's rodeo. You said you were disappointed, you were surprised --
THE PRESIDENT: There you go. Rutenberg, you notice that? Taking one --
Q And that was thumpin' without a "g," correct? I just want to make sure we have it right for the transcript. (Laughter.) You said you were surprised, you didn't see it coming, you were disappointed in the outcome. Does that indicate that after six years in the Oval Office, you're out of touch with America for something like this kind of wave to come and you not expect it? And on a somewhat related note, does Nancy Pelosi look much like Bob Bullock to you?
THE PRESIDENT: (Laughter.) That's an inside joke, I'm not commenting on it.
Secondly, I'm an optimistic person, is what I am. And I knew we were going to lose seats, I just didn't know how many.
Q How could you not know that and not be out of touch?
THE PRESIDENT: You didn't know it, either.
Q A lot of polls showed it.
THE PRESIDENT: Well, there was a -- I read those same polls, and I believe that -- I thought when it was all said and done, the American people would understand the importance of taxes and the importance of security. But the people have spoken, and now it's time for us to move on.
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Aaahhh, Rutenberg, now you sir deserve a Metal of Honor.
By the way, Shari won.
2 comments:
That exchange wasn't with Rutenberg. The president interrupted the question to poke fun of Rutenberg, who had already brought up his use of the word "thumping." (Or "thumpin.'")
This was off of the White House transcript from the press conference Wednesday afternoon, and I didn't notice above the excerpt to whom the President had invited the question. It was Herman. Herman who, I'm not sure. Thanks for bringing that to my attention. I read Jim Rutenberg's article on A1 this morning with glee, based on my newfound admiration. Oh well, he's still a cool dude, I guess.
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