election » Newton Bigelow

Election Day, Part 2

Nov 042008

I’m watching the returns tonight with some friends from the local Green Party. Two of our Green county board candidates are friends of mine. It’s an upbeat and energetic night. Some press folks are around, doing interviews and taking pictures. We are wired up good and proper, watching television and listening to radio. Laptops and iPhones abound.

Although the national returns are coming fast and furious, our local results are moving slower. One thing I do know is that turnout was very heavy here. I will update when we hear something about the county board races.

Update: Wow. We were all very moved by Obama’s victory tonight. When I think of the difference between our new president and the man he’s replacing… It doesn’t even seem real to me yet. McCain managed a very gracious concession speech as well. Had he kept to that kind of honorable, respectful tone throughout the election, the vote might have been a lot closer.

Locally, neither of my friends won their races. However they both captured 30% of the vote, which is fairly amazing in a year that is seeing big Democratic wins across the board. I hope that this moves our local democrats to pay more attention to their constituencies. You can’t just slap a “D” next to your name and expect to sidestep accountability, people.

Politics

Election Day, Part 1

Image Posts 1 Response »

Nov 042008

What are you doing reading the internet? Go vote!

Come back later with your “I voted” sticker, and I’ll give you a special treat.

Politics

Hooray, telemarketers!

Image Posts No Responses »

Oct 272008

I hate telemarketing calls as much as anyone. Telemarketers, though, are usually underpaid workers doing a crappy job because they need to pay the bills. Them I don’t hate. This story about the Indiana call center workers who went home rather than read a sleazy McCain phone script makes me feel like being a little less rude the next time I get interrupted at dinner time.

Politics

Debate Sorcery

Politics, Random Jabber No Responses »

Oct 072008

Couldn’t make myself actually watch the debate tonight. Instead, I read a bunch of websites that were doing liveblogging. It’s an odd thing to read the responses without watching the thing itself, but I kind of like it. You get a sense of the bits that provoked strong reactions, things that will be drowned in a sea of analysis by tomorrow morning. For instance, McCain apparently had a bad moment where he lapsed into gibberish. Not the kind of thing that pundits are likely to make much of, but it was notable enough that multiple bloggers mentioned it right after the fact.

But what none of the bloggers seemed willing to talk about was Obama’s stunning display of supernatural powers in the early minutes of the debate. With a mere wave of his hand, he was able to reduce his opponent to nearly a third of his original stature.

For the remainder of the debate, McCain hopped madly around the stage, his squeakily unpleasant voice grating on the nerves of the audience. Yet neither moderator Tom Brokaw nor any other commentator had the courage to make note of Obama’s sorcerer’s ways. Just more evidence of reality-based community’s unvarnished bias.