FINALLY!!!

[alandhopewell]

     This mess is over. I'm not happy with the winner, but I didn't vote for the other guy, either; I wrote in Captain America.

     This is the second Presidential election where I felt there was no one to vote for, and it all just seems like a badly-staged circus- I don't trust any of them.

[ChaosTheory]

I had to constantly remind myself this year that the right to vote is something people have died for.


John Adams wrote this before the Revolutionary War ended: "There is nothing I dread so much as a division of the [nation] into two great parties, each arranged under its leader and converting measures in opposition to each other....how few aim at the good of the whole, without aiming too much at the prosperity of parts!"
Don't think about that too long, or you may want to jump off a bridge 

[alandhopewell]

I had to constantly remind myself this year that the right to vote is something people have died for.


John Adams wrote this before the Revolutionary War ended: "There is nothing I dread so much as a division of the [nation] into two great parties, each arranged under its leader and converting measures in opposition to each other....how few aim at the good of the whole, without aiming too much at the prosperity of parts!"
Don't think about that too long, or you may want to jump off a bridge  

    My daughter, who just turned twenty-one, has never voted, and shuts me out when I remind her of the martyrs to the priviliege. I don't like it, but how can I convince her that it's worth her time, when she can see how the candidates themselves treat the process?

[A_Dubya]

I have voted 2 times now in a presidential election (still a relatively young fella). I still don't know how much it matters though. I just feel so insignificant in the political world of huge $$$ and shady characters.

[BoyScoutKevin]

I thought this might be interesting, as I picked these facts up from a number of different sources.

Romney did well and/or picked up the majority of . . .

regular Churchgoers
Cubans
the Elderly
non-supporters of Gay marriage
non-Hispanic Catholics
Men
Mormons (no surprise there)
Southerners w/ the exception of Floridians
Westerners w/ the exceptions of Coloradians and New Mexicans
Whites

Obama did well and/or picked up the majority of . . .

Asian-Americans
Blacks (no surprise there)
irregular Church goers
Gays and supporters of Gay marriage
Hispanic Catholics
Hispanics, excluding Cubans
Jews
New Englanders
Women
the Young

[indianasmith]

I find it interesting that BOTH tickets got fewer votes than they did last time.  Obama got almost 9 million fewer votes than in 08, and Romney got about 2 million fewer than McCain. (Which really surprised me, because I thought that he was a much stronger and more electable candidate than McCain!)

[LilCerberus]

I blame Jill Stein.
And Virgil Goode.
And Gary Johnson.

[indianasmith]

Does their combined percentage equal Obama's margin of victory?

[dean]

I find it interesting that BOTH tickets got fewer votes than they did last time.  Obama got almost 9 million fewer votes than in 08, and Romney got about 2 million fewer than McCain. (Which really surprised me, because I thought that he was a much stronger and more electable candidate than McCain!)

Just a suspicion of course, but I imagine there are quite a few people who felt a bit 'let down' after the big optimism that came leading up to the 08 election which may have put voters off on either side which may account for the lower numbers.

[Leah]

I didn't vote in this election, mainly that the yahoo's of the state triumph's over the civilized, as my dad puts it.

[tracy]

I'm glad it's over as well....it seems like each election has less appealing candidates and more at stake. Doesn't seem right...somehow.

[ulthar]

I didn't vote in this election, mainly that the yahoo's of the state triumph's over the civilized, as my dad puts it.

This can be a bigger problem than our individual choices.

The politicians and perhaps the media blast about election results being "a mandate" or validation of past/proposed policies.

If enough people do not vote, win or lose, the elections do not represent "public opinion" at all.  So, policies are made based on the "acceptance" of a very small percentage of the population...those policies that effect everyone.

A representative republic cannot operate properly without participation of the represented.

[Doc Daneeka]

I blame Jill Stein.
And Virgil Goode.
And Gary Johnson.

Glad Rocky Anderson is cool!

[BoyScoutKevin]

Finally???

Hardly!!!

2012 may be over, but the candidates for 2016 are already lining up at the starting gate, and because Obama cannot run for a 3rd term, we'll have twice as many candidates with twice as much noise as in 2012. Among the candidates likely to run are . . .

Republicans
ex-Governor Jeb Bush of Florida
ex-Secretary of State Condi Rice
Governor Chris Christie of New Jersey
Senator Mario Rubio of Florida
Governor Bobby Jindal of Louisiana
Governor Nikki Haley of South Carolina

Democrats
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
San Antonio (Texas) Mayor Juan Castro
Vice President Joe Biden
Governor Andrew Cuomo of New York
Governor Martin O'Malley of Maryland
Senator Kirsten Gillbrand of New York
Chicago (Illinois) Mayor Rahm Emanuel

And I'd add one not mentioned in the newest issue of "Time" Magazine.

Republican Governor Rick Perry of Texas.

See you all, or at least some of you, in 2016.

[LilCerberus]

I'm still getting robocalls from pollsters wanting to know if I'm a secessionist.