Election Results

I know that my post on the election is far too late... but here goes. I have a lot of thoughts on the election results as I stayed up late Tuesday night watching the election results come in. (I even saw Missouri called for Claire McCaskill). Let me start by saying that I was pleasantly surprised that democracy still exists in this country and that the majority of people aren't willing to give the President blind confidence in the Iraq war. I have to agree with Tom Delay who said this was not a vote for Democrats but a vote against Republicans. Who knew that I would ever agree with Tom Delay? I guess it had to happen at least once in my lifetime. I also agree with some nameless CNN commentator who said that conservative era is not over in America, witnessed by the majority of conservative Democrats elected in the midterm elections (Lieberman over Lamont, ex-Republican Jim Webb, Jon Tester and others). As a liberal, and someone who is very socially liberal, I find this disappointing, but one has to find common ground and this is better than nothing.

I'm not really sure that the Democrats deserve to have the majority in both the Senate and the House, but they better not squander this opportunity or they will surely lose the White House in 2008. I, for one, am hoping that the vast majority of Democrats can grow a spine very quickly. Speaker-to-be, Nancy Pelosi said that she had a number of initiatives that she hopes to push through in the first 100 hours of the new session of Congress, including stem cell research initiatives, raising the minimum wage (it's about time!), and implementing all the recommendations by the 9/11 commission among other things. Let's hope they do indeed get pushed through in the first 100 hours of Congress. I'm crossing my fingers for the Democrats because I think the future of this country depends on them growing a spine in the next two years so that there are some checks to George W. Bush's already enormous and unquestioned power.

Now let's talk about the actual election results... I like everyone else I know did a happy dance when I heard that Rick Santorum lost. He may have done some good things while he was in the Senate but I believe he did much more harm than good by his preachings of intolerance and hatred. Anyone who likens homosexuality to bestiality and adult-children sexual relationships should have no place in public office. I was also happy to see that George Allen lost. (By the way, Frank Rich wrote a terrific editorial on why I hate George Allen in today's New York Times). He called an Indian-American volunteer for the Webb campaign, "macaca, or whatever his name is" and welcomed him to America. Apparently this "macaca" was born in the US and is well versed in the American political system, having been an intern for Joe Lieberman and a volunteer for the Webb campaign. For some reason unknown to the masses, it took George Allen over a week to apologize for this incident. My favorite sentence in Frank Rich's article was, "Once it became clear that Mr. Allen was in serious trouble, conservative pundits mainly faulted him for running an “awful campaign,” not for being an awful person. " Seriously though, I think white Americans everywhere should be extremely embarrassed at George Allen's comments. Happily though, he is no longer a presidential hopeful for 2008 along with one Rick Santorum. Let's hope that we can keep these two hate-mongerers out of the presidential race.

I think it was expected that Democrats would win the House, but not by as much as they did. As proof that even extremely conservative districts can be changed to blue, Mark Foley's district and Tom Delay's district went to Democrats. I do agree with CNN analysts though that these district will likely turn over to Republicans in the next election. Perhaps more surprising than the House was that Democrats won the Senate. Even when there were three races undecided, Missouri, Montana and Virginia, it seemed unlikely that Democrats would capture all three races. As Democrat candidates were pulling ahead with slim margins, I was crossing my fingers. It was funny to see that before these elections were called, the Democratic candidates were making speeches at their campaign headquarters and calling the elections for themselves, much like President Bush did in 2000.

I was happy to see that the negative campaign ads against Democratic candidates for the House in a lot of states that warned against having Nancy Pelosi as Speaker of the House were largely unsuccessful. Now only if the ads against Harold Ford, Jr. were equally unsuccessful. Using Southernerss antiquated opinion of white women dating black men against anyone (let alone a promising young statesman like Harold Ford, Jr.) was a cheap shot.

And finally, the best news of the whole election was that Rummy is OUT! I know that this won't undo the damage that Rumsfeld has done in the past six years, but I'm happy to see that one of the most arrogant and oblivious of the Bush administration officials has been canned. It's also a good sign that President Bush is starting to admit that things are not going well (and by not going well, I mean not going well AT ALL) in Iraq. It is more likely that in the next two years, the Bush administration will make realistic decisions when it comes to Iraq instead of living in a fantasy world. I think Rumsfeld should have been fired a long time ago, but at this point, I will take what I can get. In conclusion, change is good and was much needed. Again, here's to hoping that the Dems don't let us down.