From a Seattle Times article detailing the small, yet vocal conservative presence in one of America’s most liberal cities.

“A lot of Republicans in Seattle generally are transplanted from the East, and are looking for people who share their values,” he said, explaining that those values would be: “Family, pro-life, God, guns and babies.”

…can’t say I disagree. :)

Howdy, Obama voter. You’re gonna looooove this “change”.

NYT article: Obama Reaches Out for McCain’s Counsel

Not long after Senator John McCain returned last month from an official trip to Iraq and Pakistan, he received a phone call from President-elect Barack Obama.

“B-b-b-but it’s just a phone call!”

Not really.

Over the last three months, Mr. Obama has quietly consulted Mr. McCain about many of the new administration’s potential nominees to top national security jobs and about other issues — in one case relaying back a contender’s answers to questions Mr. McCain had suggested.

{My wife, removing the last remnant of the 2008 Presidential campaign from my back car window.}

Chelsea’s been asking me since the election to remove my ‘McCain – President’ sticker from my back car window. Don’t worry, she’s a McCain supporter, she just wanted to “show respect for our incoming President”… plus she didn’t want my car to get keyed. I saw it as a badge of honor… plus, I just like pissing off liberals.

So now my back windshield (a place I’ve usually reserved solely for stickers pertaining to Mississippi College and political campaigns) is bare… what step should I take moving forward? I’m tempted to become a typical Seattleite and add my KEXP membership decal or Crystal Mountain sticker upon my first run to the mountains. I’m tempted to add a “Thank W for 8 great years!” but I don’t want my car to get keyed.

Any ideas of how I could “represent”?

More here: Obama-supporting teacher bullies soldier’s daughter

Relieving to know that Obama is human as well… despite the image/hope some of his supporters have bestowed upon him.

The debates unnerved both candidates. When he was preparing for them during the Democratic primaries, Obama was recorded saying, “I don’t consider this to be a good format for me, which makes me more cautious. I often find myself trapped by the questions and thinking to myself, ‘You know, this is a stupid question, but let me … answer it.’ So when Brian Williams is asking me about what’s a personal thing that you’ve done [that's green], and I say, you know, ‘Well, I planted a bunch of trees.’ And he says, ‘I’m talking about personal.’ What I’m thinking in my head is, ‘Well, the truth is, Brian, we can’t solve global warming because I f—ing changed light bulbs in my house. It’s because of something collective’.”

[credit: Chris Harris]

One popular trend among know-nothing idiots in workplaces around America is the thought that the Republican Party (as of last night) is dead. This argument is usually the favorite line of the same Obama supporter who cannot name one thing Barack Obama has actually done in his political career (aside from ‘hope’ and ‘change’, which are words… not accomplishments).

Therefore, when someone mentions this “death of the Republicans”, send them this link. If the Democratic Party can suffer that kind of a loss and STILL get Clinton elected 8 years later, this loss will be easy for the G.O.P. to overcome.

The 2008 Presidential Election is over.

We turn to the Kübler-Ross model — the 5 Stages of Grief.

1. Denial
2. Anger
3. Bargaining
4. Depression
5. Acceptance

Right now (at 8 PM Seattle time) I’m actually at #5. I wrote this election off a long time ago (though you would never know it if you click the obama yo mamma tag). When you take a look at the cold hard facts, there should be no question that long before the primaries, a Democrat (especially Obama) should win.

Why Tuesday’s McCain loss should be so much easier to deal with:

1. You have arguably the most unpopular President in history – a Republican – in office for 8 years.
2. An unpopular, ongoing war with no definitive end in sight.
3. The worst economic crisis since the great depression.
4. A liberal media who ignored Obama’s ties with Ayers, ignored Obama’s ties with Rev. Wright, ignored and hid Obama’s controversial video on Israel.
5. Barack Obama ran the most impressive, the most-staffed, the most expensive campaign in history.
6. Barack is a good-looking, articulate, and intelligent… Americans want those qualities in their President, and the fact that he is African American was just the icing on the cake. America is not racist. America could not be happier to elect a black president.
7. Barack Obama waged the most effective, wide-ranging campaign from a communication standpoint (see: website, email, signs, stickers, Twitter, Facebook, text messages, etc) of any type of election in the history of the world (yes… the world).
8. Barack Obama is a great (incredible) communicator, and he managed to convince America that he is something that he has actually never been. He was the most liberal Senator in the U.S. Senate. In a right-of-center country like America, convincing 50%+ of its citizens that the McCain - one of the most bi-partisan U.S. Senators in history – that McCain is Bush and Obama is centrist… well, that’s just plain impressive.
9. Barack’s grandmother died the night before the election… yes, the bad things even gave Obama a boost. (AND her absentee vote counts.. I can’t make this stuff up.)

Now… taking all of this into consideration, Obama only convinced half of Americans that he’s fit to be President of the United States. Half. America still is, and will continue to be a right-of-center nation. The real Barack Obama will never be a right-of-center President… though ‘President Barack Obama’ might act and even implement policies which are somewhat centrist. History will show us that the election of Barack Obama will help the G.O.P. realign, re-strategize, and return from this election with a better focus, a better message, and a better plan for the 2012 election.

Here’s to 2012. Who’s everyone going to vote for? (I kid! I kid! — But no, seriously, who are you rooting for in 2012?)

McCAIN CAMPAIGN MEMO: READING THE EXIT POLLS
BILL McINTURFF, INTERNAL POLLSTER
Mon Nov 03 2008 16:53:14 ET

As we have seen in previous election cycles, the exit poll results do leak early and that ends up influencing the coverage of the race before even the first state polls close at 6:00 PM Eastern.

However, we want to remind the campaign that the media’s own post-election study of the exit polls in 2004 showed that the exit polls overstate the Democratic candidate’s support. Therefore, we would discourage a rush to judgment based on the exit polls and wait until there has been a representative sampling of actual tabulated results from a variety of counties and precincts in a state.

Here are the key points to keep in mind when the exit poll data starts being leaked:

1. Historically, exit polls have tended to overstate the Democratic vote.

2. The exit polls are likely to overstate the Obama vote because Obama voters are more likely to participate in the exit poll.

3. The exit polls have tended to skew most Democratic in years where there is high turnout and high vote interest like in 1992 and 2004.

4. It is not just the national exit poll that skews Democratic, but each of the state exit polls also suffers from the same Democratic leanings.

5. The results of the exit polls are also influenced by the demographics of the voters who conduct the exit polls.

After the 2004 election, the National Election Pool completed a study investigating why the exit polls that year showed John Kerry over performing 5.5 net points better than the actual results showed him to have done. Their conclusion was that the primary reason the exit polls was that Kerry voters and Democrats were more likely to participate in the exit polls.

“Our investigation of the differences between the exit poll estimates and the actual vote count point to one primary reason: in a number of precincts a higher than average Within Precinct Error most likely due to Kerry voters participating in the exit polls at a higher rate than Bush voters. There has been partisan overstatements in previous elections, more often overstating the Democrat, but occasionally overstating the Republican.

We believe that this will hold true this year. The recent Fox News survey showed that 46% of Obama voters said they were very likely to participate in the exit polls, while just 35% of McCain supporters are.

In fact, even the 2004 exit poll report noted that higher turnout nationally and higher levels of voter interest in both 1992 and 2004 correlated with greater Within Precinct Error.

The overstating of the Democratic vote did not only occur in the national exit polls, but also occurred in the state exit polls. The 2004 exit poll report cited that the Kerry vote was overstated by more than one standard error in 26 states, while the Bush vote was overstated in just four states. So we should also expect the individual state exit polls on Tuesday to be more Democratic as well.

So given that turnout is expected to be even higher than 2004 and that Democrats are more likely to participate in the exit polls, this means we should expect greater fluctuation and variation in the exit polls from the actual election results.

The 2004 exit poll report also showed that the greatest error in the exit poll came in precincts where the interviewer was younger. The completion rates were lower and the refusal rates and Within Precinct Error was higher when the interviewers were under the age of 35.[6] Complicating this is that nearly half the interviewers were under the age of 35, including 35% who were 18-24 and another 15% were 25-34.

Conclusions

Based on the previous exit poll results, we should expect once again that Tuesday’s exit poll data could overstate the Obama vote and under represent the McCain vote.

It is important that the campaign make sure the media realizes this, so that when the exit polls do leak, people do not overreact to the early exit poll data. Rather than looking at the exit polls, we should wait until we start seeing actual election results from key precincts and counties to gauge who won the election.

“John McCain served longer in a POW camp than his opponent has in the United States Senate. Ladies and gentlemen, I only play an action hero in my movies, but John McCain is a real action hero.”

- Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger

If Iraqis could vote, they would vote for McCain.

Business owner’s property vandalized due to McCain/Palin sign.

(The title of the article is my favorite part.)

ACORN is paying people to register to vote. One Ohio man registered 72 times after ACORN gave him cash and cigarettes to do so.

It should come as no surprise that ACORN is a staunch supporter of Barack Obama.

“In politics, there are some candidates who use change to promote their careers. And then there are those like John McCain, who use their careers to promote change.”

- Gov. Sarah Palin

Statement: The Obama Doctrine

For those of you whom I speak with regularly, you know my position on this presidential election: it’s over.

I joke about politics on the blog. I also address things of a more serious nature. I’m a political junkie… it’s my (our) duty to rally the troops… push the valid talking points… help you get some jabs in with your liberal (or conservative-gone-awry) colleagues at work. This political may subside post-election… but it will always be prevalent on the blog.

McCain hasn’t pushed the facts or the issues like he needed to. You all should have know about terrorist financial contribution connection to his campaign long before this week (no… your pro-Obama friends are lying to you — he did accept money from an unapologetic domestic terrorist, Bill Ayers — look it up)

But it’s too little, too late.

Obama had this in the bag long before last night’s debate… long before his acceptance speech in Denver… long before he became a United States Senator. He won me over at the 2004 Democratic National Convention. He’s charasmatic… likable… and photogenic as heck.

America is ready for a black President. America is ready for a feeling of change… even if the change provided by Obama would be no different than the change McCain provided.

Does this mean I’ve changed my tone? Have I (or should you) become soft? H-E-L-L no. I dislike Barack now more than I ever have and I’ll hold my breath for an October surprise — though I don’t think that will occur.

One issue you will see over the next 4 weeks will be race… color. I’ve always been of the opinion that Obama’s color would help, not hinder him in this election. I personally don’t think he would have gotten this far in politics were he not African American. The McCain camp won’t make race an issue… if they do, shame on them. The Obama camp shouldn’t make race a factor… if they do, shame on them as well.

At this very moment Obama could not be promising more for his first 4 years in office… and that spells disaster. $1,200,000,000 worth of new (new) new spending. There has never been any candidate in recent history to promise as much as Obama has, and no candidate has ever delivered close to what they promised. Again: bad for Obama.

So to you, the Obama supporter, we pass the torch. Now your candidate will will be hit by the thrown stones. Now you will watch the media slowly turn their love into loathe, all for the sake of increasing ratings. Now your candidate is to blame on Iraq, the economy, (God forbid) a domestic terrorist attack.

I hope he’s ready. I don’t want to ever say “I told you so.”

(One last note: As I finished typing this Tuesday night… CNN, with all of its ‘pro-Obama’ polling, still revealed that it’s undecided focus group would vote for McCain: 56% to 46%. Maybe ‘over’ isn’t what it used to be.)