Barack Obama re-elected, and by a comfortable margin both electorally and popularly. Nate Silver, and the concept of objective facts, vindicated against the Right’s ritual denialists. The Democratic Senate majority, which seemed doomed a year ago, expanded. Marijuana legalized in Colorado. Gay marriage legalized at the ballot box in Maine, Maryland and Washington (and an anti-gay marriage amendment defeated in Minnesota). The GOP caucus in the Colorado State Assembly, which egregiously contorted legislative procedures — completely shutting down the people’s business at the eleventh hour — to prevent passage of a civil unions bill that had the votes to pass, kicked out of the majority. A local school bond issue, which will fund the construction of our girls’ eventual high school in our rapidly growing neighborhood, passed. Wingnut senatorial candidates defeated in Missouri and Indiana (the latter by a Notre Dame Law School alum, no less). Crackpot Congressman Allen West ousted. Really, last night couldn’t have gone any better from my perspective.
Well, okay, Michele Bachmann could have lost, too, as she almost did. But that would’ve been just an embarrassment of riches.
The best part of the night, though, was watching it all unfold with Loyette and Loyacita, and engaging them in the process. They were very much into updating their puzzle (above) and their Giant Electoral College Thermometers (below), among other things. Even Loyabelle got into the action at one point, practically chasing me around the living room with a marker she found on the floor, wanting to draw on an electoral map. Heh.
Loyette, who became a huge Mitt Romney fan (“because he’s handsome”) during the GOP primaries when we would watch parts of the debates, and maintained that fandom into the general election — even getting to shake his hand at a rally that I took her to just before the Denver debate — would ultimately be disappointed by the result, of course. But she didn’t know about it until this morning, and in fact, she was pretty excited last night, as Romney led in the electoral count for most of the evening.
Because it was Election Night, we kept the older girls up past their usual ~7:00-7:30 PM bedtime, but finally put them to bed around 8:30 PM — about 45 minutes before this happened:
Romney, in fact, was still leading — just barely — on the thermometers when the girls last updated them before bedtime, as you can see in the earlier photo. But I pretty much knew he was going to lose, based on the way things were going in Florida and elsewhere, so I tried to prepare Loyette for that eventuality. (Loyacita preferred Obama, though she wasn’t nearly as invested either way in the outcome as her big sister.) Just before our goodnight hugs and kisses, I explained to Loyette that, even though Mitt Romney was winning, “I think he might lose,” and she shouldn’t be “shocked” if she finds out in the morning that he did. She announced that she would be very sad and would cry if that happened, but she also asked me to leave her a “note” outside her door telling her the result, so she could find out immediately upon waking up, and not be “shocked.” I did that, and as expected, there were some tears this morning — “Daddy, I’m really sad Mitt Romney lost. I really wanted him to win.” — but she avoided a total meltdown, at least thus far. (As Jim Kelly quipped on Facebook: “Sounds like she handled it better than Dick Morris or Karl Rove then.” Heh.) We’ll see how it goes this evening, when I’ve promised the girls they can finish their thermometers and their puzzle…
Anyway, my election liveblog is technically still active; I’ll probably shut it down later tonight, but I wanted to wait until a few final races are “called” and I can come as close as possible to finality on the Electoral College Contest. Speaking of which, I’ll post an update here about that later, again probably tonight. Stay tuned.
Meanwhile, I’m already thinking about how to make the midterm elections engaging for the girls, who will be almost 3 1/2, almost 5 1/2, and almost 7 by the time November 2014 rolls around…
“Best. Election. Ever.” I am profoundly disturbed by that headline. As an independent voter, I proudly voted for Mitt Romney because the alternative was unbearable. As an unemployed person struggling in an uncertain economic climate, I had hoped that a Romney win would reverse that trend. Now I feel hopeless. Ironic, considering the President ran on a campaign of hope & change. Now, all I’m left with is despair and some change in my pocket.
I’ve seen the future, and it’s grim!
Lean Forward and take the Fundemental Transformation.
Four more years!
Of course, Brendan left out the first native american senator from the great state of Mass.
Despair, cheer up. No Politician ever got a person a job. If there were any Republicans still around they would tell you, it’s our personal responsibility to take care of ourselves and certainly don’t rely on the government to get you a job. It’s strange that you call yourself an independent when you sound so much like a Victocrat.
Besides the other obvious narratives there is this one: Republicans are no longer “the party that has won seven of the last 11 elections” but “the party that has lost four of the last six elections.” That’s important in its own way.
And that’s also all I probably should say.
Self pity is a luxury I can’t afford. Over the past 4 years I’ve seen my cost of living increase and my quality of life decrease. Maybe I should just stop looking for work and start waiting for the government to take care of me. Afterall, that’s why Obama was re-elected. Free stuff!!! What happened to America’s common sense?!
I hope you feel the same way four years from now Brendan.
So what is the over/under on how long until the first “republicans are evil for holding the economy hostage over the debt ceiling” post from Brendan?
Well, considering it is evil — well, okay, not evil, but deeply irresponsible — to hold the economy hostage over the debt ceiling, a post like that would certainly be in order if that happens again. Hopefully it won’t happen again.
As I said time & again during that manufactured, unnecessary crisis last year, the time to deal with the deficit and debt are when authorizing spending — not AFTER spending has already been authorized by law, and the question is whether or not to keep paying the bills as they come due.
It is extremely hard to authorize spending when the party in control of the Senate refuses to submit a budget, fails to debate the House budget and summarily dismisses the President’s budget without a single vote in favor.
If I was Boehner, I would submit a bill raising the debt ceiling to $3o trillion dollars.
Gahrie, while I agree with you about the irresponsibility of Harry Reid’s Senate not even bothering with the budget process, both houses of Congress still have to pass a Continuing Resolution each year in order to keep the government running. THAT is the proper time to have a showdown about spending. Threaten to shut down the government if the Democrats won’t play ball… fine. I mean, that’s still an extreme step, but you can argue that “desperate times call for desperate measures.” You CANNOT, however, make that argument about the debt ceiling. Desperate times might call for desperate measures, but they do NOT call for taking steps that are fundamentally irrational and anti-arithmetic.
If I was Boehner, I would submit a bill permanently eliminating the anachronistic and duplicative concept of the “debt ceiling” — which literally amounts to Congress placing an arbitrary limit on the amount of borrowing it will authorize even when that borrowing is mathematically necessary to pay for spending previously authorized by Congress while collecting the taxes previously set by Congress, sort of like if I racked up $8,000 in credit card debt buying Apple gadgets, but then said “I refuse to pay more than $5,000 of that debt, and how dare anyone suggest I should” — in exchange for serious concessions on entitlements and whatnot. Let’s eliminate this nonsense once and for all.
Okay, better analogy: the debt ceiling would be like if I entered into a binding contract whereby I agree to buy you $1,000 of Apple gadgets per month, while also being under a binding one-year employment contract whereby I make $500 per month, and am not allowed to get another job during that time… but then I refuse to borrow more than $2,000 in credit card debt during the course of the year, even though it’s mathematically necessary to borrow $6,000 during the year ($500 per month) in order to honor the contracts that I previously signed. And then I get outraged at the “fear-mongering” of anyone who dares to suggest that I’m threatening to “default” on one or both of my pre-existing contracts by refusing to increase my $2,000 debt ceiling… even though, mathematically, that’s precisely what I’m doing.
Of course, it’s far worse than that with the federal debt ceiling, for a variety of reasons, but that’s the concept. It’s absurd. What I need to do is stop entering into contracts that force me to live beyond my means. But it’s not “fiscal responsibility” to sign those contracts and then refuse to follow through. Fiscal responsibility means following through on those pre-existing binding promises, paying my existing debt, AND THEN GOING FORWARD refusing to sign such silly contracts in the future.
1790 – 2001 (every president before Bush 43) 212 years 5.728 trillion in debt
2001 – 2007 (Bush 43 with a Republican Congress) 6 years 8.675 trillion in debt. (added 2.947 trillion is six years, or about 1/2 trillion a year)
2008 – 2009 (Bush 43 with a Democratic Congress) 2 years 10.627 Trillion in debt (added 1.952 trillion in 2 years, or about a trillion a year)
2010 – 2011 (President Obama and a Democratic Congress) 2 years 14.056 trillion in debt (added 3.5 trillion in 2 years or 1.75 trillion a year)
2011- today (President Obama and a divided Congress) 2 years 16.627 trillion in debt (added 2.158 trillion in less than 2 years or more than a trillion a year)
* In the last 12 years we have more than tripled our national debt
We are currently paying more than $360 Billion in interest every year on the debt, and that is with historically low interest rates. When/if interest rates return to the historical norm, this number will at least double.
Despair, the cost of living in America has gone up for the past 250 years, it’s not because of the president.
Obama was not re-elected for free stuff. He was re-elected because Americans remember George Bush and his reckless economic policies and foreign wars that led the country to the place he left it in 2009. The Dow Jones was HALVED, record foreclosures, hundreds of banks per year were being closed and failing, the entire US economy plunged into a state of depression. Obama took office and doubled the value of the stock market, saved people’s homes, brought the housing market up, brought unemployment down, and took the necessary steps to turn the country around, plus he speaks english like it was his first language, and that alone makes him better than GWB.
The Dow Jones was HALVED
1) The stock market is being kept artificially high as by product of all the money the Fed is printing.
2) The Dow just dropped over 400 points in the last two days….I wonder what could have possibly happened to have caused that?
record foreclosures
1) Frank and Dodd forced banks to make those bad loans
2) It would have been quicker and better for the economy if we had just let all those foreclosures happen at once, rather than drag them out for the last four years.
hundreds of banks per year were being closed and failing
1) So what? That is what happens in capitalism…businesses fail. Then the resources are used to build better businesses.
2) Most Americans would have been protected if the banks had failed by deposit insurance. Few people have more than $100,000 in their bank accounts, and the few who do are obviously rich, so screw them right?
brought unemployment down
In what universe? Not only is the unemployment rate virtually unchanged, except to be .1% higher, there are millions fewer people working today than there were when President Obama took office.
took the necessary steps to turn the country around,
I don’t even know how to reply to this. Specifically, what do you mean by “turn this country around” and what “steps” did he take?
OK..this could be threadjacking, but the history teacher in me can’t resist…is everyone aware of the fact that we have had not only an American Indian Senator, (from Kansas), but he also became both the Senate Majority leader, and eventually served as Hoover’s vice-president?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Curtis
The Fed has been irresponsibly throwing money around for the past 10 years. It doesn’t change the fact that the stock market crashed in 2008 with Bush and was resurrected under Obama. Traditionally (when a Republican is president anyway), this is a good indication of a strong or weak economy. And why is it a big deal that the market dropped 400 points the other day, but not a big deal that it increased 100% over the past 3 years?
Frank and Dodd cannot force banks to make a loan money to anybody. Republicans, who controlled every branch of government, openly stated that financial institutions can regulate themselves, and reduced oversight and regulation and they just lent money to everybody because the government would insure all of them and they were able to invent these new loans called 5 year adjustable rate mortgages where they take a guy with no credit or bad credit and give them an incredible interest rate for 5 years, and then it adjusts and the guy can’t afford it and loses his house. These loans were bundled and sold as packages to other investors. It’s pretty complicated and if you think 2 congressmen caused the problem, you just wouldn’t understand.
If the president let millions of homes complete the foreclosure process the housing market would not have recovered for 20 years, because there would have been 10s of millions of homes sitting empty with nobody qualifying for loans, and nobody buying the homes, and nobody getting loans because there would be simply no money in the market. And all other home-owners would have no incentive to pay their mortgages either because they bought the homes when Bush’s economy artificially inflated the market prices with low lending standards and low interest rates.
The unemployment rate is down because there were 800,000 people getting people per month getting fired as a result of the Bush presidency when Obama took office, and there are 150,000 per month gaining jobs today. That is a net increase of 950,000 per month, so that’s much better.
Obama turned the country around by ending the war in Iraq, setting a date for ending the war with Afghanistan, avoided war with Libya and Iran, instead of encouraging it as the previous president would and did. These are major financial savings for the country not to pay. He organized a plan for all Americans to get health insurance, eliminated institutional bigotry in the military, ended torture by the US government, kept income taxes low for everyone, saved the US Auto Industry from bankruptcy and juiced the industry by offering a government program called “Cash for Clunkers'” which was so successful it achieved it’s goal in 2 weeks time.
All that, and he has to work with Republicans that refuse to pass anything and have filibustered 233 separate pieces of legislation and won’t pass a budget. Even with that opposition the country is in a much better place than when he took office.
Oh my god…I’m starting to believe Sandy realize is a performance artist.
Frank and Dodd cannot force banks to make a loan money to anybody.
But that is exactly what they did. As the House and Senate committee chairmen overseeing the banks they told them to make more loans to minorities and the poor, whether the loans were sound or not, or face an ever increasing amount of “oversight” (read harassment), lawsuits and regulation.
because the government would insure all of them and they were able to invent these new loans called 5 year adjustable rate mortgages where they take a guy with no credit or bad credit and give them an incredible interest rate for 5 years, and then it adjusts and the guy can’t afford it and loses his house
I missed the reports about Republicans forcing people at gunpoint to sign mortgages they couldn’t afford. I think both sides, (the banks making irresponsible loans and the people taking out loans they couldn’t afford) should have suffered the consequences of their choices. Instead the democrats bailed them both out.
….That is a net increase of 950,000 per month, so that’s much better.
This is simply nonsense. They are millions fewer people working today, than were working when President Obama took office. There are millions more who used to have full time jobs and now have part time jobs. We are not producing enough jobs today to deal with the increase in the working population, let alone deal with the millions out of work.
He organized a plan for all Americans to get health insurance,
Than why do 30 million people continue to be without healthcare coverage?
, saved the US Auto Industry from bankruptcy
Actually he didn’t. They did go through bankruptcy. The only thing he saved was the unions from feeling the effects of the bankrupty by screwing the stockholders and the American people.
Cash for Clunkers’
Cash for clunkers merely frontloaded the demand for new cars, it did not increase it. It also screwed the poor by making used cars vastly more expensive.
All that, and he has to work with Republicans that refuse to pass anything and have filibustered 233 separate pieces of legislation and won’t pass a budget.
This is the most insane thing you wtrote in the last comment. The Republicans in the House have passed legislation that the Democrats in the Senate refuse to bring up for debate. The Republicans in the House have not only passed a budget every year the last three years, they have offered multiple budgets. The Democrats in the Senate refuse to debate these budgets, propose no budget of their own, and reject the president’s budgets without a single vote in support of them.
the country is in a much better place than when he took office.
How? Foreclosures are still occurring in record numbers, unemployment hasn’t changed, our soldiers are still getting killed in the Middle East, Guantanimo is still open, gas and energy prices in general are higher and we are six and a half trillion deeper in debt.
The one that really blows my mind though is the fact that this president has assumed the right to kill Americans overseas, without a trial, warrant or any oversight whatsoever, by drone.
Even I would have opposed President Bush if he had tried that, and you guys on the Left let President Obama do it without a peep of protest.
Name one bank Frank and/or Dodd forced to make ONE bad loan to, and tell me how they forced them to do it. The banks would not be making the sort of irresponsible loans they were making if they felt financially responsible for the money were any lending standards at the time. I have broke friends that owned 8 houses when the market crashed, and they were broke before it crashed, they just borrowed money around and were millionaires on paper. That was many many people that I personally know, just regular folks and, btw, today nobody I know has any money, so it’s not like I am or was an elite socialite.
Democrats didn’t bail out the banks, George Bush signed the $1.5 trillion TARP bail out which was a plan by his secretary of the Treasury, Henry Paulson, who urged that his plan be signed immediately with no questions asked. So it wasn’t a Democratic idea. The idiot Democrats in the House took Paulson at his word, and signed away $1.5 trillion because it was an emergency of historic proportions.
If there are fewer people working today, it’s because the baby boom generation has hit retirement age, that is a group of old people who make up the most populus generation in our nation. And yes, that would mean there are less people in the workforce, Obama or Nobama.
“Why do 30 million people continue to not have healthcare?”
That is a personal choice that people make. Like Dodd and Frank, the government can’t force you to do something. They can give you a massive 600 dollar penalty for not following the Obamacare guideline but if you don’t want health insurance, you don’t have to get it.
This is the first I heard that used car prices went up because of a 2 week incentive plan to get americans to buy new cars. Also the President made sure that production and research for cars that run more efficiently were produced, so in 10 years when you’re thinking, wow I get 100 miles per gallon, you can thank Obama, instead of Boehner or McConnell who will both be trying to take credit for it (ala Newt Gingrich and the balanced budget of the 90s).
The reason nothing gets done in the Senate is because the Republicans put a filibuster on everything and they openly say they won’t pass anything Obama wants done. Just today they said they wouldn’t agree to lower taxes for 98% of americans if it meant a 2% increase on the richest Americans in the country. They will instead let taxes go up on EVERYONE rather then make a compromise that affects virtually no one.
Foreclosures are not at a record level, that was in 2008 and then again in 2009. Our soldiers are home and on their way home, despite the wishes of Republicans. Gitmo is still open because of Congress, not because of Obama. Gas prices are 25% less this week from last week “because it’s not summer anymore” (according to ‘experts’), unemployment has been trending down for the last 3 years or since Obama took office. Six and a half trillion deeper in debt as a result of keeping the country from completely economically collapsing as a result of the policies of the previous president.
Don’t let the truth or the facts get in the way of a good argument you heard Sean Hannity make. The reason it sounds so good is because you only get half the information.
That is a personal choice that people make. Like Dodd and Frank, the government can’t force you to do something. They can give you a massive 600 dollar penalty for not following the Obamacare guideline but if you don’t want health insurance, you don’t have to get it.
The whole justification for destroying our health care system and imposing Obamacare on the American people over their objections was that it would provide coverage for the 48 million people that didn’t have health insurance. Now you are saying the fact that 30 million still don’t have insurance is no big deal?
“1) Frank and Dodd forced banks to make those bad loans”
This is a common sentiment. It is also factually wrong. The vast majority of subprime loans — which were one of the major factors in the foreclosure nightmare — were made by institutions that were not subject to the regulations designed to increase minority homeownership. This is a persistent claim which is nevertheless wrong, and is worth calling out as such (despite the fact that I have little hope that will actually penetrate into the minds of those who repeat the claim anyway).
Two questions …
1) The current administration having followed the late 1920s and early 1930’s policies of the Progressives, what reason do we have to believe that they are not going to continue the policies of the 1930s for the next 2 years at least ?
2) Do we have any legal way to constrain the Senate to carry out their federal budgetary responsibilities ?
The justification for Obamacare was that there are 68 million uninsured, 30 million of whom cannot get healthcare because of “pre-existing conditions” which include being pregnant, having diabetes, and a bunch of other BS. Now those uninsured can get health insurance. The people who don’t want health insurance don’t get it. It’s still America, but with better healthcare.
Every time I write I check these days I always accidentally put in 1930 and then realize my mistake. I can understand how a republican would confuse 2012 with the 20s and 30s. Lots of republican military sex scandals back then.
If there were a legal way to force the senate to pass a budget, the Republicans would all be in jail, because they have filibustered 233 pieces of legislation, and said they will vote against any budget that is put up for vote. At least they’re honest, so why waste the procedural time trying.
(Yes, I *know* it’s Sandy – but I haven’t tilted at this particular windmill in a while …)
So – as even *this* not-yet-citizen is aware, “It’s true that you cannot filibuster a budget resolution in the Senate, because the Budget Act provides special rules for consideration of a budget resolution, including a time limit on debate. So the Senate can pass a resolution with only a majority vote. ” …
Given that fact, how is it that the Democrats – who have controlled a 51-or-greater number of votes in the Senate for almost 6 years – have not managed to pass a budget resolution in the past almost 3+ years ?
This humble not-yet-citizen seeks enlightenment from you, o great and wise Citizen Sandy …
(PS – Sandy – I hate to have to be the one to break it to you, but your “Every time I write I check these days … “ reference has already jumped the snark …)