Meet President Elect Barack Obama.
As of 9:46PM Eastern Standard Time, I'm calling it for Obama. If all that has happen stands it's over. McCain just doesn't have the math to get to 270 Electoral Votes unless he can pull off a major upset, which does not even look possible at this moment in time. Once the polls close on the West Coast, it's over.
I just hope everyone who could vote got the chance to vote in this historic election.
(http://www.theseminal.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/01/obama-756935.thumbnail.jpg)
Then let us congratulate and celebrate the victory of Barack Obama.
At 200 current electoral votes, many small states, and the electoral votes placed in the hands of California still waiting to pour into his count, it is easy to see that Obama will be winning, with only 15 more needed, in account to winning this long, and tiresome battle, held between Barack Obama, Senator of Illinois, and John McCain, Senator of Arizona.
As of 11PM Eastern Standard Time, it is official. Barack Obama is now the President Elect of the United States of America.
All Hail King Obama!
Mccain is giving his concession speech as I type!
YES! YESYESYESYESYES! :D
McCain looked so cool when he gave his speech. He was very gracious in his acceptance of Obama's victory.
OBAMA WINS!!
Yes!!!!
Let the drunken parties world wide now begin.
Obama looks so tired.
His hair looks like it's shot with less gray than it was last week, though.
Right now car horns are blaring, people are cheering, parties are happening, and everyone is jubilant for Obama's victory. :)
Tis a historical date indeed!
Its a travesty that it took;
- two illegal wars that have cost the lives of hundreds of thousands of people
- the suppressed yet gradual exposure of numerous instances of torture at both the individual and national levels
- a cowboy disregard for habeas corpus
- eight years of catastrophically inept and very dangerous foreign policy
- and the blatant mismanagement of the economy so that the tiniest percentile of the world richest people received less taxes at the ultimate expense of the majority of the people in the world...
...for just over half of you to decide that you did not want a continuation of the same.
WELL DONE AMERICA!
Let the man relax until January 20th. Seriously. Just chill for a bit.
Oh burn, Caddies.
I for one welcome our new alie-American overlord.
At least we got there, Caddies.
I think Caddies needs some nails for his cross ;_;
My first election and I voted for CHANGE!
As I read Caddies' post, it occurred to me that those are all very valid IC goals to pursue!
VIVA OBAMA!
We got through the door, quick lets nationalize before anyone is looking. COMRADES!
Seriously though, this election has been amazing and I'm glad we got a good result this go around. Lets not forget though that now the real work needs to begin here in America and across the world. Now is the time to make an impact, so lets get on that, and build something together rather then allow our differences to tear us apart.
Caddies, my country has made mistakes in the past and will in the future, but for at least one day and one night, I'm glad to be able to point to my president and say, we are making important progress in ways even my parents could not have imagined. America has changed because we have changed it. And we will continue to change it. Because in America, when we are given opportunity, we eventually find a way.
Although Caddies... while our mistakes were not quite so far reaching, it took us a good 11 years to implement change in Australia did it not?
Either way. I was excited watching the results pour in. Well done to the United States of America!
You know with all the hype over the vote, and how many got off their asses and voted (me included)... when it boiled down to it, what we vote really didn't matter or change the outcome of the vote in the least.
At least the electoral college chose correctly for us, being the wise leaders they are.
lol. I really don't understand why the college system persists when in most states all college votes go to the member who wins the popular vote; AND they've pre-pledged to vote for a particular candidate.
It basically boils down to a direct election anyway, weighted by state population.
The electoral college REPRESENTS the collective vote of regions. An electoral college vote for either candidate can't exist without people voting for which candidate it should go to. I agree it's rather silly, they could just do a popular vote, but having the electoral college doesn't mean an individual vote doesn't matter.
Your vote DOES matter. It may not seem to, but you have to realize that there's no way to know precisely how people will vote UNLESS they cast it. Looking at a large gap in the numbers, you shouldn't think "my vote didn't matter", but instead realize "my vote matters because it can help create such a gap."
If you need proof of whether or not your vote matters, look at the 2000 election in Florida. The voting was so close that only a handful of votes determined the winner, and even then the margin was so tight that they got it wrong. Gore won Florida, but the Bush supporters rushed to finalize the vote before the real numbers could be determined.
Here in Minnesota, the difference in our Senate race is only 500 votes, out of 2.5 million. That forces an automatic recount - we won't know the results until December. It only took .02 percent of the people who thought "my vote doesn't matter" to make one or the other candidate the loser. Every one of the 2.5 million votes cast mattered.
The presidency isn't the only thing you're voting for, and is possibly among the lesser things you're voting for that will immediately impact you. You're voting for local and state representation, as well, and often for laws, programs and tax rates. Your vote on these things is extremely important as well.
And that's just the physical reality of voting, and how it matters. You could write a book about the abstract importance of voting in a democracy, and how our entire nation relies on each individual vote.
PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE... if you are a citizen of the U.S., never ever fail to cast your vote on election day. And make sure to learn everything you can about who and what you're voting for/against.
It is the most patriotic and American thing you can ever possibly do, and the beauty of it is all of us are allowed to participate!
Quote from: chezcaliente;96376It basically boils down to a direct election anyway, weighted by state population.
That is exactly the way it is supposed to work. It is possible that the Electoral College will not reflect the popular vote, but this is very rare and only happens in very close elections.
The reason the electoral college exists is to give states with smaller populations a larger voice in the election process. We have highly populated states such as California and New York, and huge rural states such as Alaska.
There are definite pro's and con's, but it exists for a very important reason.
I think the college system persists for two main reasons.
1. Tradition. As dumb as it is, its a big deal in the US. This is why we do stupid things sometimes, like hold our elections on a Tuesday instead of a weekend when it would be easier for people to get out to vote.
2. Fear of centralization. I think there is a legitimate worry that if based solely on the popular vote the only campaigning would be geared toward New York, California, Texas and Florida. Its really a way of avoiding consolidation of power into these population pockets. As bad as McCain did in New York (only 36%), he still got 2.5million votes out of it, more then his home state and his running mates home state combined. It would be foolish in a popular vote election to not spend as much time where the people are as possible.
I think its dumb, sure. But really there have been only two votes where the population and college did not match, though one was in our lifetime when Gore did it in 2000. The other, I believe, was when Stonewall Jackson got the popular vote and John Qunicy Adams won the college. 4 years later Jackson won both the popular and college against Adams anyway.
If you don't vote its basically a slap in the face to everyone who has every died for our country; and to all the people overseas who arnt allowed to vote.
I read a very interesting article a few years back by a Math or Stats PhD that actually went through a mathematical proof that the electoral college actually increases the power of an individual's vote.
It was pretty complicated, but boils/simplified down to:
Your vote "matters" if you are the single deciding vote (break a tie).
Smaller populations mean that is more likely.
Your state(assuming you aren't Maine or Nebraska) voting all one way magnifies the power of that single vote.
Along the same logic, working to influence others in your state has more impact. How important is the volunteer who got 100 votes in Florida in 2000?
That's pretty cool, Invalid_Character, yet what about the person who voted for the guy that didn't win their state? Doesn't that render their vote "worthless", and couldn't it be argued that both the empowering and weakening of the winning and losing voters evens out?
Sounds pretty cool though. If you know where I could find that paper, I'd be interested in reading it!
Vote vote vote, ...
There were many things to vote on and not just the president.
But
What about the person who does not read through the thick book explaining all of the propositions? Should they vote on whether or not allow prop to move forward or not? I know many people who would vote for some prop based upon the language of the short summary, but would not based upon the details. Both sides are guilty of making certain things look great on a 30 second commercial, but don't make sense when you look at the fine print.
In my opinion, an educated vote is great while a snap decision on election day on a prop that you have never heard of is bad.
I would rephrase the comment about slapping as, if you don't learn about the issues and vote based upon reaching educated decisions, it is a slap in the face to those who will be affected.
Having said that, yes the presidential candidates certainly get a lot of coverage and it should be easier to make an educated choice.
The Electoral College exists because when the game started, Americans picked the "Winner takes all" mode. America sure loves a winner, and the election is no different. If you get half the votes +1 in a given state, A WINNER IS YOU!!!!!
Also, Panama, Stonewall Jackson was a Civil War general who fought for the South. Andrew Jackson is the guy you're thinking of imo.
Yes I understand the pros/cons... but my point is you could have exactly the same effects of the college purely if you had state-by-state popular direct election of the president that was weighted by state population. But you wouldn't need the Electoral College itself.
ie. California popularly elects Obama, California's vote is given a weight of 55. South Carolina popularly elects McCain, SC's vote is given a weight of 8. Same effect.
I don't see any reason not to replace it with a direct-weighted election, unless States started splitting their college votes.
And as for always having the vote on a Tuesday, unfortunately it is a tradition that means its much harder for the working class to vote who often cannot afford to take time from work when lines are long. So there's at least one big reason to go against tradition really.
I say the candidates announce for presidency, and duel to the death. Pistols at sunrise, all candidates start back to back in a big group, take ten paces, turn around and begin wildly shooting each other. Whomever is left alive at the end, gets to be president.
This link (//%22http://www.theonion.com/content/news/nation_finally_shitty_enough_to%22) is for Caddies to LOL at.
Pyth,
Burr might agree with you on that. Hamilton though, probably would have a different position in retrospect.
Kiaring,
I stand corrected, Andrew Jackson.
I love how much hype the president gets when he is really just a scapegoat when things are going wrong and a figurehead when things are going well. Bush just got lucky he had a good staff of well educated people who know how to cheat the system and make congress hand over too much power to one person. In all honesty I...like I said in the who are you voting for post did not want to vote for either of the candidates. I believe that we should give -less- power to the government especially now. Noone seems to care now that our own government belittles us at every step that is inconvienient to their agenda. Please excuse me while I am not excited at all due to the fact that no change that happens now will return any power to the people so the change really doesn't matter to me.(Run-ons ftw) We still have the same house and senate and that is where the power resides...tell me what is going to change and how it will benefit me in a way other than money and I will embrace Obama with open arms.