WhirledView

The Obama Victory

By Bill Stewart

Obama has won, and what a victory it is! His triumph at the polls – and that’s what it is, a triumph not just a victory- goes beyond politics to say something about the soul of the American people. In record and extraordinary numbers, Americans across the country put their fears behind them and turned out to vote for a man who consistently has appealed to our better angels. If Americans had any lingering, last minute doubts, in the polling booths, they put them aside to vote for what the junior senator from Illinois has said all along he would bring us – change!

Christopher Ford: Bush Administration Makes Arms Control Thinking Obsolete

by Cheryl Rofer

Christopher Ford unloads on the arms control community in their very own flagship publication, which must suggest that the Arms Control Association deserves an award for encouraging open expression or therapy for clinical masochism.

The article itself deserves an award for creative use of retro-Soviet rhetoric. Ford labels arms controllers as determined to uphold tranditional and often outmoded ways of thinking, reflexively pursuing older agendas, fearful of missile defenses, monomaniacal, anachronistic, unable to take “yes” for an answer, possessed of a fetishistic attachment to “formal instruments” (treaties?), reflexively alarmed at the taboo issue of developing “new” nuclear weapons, attached to vain hopes, famously idealistic (and not in a good way), and possessed of shopworn assumptions.

In contrast, Ford finds the Bush administration to be innovative, skeptical about tradition, both unilateral and multilateral (both good), insightful, moving into the twenty-first century…Well, you get the idea.

The entire article is a case study in framing.

Russia Welcomes the New US President-Elect - Updated

by Cheryl Rofer

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev gave a speech to the Russian people that is more or less equivalent to the US president’s state of the union message. He gave the speech shortly after Barack Obama was elected the next president of the US. The Russian President’s website gives an account of the speech in English and promises a transcript. That account emphasizes the domestic message and doesn’t even mention what American newspapers saw in the speech.

The New York Times emphasizes a “threat” to place missiles in Kaliningrad, that little piece of Russia tucked between Lithuania and Poland, a constant irritant to both Russia and Europe. The Washington Post’s report seems more balanced. A Russian website provides much more detail on the domestic issues Medvedev addressed, apparently indicating that the speech was heavily balanced toward domestic issues.

So the comment about the missiles was an aside, probably intended mainly to reassure Medvedev’s Russian audience that their president was on the job, keeping track of sneaky American moves. For the American audience, the Russian president congratulated their new head of state and said, “We have no inherent anti-Americanism."

Pravda, after a heavy-handed but positive response to Obama’s election, reports, as does the Washington Post, that other governmental officials are looking forward to positive relations with the Obama administration.

Russia has been unhappy for some long time about the US’s withdrawal from the Antiballistic Missile Treaty, and more so about the US decision to site an antimissile radar station in the Czech Republic and missiles in Poland. Their concern is that the missiles and radar are actually directed at Russia, rather than their advertised target of Iran, in preparation for a first nuclear strike. The citizens of the Czech Republic and Poland are not pleased with these arrangements, either. (h/t to Cernig for the latest about Czech unhappiness on this score.)

The Queen of Boo: What Palin Doesn't Get about Democracy

By Patricia Lee Sharpe

I was going to write a generous piece about how Sarah Palin might grow into an interesting national politician. After watching her during John McCain’s concession speech, I’m not so sure. She doesn’t seem to understand how democracies need to work.

Sarah Palin is obviously a smart woman, but she did not distinguish herself as a quick learner during the recently concluded election. Perhaps her arrogance blinded her to the need to expand her intellectual horizon. Often, as I watched her performance, the word smug came to mind. Smugness is not an ingratiating quality. And though she drew laughs with deft quips supplied by the teleprompters she showed an instant affinity for, she did not evince much of a personal sense of humor. Rigid comes to mind. Cold comes to mind. Ruthless comes to mind. Generosity of spirit does not.

That crimped ignobility was on full display when John McCain was making his concession speech last night. Conceding is no fun, but as the losing candidate was uttering those difficult words, the repressed elements of the old John McCain were showing through, the generous man, the gracious man, the man who can often (if not always) see further than self or party interest, the man who, in his own way, wants the best for the U.S. as a whole.

Then came the booing, which I have never before heard during a concession speech. I was shocked. So were many other observers.

There was McCain, struggling to control his emotions while uttering the difficult but gracious words that were appropriate to the occasion, when the booing began. McCain himself gestured for silence. A little frown showed that he was uncomfortable with the booing. Though he might have expressed his disapproval more emphatically, McCain knows that crass disrespect for the winner is wrong as well as self-defeating.

Sarah Palin, standing beside him, had no such qualms. She loved the boos. She grinned. Her eyes lit up. Little arm movements were cheerlike. She all but invited more booing.

Barack Obama Elected President of the United States

Yes, we can!

We have rejected the hate-filled sideshow and can get on with setting our country on the right track. And there is much to do.

But I think we can savor Barack Obama’s election for a day. I had a crisis of confidence last night when the first results came in: Kentucky for McCain, 8 electoral votes; Vermont for Obama, 3 electoral votes. Oh noes! Obama was behind! I frantically clicked around the Web, looking for something better and realized that it was time to go over to Pat Sharpe’s house so that I wouldn’t have to deal with this alone.

Only a couple of hours later, suddenly, as the polls closed on the West Coast, all the networks declared an Obama victory! Pat and I looked at each other dumbfoundedly. “Could we have had some analysis?” she asked. I’d still like to know how they figured that one.

John McCain’s concession speech was gracious, although some of his supporters were horribly not. Obama’s speech hit the right notes, but we will need to hear what he said repeated, and I think he will do that. We were all too high last night to take it in completely.

The numbers, at last, were pretty much what the polls predicted, and what I hoped for but didn’t quite expect. Even this morning I am still assimilating it, even if not quite so boggled as Kevin.

I have many questions, some that will be answered quickly and others that will persist. Why did John McCain conduct his campaign the way he did? How did the vote shake out – Latinos, women, suburbia, the young, the total turnout? And, of course, what comes next in our very difficult national situation?

A few early observations.

Birthplace of the Republican Party Goes for Obama

by Cheryl Rofer

I've just received the election results from Ripon, Wisconsin, which considers itself the birthplace of the Republican Party. Jackson, Michigan, contests that appellation, but I believe the evidence is in Ripon's favor. [Full disclosure: I have a personal connection with Ripon.]

The Republican Party was formed in response to the Whigs' and Democrats' inability to respond to the issue of slavery in the 1850s. It appears that in this election, the party has come full circle from its roots.

So here are the results from Ripon:

Obama/Biden: 2041
McCain/Palin: 1715
Barr/Root: 12
Others: 50

Election Day

by Cheryl Rofer

I can see that I am likely to drive myself crazy until tonight, checking the newspapers and other blogs compulsively. So, even though WhirledView readers aren't very talky, I'm going to start an open thread where I hope you'll share your voting experiences. I'll start with mine.

I voted early last Friday at the Santa Fe County building on Grant Street. Voting was upstairs in the courtroom, which is dominated by a colorful mural of events in New Mexico's history. The procedure was to fill out a form requesting an absentee ballot, hand it in, and then sit down in the courtroom until your name was called and you were given your ballot. Those rickety plastic voting "booths" were at the front of the courtroom. Santa Fe County uses optical scanners, of which there was one.

Things were a bit confused at the first desk giving out the absentee ballot forms, which was where you had to hand the form back in. There was only one woman at the desk, with other poll workers sort of hanging around. Nonetheless, the line wasn't too long and there were places to sit while you filled out your form, which I did and sat down to wait.

As I waited, a poll worker I knit with was helping an elderly black man in a motorized wheelchair. I waved at her, and she motioned me to come over. The man needed help in reading the ballot; his vision was limited. So I read the ballot to him and pointed at the ellipses to fill in for his choices. The poll worker brought me my ballot so I didn't have the distraction of trying to hear my name.

The man was happy to hand the ballot in himself, so I went off and marked mine.

Later, the poll worker told me that the man said that this was the first election he had voted in, and that he seemed quite pleased to have done so.

Beware of False Prophets

By Patricia Lee Sharpe

Why is Karl Rove predicting a Democratic “blowout” tomorrow? He evidently means Obama winning by a monumental landslide.

Why would Karl Rove want to laud Democrats and demoralize Republicans the day before the polls open?

Certainly not for any chummy non-partisan reason. Not from the goodness of a newly generous heart.

My hunch is that Karl Rove is trying to sow complacency among Democratic voters. He wants them to think they don’t have to bother going to the polls.

If enough Democrats decide their votes are superfluous, John McCain will indeed be the next president of the United States.

Barak Obama has it right. Nothing’s certain until the ballots are counted. Meanwhile, every potential Democratic vote is precious.

If you haven’t voted already, vote tomorrow. Get in line and stay there, no matter how long you have to wait for your turn to wrestle with whatever more or less reliable machine you're confronted with. Take a take-out coffee. Take something to read. Take a folding stool. Whatever it takes, Democrats, vote!

Yeah! Republicans, too. But not too many of you, I hope.

Meanwhile, clever guy, that Karl Rove, throwing a hail Mary pass, no less.

But not as clever as Democrats who ignore him.