Props, kudos, and big shout out to John Kerry for sacrificing one principle in favor of another. America needed a decisive election, and Kerry backed down from last night’s “win at all costs” stance (which he wisely had his running mate project as if on his behalf) and allowed that feeling of decisiveness to begin to take hold.

The “anybody but Bush” camp made a serious mistake early on: they failed to understand why half the country (just OVER half the country, in point of fact) still supported President Bush. This practice of despising the incumbent was carried to a fatal extreme. After all, if you can’t believe anybody would still vote for Bush, how can you hope to convince them NOT to?

The Bush campaign understood all too well what THEY were up against, and they played on that very masterfully.

I can see why folks would vote against Bush. I can even see why they’d vote for Kerry. I understand those arguments, and I sympathize with them to an extent just SHORT of the extent where I’d actually VOTE for them.

The thing Bush has going for him that so few American Presidents have had is the willingness to make decisions that are extremely unpopular.

Argue all you want about WHY they’re unpopular (just not HERE, please… see below). The fact that he sticks to his principles and does things that alienate him from half the electorate and many of the World’s leaders is something that a lot of mature voters actually LIKE. In Kerry those voters saw more of the Capitol Hill compromising that has been the hallmark of every presidency since Nixon (including Reagan and GB senior). Clinton had a great “do what we have to at all costs” streak in him, but when his party got punished in Congress in 1994, pressure from his own party had him backing away from the things he really wanted to accomplish. Personally, I’m glad he did, because I disagreed pretty strongly with most of it, but I understood then and now the necessity of doing unpopular things on principle.

Maybe I’m projecting my own open-mindedness on others with similar party leanings, because I think that most of those who voted for Bush understood why people didn’t like him. I could be wrong. I’m not trying to foster a discussion of issues, here, and I’m certainly not trying to start a flame war. I’m concerned, as Kerry said he was in his concessionary call to President Bush, over the division in the nation today. Part of the problem is that a large number of us not only DON’T understand other points of view, we act as if we don’t WANT to.

I’ve said it before — be nice to each other. Seek to understand why your fellows, your neighbors, and even your enemies think the way they do. Only then will you be able to affect any sort of change.

In a previous journal entry I wondered why nobody had yet called the election 281 to 257 in favor of GWB. For the record, I wasn’t saying they SHOULD have called it… I was wondering what I was missing as to why they HADN’T called it yet.

Well, it looks like my count at the time was as accurate as anybody else’s STILL is, so it’s a good thing I didn’t stay up for more results. Unless you live in a cave, or read my blog before reading important stuff, you know that the GOP has claimed victory, 286 to 252 (GW gained Nevada, which I thought he’d lose), and it’s going to take what looks like two weeks’ worth of counting (oh PLEASE no recounting, please oh please) before the Democrats allow that claim to be substantiated, or successfully refute it. Hey, who knows? There could be a huge bloc of Kerry votes in those uncounted 1%. If I were a voter in Iowa, New Mexico, or Ohio, I’d certainly want all those votes counted.

Now, as to where votes REALLY count: local measures! Here in Utah the Sales Tax bond I wanted to see defeated appears to be losing by a close margin. All three constitutional amendments passed: The Legislature can call itself into an impeachment session, Public universities can accept stock in private businesses spun off from their research, and (in the most controversial measure) marriage will only be between a man and a woman, with no other union allowed to have the same benefits as traditional marriages. I fully expect that last one to get challenged in Federal Court, where Utah attorneys will join attorneys from 10 other U.S. states wrangling the mess of State’s Rights vs Freedom of Religion. Whatever comes of that, I’m sure it won’t be boring.

The one place where I simply couldn’t find a candidate to vote for: Nuclear Waste Storage. SOMEBODY has to store this stuff. Utah, Nevada, Arizona, and New Mexico are all great places for it. If we could agree to store it then maybe someday we could actually put nuclear plants in place to end our huge dependence on foreign oil. Oh, and lower the costs of energy, sparking a boom in a number of industries. But there was no candidate anywhere on the ballots who had come out publicly in favor of storing the stuff in Utah.

What this means is that I need to continue to be involved. I need to write the folks who were elected, and let them know that THIS Utah citizen is not spooked by irrational arguments about nukes.

*sigh*

I could have used a few hours more sleep. I’ll write my congressmen about THAT, too.

–Howard

As of this writing, it looks like it’ll be 281 Electoral votes for Bush, 257 for Kerry. Iowa could swing to Kerry still, but it looks like Bush has both Ohio and New Mexico sewn up at this point. I’m wondering why none of the major news agencies have called it yet. I dug into the county-by-county data on the remaining states, and it seems pretty clear that the election has been won.

Obviously I’m overlooking something.

Interesting side-note: if you want to predict something, find out what odds are being given in Vegas. Bush was favored 6:4 in Vegas, and that’s a city that is going to vote for Kerry. Not that it matters. Money talks for those oddsmakers, not politics. They’ve got a vested interest in calling things accurately.

CNN hasn’t called Ohio for Bush yet, but he’s leading by over 110,000 votes there with less than 3% of the precincts still out. Fox and MSNBC have both predicted Ohio for Bush.
Iowa also has 3% still out, and Bush has a slim lead there. Sure, there are enough uncounted votes to completely reverse the leads in both Iowa and Ohio, but statistically speaking that’s not usually what happens.

I really, really want to go to bed.

I also really, really want the election to be OVER tomorrow. I want to be able to say confidently that nobody stole this election (unless you argue that the two major parties stole it from everyone else by spending enormous amounts of money… in which case you’ve called the whole system into question, and now’s not the best time for that.)

I may have mentioned that I’m working on a series of single-panel PDA-related comics for a calendar. This is a purely commercial project, and I’ve been paid in advance for my contribution.

You can pre-order this calendar from Toffa, and you can see one of the gags as well. This is very rich marker-art I’m doing (far beyond anything I typically do for commissions at conventions), so please go take a look.

It’s right here.