I’ve been kind of sanguine about this election. I’ve had about a couple hundred emails telling me I was not passionate enough this election cycle, or I was not posting enough, or I had let the other posters take over the website, etc. Sure, there is a great deal of burnout on my part coming into play, as well as my supreme confidence in the quality of the front page posters I’ve added over the years, but I really think the reason I wasn’t as freaked out or wildly running around with my hair on fire is the fact that you all sent me to the DNC.
And what I saw at the DNC was a site to behold. It was the most organized spectacle I have ever been a part of. It was just smooth. It was organized. It was so put together that when we were driving back home, all I could think was “We got this.” Will Rogers would have shit himself.
A lot of that has to do with individual members of the campaign. I would point out Erica Sackin at OFA, who I talked to every single day for the last nine months. She’s a fucking genius and a workaholic. Her dedication is emblematic of the kind of work effort.
The other reason I was so calm is that I am a believer in numbers and polls. Pundits, I want to kill. I’m no statistician, but I have had enough stats classes that this makes sense to me:
What did Nate predict in 2008, well, pretty much everything. What did he predict in 2012? Why, this. Nate was right on everything, including every swing state, as well as assuming NC was the least strong Obama swing state.
So while my passion for my main man O remains the same, I was never that freaked out about this election.
I SAY THAT NOW WITH A BAC OVER .10
BTW- If Bush earned political capital in 2004, can we call this a fucking landslide yet?
blingee
Florida still awfully close but I guess nobody has much doubt with the few remaining areas to come in. That was probably the toughest call of all and Nate got that one where as Wang went the other way. Splitting hairs either way and I don’t think any less of Wang since he admitted it was basically a coin toss.
Arclite
Nate was even correct about which states would be closest: Virginia and FL. He had those the lightest color, meaning they favored Dems, but could go either way, but they did slightly favor Dems. Virginia took forever to call, being so close, but when it did, it went for Obama. FL is still too close to call, but Obama holds a 50K vote lead.
Nate is amazing.
psycholinguist
i’ve been reading red state just now. The theme seems to be “not conservative enough”, but with a smattering of sane people arguing for a return to the Teddy Roosevelt days. Will be interesting to see how that goes. Here in East Tennessee, the attitude is going to be one of shock and awe. These people around here really believed that the polls were just a big liberal media stunt, and that they were going to win this thing big.
Arclite
I blame ladyfriend. With all that latent frustration released, you just didn’t have enough left for the blog.
It’s cool tho. I’d rather have a happy JC who posts less, than an unhappy one who posts all the time.
jgaugust
Pretty sure Nate can go to the NYT and tell them he wants a blank check as his next paycheck. Dude was 20% of their traffic recently and was 50/50. Dude’s a baller.
PeakVT
Wingnut not-tears:
Ash Can
The numbers kept stacking up the right way, all along. It doesn’t mean we can ever get complacent about this shit, but really, numbers don’t lie.
… Now where the hell did I leave my drink?
SteveAudio
Nate FTW. And BAC .10 FTW. We deserve to feel good tonight.
Joel
Nate’s mode was also 332.
Sam Wang’s mode was 303.
Therefore, I call Nate the winner.
That said, newcomer Drew Linzer had Obama at 332 since forever.
Cacti
As I mentioned in one of the dead threads, this election will be seen as historic by us nerdy political types.
This was the election where the politics of the 20th century decisively gave way to the 21st. In 2008, the Obama coalition was seen as the vanguard of the electoral future. In 2012, he proved it had staying power.
The future is now, and the GOP is in deep shit as their model depends on an aging, and shrinking demographic group.
Mary G
Heidi Heitkamp is ahead with 100% in, but appears a recount will be demanded. Not everyone can be gracious.
Ash Can
Hey you guys, ya know what? Obama can now go about his presidentin’ without having to worry about re-election.
Arclite
@Ash Can:
I ran out 30m ago and picked up a six pack of Sierra Nevada “Celebration” ale. Ne’er was a beer better christened. Also, it’s really good. I love hoppy ales. Enjoying with water crackers and boursin, elite food that DFHs and the Obamas would celebrate with.
Helen
I have spent the last month telling my dad who is 78 yrs old- “Trust Nate.” For the last 3 days he (my dad, not Nate)texted me “What does Nate say?” And I would tell him Nate’s latest.
Last night I sent him the “Chill the Fuck Out; I got this” poster of Obama. He calmed down. For a day.
And then tonight at 8ish Daddy texted “What do you think? VA is making me nervous” And I once again said “Daddy trust Nate.”
The very second that MSNBC called it my phone rang and he said “Helen YES Trust Nate.”
So…I am now the smartest daughter on earth. Especially since my sister is a true blue wingnut.
Arclite
@Ash Can:
THIS. A thousand times this. Play hard ball, push your agenda. I do realize that most presidents get their big stuff pushed through when they first come into office, but now is the time for Obama to push hard. Fuck the Republicans those fucking slimy bastards. Seriously, they pretend to love America, then sabotage any and every attempt at getting the country back on track. Who are the fucking traitors now assholes?
Arclite +2 (I’m a lightweight, okay?)
Darkrose
I think I’m happier this time than I was in 2008, because I’m not biting my nails over Prop 8 this time–and marriage equality won in 3 states!
Also, we have cable, so I got to watch Dr. Rachel.
Darkrose +1. A very strong 1 (cranberry juice, tequila, and champagne).
mai naem
I am so happy. What a great night. I am proud of the Dems. I am hoping the second term’s going to be smoother for Obama. I hope he uses the bully pulpit more. He doesn’t have a Dem house but he also doesn’t have to waste over a year on healthcare. And please please please, fill up those lower court vacancies. Massively important.
The prophet Nostradumbass
Where are the firebaggers?
RaflW
I gotta crow a bit about Minnesota.
Voter ID failed 54-46. People are waking up to that bullshit.
And the anti-gay amendment failed by almost as wide a margin.
I started working on the marriage amendment 18 months ago (well, 6 years ago, fighting off Bachmann’s resume builder effort), and this year, this amend was a massive campaign.
I was part of just the faith effort, and that was big. But the main MN United campaign had 25,000 GOTV volunteer shifts filled over eight days at the end. Wow.
Stuff like that was insane to be a part of. Insanely exciting. The return-watching party tonight for MN United was so gorgeous. A couple thousand people, many exhausted, just pack in a huge ballroom and flowing out into the halls.
A lot of these people are young and have now learned mad skils and been part of a historic win – one that with ME, MD, and WA has swept the country (and, by the way, has now told NOM to shut the fuck up).
I’m excited for what we’ve learned. And the power of mobilizing 10s of thousands of people for real 1:1 conversations about real life things, not fantasy contraception=religious infringement type garbage.
Alright, I gotta try and spin down. Its been such a night. And such an 18 months.
DPS
I only learned about Sam Wang this time around and was a 538 follower last time around as again this time. However, I think that to be fair the better number to judge them by is the median EV outcome, not the mode (if I understand right, the latter chunks the outcome by electoral vote blocs). In the former, Nate had 313 and Wang 312. They were following the same polls, treated them in very similar ways, and had practically identical results. FL was a coin flip, as is borne out by the vote margin. I don’t have a particular attachment to Wang, but he can’t be regarded as having had materially different numbers from Nate.
ArchPundit
You know why you weren’t pissing your pants and running around with your hair on fire–reality.
We deal in reality. And by we I mean those of us who think data and evidence matter. Throughout this entire cycle reality has suggested the President would win. And fuck me if the reality didn’t just deliver on that.
None of that fixes the reality based problems of poverty, education, or global climate change. In fact, it appears to only make those potential problems to deal with over the next four years. The problem is that while data suggests these are problems, politicians don’t seem to agree so the question for the next four years isn’t what we shit our pants about, but how we make politicians and others shit their pants about reality.
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
@Cacti:
As long as we are dreaming big dreams here, can I slip in a prayer to the FSM that for this will go down as the beginning of the end for the traditional MSM political punditry. Because those folks passed their sell-by date around about the time the Soviet Union gave up its last dying breath and by God if the Russians can have the satisfaction of pulling a statue of Dzherzinsky off its plinth in front of the Lubyanka then it’s only fair we should get to do the same with the effigy of David Broder that is standing guard in front of the WaPo offices.
Hunter Gathers
Nope. Only white male voters over 50 provide mandates. The votes of women, the under 30 crowd, Blacks, Hispanics and the unmarried types count for squat. Politico, Ron Fournier and Mitch McConnell told me so.
Another Halocene Human
I am curious about the PR result. The only report I’ve seen has less than 50% reporting, and nothing on the Wikipedia page so far.
Is there an official page to watch?
DH
Given all the crap Mr. Silver took, I am so happy for him. God bless him.
JGabriel
I have returned from my celebratory post-election libations.
It’s so nice living in a city where the bars are open till 4 am even on weeknights.
What did miss?
(JGabriel +3 (Bordeaux))
.
Arclite
@PeakVT: And yet, Romney almost won. His loss won’t cause wingnuts to look inward: the election was stolen, Romney wasn’t a true conservative, Obama made a voodoo pact with the devil, the liberal media was in the bag for Obama, etc.
It took the Tories three straight losses to come around. Given how much stupider our Repubs are (and they have their own propaganda network), they’ll have to lose 2016 and 2020 before they come around. I hope that we have another 12 years of Dem rule for sure.
IM
Bookmark it libs, bookmark it.
Nate Silver and Sam Wang and I think most of the other statisticians can feel vindicated. But will all the pundits attacking them, even the ludicrous Morris pay any price? I doubt that. And that is the problem.
pseudonymous in nc
@Arclite:
I’d like him to push on immigration, because you can only contemplate immigration reform in the year immediately after a presidential election. Why? Because election years are all about nativist claptrap, and the second half of a term is all about the next presidential election.
Have big, open hearings, tear up all the visa classes and rewrite them in a way that takes inspiration from other countries’ approaches, come up with a sane way to deal with illegal immigration through carrot and stick — and basically double-dare the GOP House majority to block it. They can’t redistrict themselves to be safe from demographics.
The pundits will blather about wasting political capital when he should be starving grannies because FISCAL CLIFF CLAVIN etc, but the way the US handles immigration is almost as bad as the way it handles elections, and the federal government can’t do much about elections.
Another Halocene Human
What’s going on with red cities? Angry old white people? Air pollution?
Arclite
@ThatLeftTurnInABQ:
Dude! What are you talking about? WaPo hired Ezra to balance all the conservative columnists! Balance!
Another Halocene Human
@pseudonymous in nc: The only prob is some companies are on H1B welfare and they usually get exactly what they want. The only way that won’t happen is if enough of us US-Americans scream like stuck pigs when they try to keep their skilled slave labor.
(There have been forced labor cases with H1B’s because the employer can deport them, essentially. Wage theft, too.)
David Koch
Hahahahahhahahahhahahahhahahahahhahahahhahahhaha
I turned on Fixxed News for some kicks, and guess what they were blabbing about…. Libya.
Comrade Nimrod Humperdink
I was never worried about Obama, the only time things even got a little tense was the bouncy Rmoney got after the first debate that petered out after Obama kicked Thurston Howell around in the other two debates and topped off by the Sandy optics. And after the implosions of Mourdock and Akin, I got a lot less worried about the Senate (Heitkamp beating Berg cancels out Berkeley losing to Heller, can’t win them all). I am bummed about the House, I was hoping for a few more pickups there. And Dems don’t turn out in mid-terms. Our next real shot at the House may not come for 4 years unless something in the climate bumps up turnout dramatically.
Arclite
@David Koch:
Dude, really, show some compassion for the losers. At this point, Libya is all they’ve got.
Warren Terra
I’m sure anyone reading this thread is already on to it, or will be soon enough – but Charlie Pierce has a piece of goddamn poetry up right now. Pierce knows all about Obama’s shortcomings – he regularly slams him on drones, wiretaps, and not speaking strongly enough for Social Security and Medicare – but he also has a deep longing for Obama to mean what he says when he talks about America as a process, about our experiment in self-government. About the arc of history bending towards justice. And his essay tonight is on that subject, and it’s incredible.
And I’d just like to add, for myself: as someone who’s not affected by issues of race or gender identity, who has no close friends affected by them, I’m awed that in five years we’ve elected and re-elected a Black man with a funny name, raised poor and partly in Indonesia. I’m humbled that in his re-election campaign he took pride in standing up for the equal citizenship of our Gay friends and neighbors. That eight years after the cruel rejection of Gay rights was a tool with which Karl Rove could whip up the morons’ sense of fear and outrage, several states voted to embrace their Gay neighbors’ equality today.
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
@David Koch:
Libya is just down the coast from D’Nile, if you get my drift.
Arclite
@Another Halocene Human:
Teh black. Fixxed News. No education. No jobs. Teh South.
David Koch
I can’t believe Obama won all those swing states without the endorsements of Matt Stoller and GG.
pseudonymous in nc
@Another Halocene Human: I’d get rid of the H1B entirely: it’s antiquated, scalped and exploited.
I get the feeling that there’s a growing schism between the H1B body shops and the brand-name coastal firms who want to bring in talent acquisitions and recruit globally and find that there aren’t visas available for people who are going to be paid six-figure salaries and lead teams with mostly US employees.
Have a high-threshold tech visa with proper, clueful certification (EB-1/2 style) and unlimited work auth. No quota to be scalped, but you hand out fewer of them, so if Google acquires a London startup and wants its founders working in Mountain View, they can get on a plane as soon as the deal’s signed if they pass the usual background checks.
Liquid
Note to the GOP: Get better internal pollsters.
pseudonymous in nc
Anyway, as I said elsewhere, Nate Silver should retire from election predictions now. Drop the mic and walk away to whatever consulting or rock-star touring gig he wants to do.
mai naem
Can somebody shove Benghazi up the GOPs ass already?
It looks like Gabby Giffords seat went repub. I hope they ask for a recount. It’s a 300 vote loss.
Saw a tweet that Henry Waxman is losing? You gotta be kidding.
JGabriel
NYTimes:
I can only say that I think Ralph Reed is right. As a Democrat, I think the GOP should select Rick Santorum for their Presidential nominee in four years.
Heh.
.
Arclite
@Liquid:
I’m sure their pollsters are fine. But they don’t jibe with their gut. It feels like Mitt should win to them, and when he doesn’t they’re convince the election was stolen by legions of Black Panthers opening doors for old ladies and millions of quadruple voting Hispanics and blacks in urban areas.
Another Halocene Human
@Arclite: NY Times showed a small Dem-ward trend in the Black Belt in the Deep South. Evidence of the reverse migration, or greater voting activity post-Barack?
Arclite
@JGabriel: You laugh, but they’ll go further right. God forbid they should win. It’s funny that the Repubs go moderate in their campaigns for Prez: John McCain and Mitt Romney. This will push them even more conservative. It will take a few more losses before they nominate someone competent.
Warren Terra
Oh, and I’m just catching up to Esquire‘s stream of posts from the last 36 hours; Margaret Doris (who I believe is Charlie Pierce’s wife) has a very funny post about covering Romney’s New Hampshire rally Monday night.
PeakVT
@mai naem: Wow, you’re right. But only 36% of the vote is in.
Another Halocene Human
@Arclite: It won’t surprise me if they look at the map and the 2008 vs 2012 totals and conclude that the race-baiting worked and that they should go more conservative, if only it weren’t for all those third-world chicago-style ballot stuffing felon fraudsters in the big cities fucking up the popular vote!
JGabriel
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Arclite:
Damn straight I laugh. This was a good night. We vanquished our enemies, chased them before us, and saw them bathed in their own tears. Mama didn’t raise me to fret about winning.
Yeah, but I can worry about that tomorrow. Tonight is for joy, wine, gloating, and schadenfreude.
.
David Koch
man, the GOP bench is really pathetic. Hillary is gonna walk away with presidency in 2016.
mai naem
Looks like Crazy Eyes Michelle Bachman keeps her seat. Ugh.
JGabriel
NYT also points out something I hadn’t looked at this way before, but is really quite encouraging: the GOP has lost the popular vote in the last 5 of 6 presidential elections.
.
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
@JGabriel:
I think Larison has a valid point that what was wrong with Romney has as much to do with populism vs. the establishment GOP as it does with Mitt the “Moderate” vs the keepers of the true Conservative faith, so RR may be selling the GOP the rope with which to hang themselves in more than one sense here.
JGabriel
NYT:
Susan Collins has just made herself the next primary target of the GOP purity brigade.
.
SarahT
Exhausted & voice gone from GOTV & cheering, face hurting from smiling, ecstatic & relieved & looking forward to FINALLY a good night’s sleep despite (still) no heat or hot water in our downtown NYC apt. – OH HELL YES WE DID !
joel hanes
@Joel:
I call Nate the winner.
Oh hell no.
I mean, Nate’s one of the winners, for sure.
But tonight The Winner is Barack Obama, the consummate politician of my lifetime. (“Lucky in his opponents” doesn’t explain why he’s _always_ lucky in his opponents.)
Also, although jeebus knows I have gripes and differences with the President: Obama is the best President, and the best man, to hold the office since Ike.
President Obama now owns a GOTV machine that demonstrably works.
I wonder what he’ll do with it.
Bago
Can we have “moew qwlfare” as a replacement for pie in the cleek script? It’s just so aesthetically pleasing..
JGabriel
@ThatLeftTurnInABQ:
I agree, and I think we Democrats should help Reed pay out his rope — and maybe tie an anvil to it.
.
Narcissus
We won so much good stuff this time. It’s like Christmas morning.
Janus Daniels
CALLING ALL DEMOCRATS: wise up and be kind
I’ve gone out of my way to read Republican reactions to the election. Many seem genuinely scared, and even despairing.
Please take this time to accept victory graciously, and to celebrate privately with each other. When you can, please give reassurance to those who feel defeated. Do not expect them to see the world as you do, or to listen to you, let alone to feel as you do.
We can hope that they may see us, as they see themselves, as men and women of good will. And they may. If we reach out to them, and ask them to speak to us, to help us to understand them and their ideas, even in our victory, even from their loss.
I wish I had written this better. But it seems to need reading now. The idea deserves eloquence. If you think it worth spreading, do so, and make any improvement to my words that you can.
Thanks.
mai naem
Well, looks like Kirkpatrick won AZ-1 and we got AZ-9. AZ-9 is my district – Sinema – the first bisexual congressional rep. Local wingnut rag pointed out the bisexual part on the very first story they ran after the she won the primary. They did endorse her though. Probably because her Repub opponent was black.
mai naem
@Janus Daniels: Seriously, fuck ’em. All the dog whistle crap the Repubs have used. The auto bailout lies about Chrysler outsourcing jobs. Fuck ’em. Fuck ’em Fuck ’em. I have lost patience with the mofos. All the Obamacare soshulis garbage from 2010. They Israel crap. The apology tour lies. The Benghazi lies. The releasing of Libyan names during the House hearing on Benghazu which put the Libyans in danger. The forcing stuff out of info about how the CIA does stuff on Benghazi. Fucking treasonous. Seriously, be nice to them? Are you freaking kidding me? Cantor and McConnell are probably meeting right now planning strategy to fvck over Obama and Reid.
DPS
@Another Halocene Human:
Chafing.
DPS
@Janus Daniels:
Mmm. Or beat them into submission and irrelevance over repeated electoral cycles. If you personally want to administer handjobs to paranoid racists, though, knock yourself out.
Arclite
@mai naem: Yeah, Janus, nice sentiment, but I agree with Mai on this one. We tried it your way 2008 to ’12, and they shit in our faces. Every time. So fuck ’em. We’ll drag them kicking and screaming into good policies.
Sophtware
I’ve been a lurker since pre-Schiavo and all I have to say is: thanks! Well, not that’s not truly all. To elaborate, thanks for giving me a place to see similar (more erudite, often, but people with similar thought processes) citizens engage in discussions across a larger geographic area than I had access to, in ways I’ve often found difficult to find. I’ve not always agreed with everything I’ve read from from frontpagers (and Pillars of the Commenting Community), but I’ve more often than not found the conversations enlightening. My trip from Arizona to Chicago has seen me find more flesh and blood companions in this way of thinking (including a wife!), but you all have earned a place in my permanent internet roll call. Anyway, a Internet anon (+10 or so) just wants to say keep up with your badass selves, before the (inevitably painful) task of trying to get actual progress pushed through (the tea party hostage) House. Drink, love, and live well tonight. I think you all earned it!
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
@Arclite:
A very similar sentiment enjoyed a brief moment of popularity in the wake of the 2008 election. Googling “52 to 48 with love” turns up one artifact from that era. We know what happened after that. The GOP didn’t go feral because Dems were graceless winners, they went feral because they calculated that obstruction, sabotage and sedition offered them a more likely path back into power than cooperation. A judgment which was largely vindicated by the results of the 2010 midterms. I’m not optimistic that this time around any solicitude on the part of Dems towards our right-wing brethren will be any better rewarded.
JGabriel
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Janus Daniels:
I’ve been reading them too. Just 35 hours ago this was posted at National Review Online:
So, sorry, but I’m just not feeling all that charitable to Walsh and sundry other Conservatives.
These guys set themselves up to be mocked as penny-ante Greek tragic heroes with their hubris. It seems only fair and just, backed by several millennium of dramatic irony, to enjoy their downfall and comeuppance.
.
Bill E Pilgrim
@JGabriel: For me it’s not even a matter of mocking or not, but the idea of “celebrate privately with each other” — good grief.
I was actually struck by how President Obama’s speech wasn’t overladen with how much he’d work with those who were just defeated and all the rest of it. Even though he talked quite a bit about one country and so on, he didn’t go out of his way to reassure them that he was their President too and he’d do anything to meet them halfway and so on, as he’s stressed at other times. I can see why he did stress this so much, earlier on, but I see a wiser person now less willing to bend over backwards. I certainly hope so, anyway.
Suffern ACE
@JGabriel: you know what? They had primaries and Romney won those. What’s Ralph going to do about that?
KXB
@Helen:
I had the same issues with my uncle. It is impossible to watch sports or politics with him, because any sign of a setback is seen as irreversible. Even after the first debate, I kept checking on Silver, and he said that there was some shifting, but nothing that Obama should worry too much about. So, while he got stressed out over what pundits were saying, I just kept ticking off the days till Election Day.
JustRuss
Cole, I think your DNC trip did a lot to keep my blood pressure down too. The contrast between the upbeat competence that you were seeing in person compared to the pathetic cluster that was the public face of the RNC was pretty dramatic. So thanks for that.
Herbal Infusion Bagger
@psycholinguist:
The sweet, sweet taste of wingnut tears.
I was in the UK Labour Party back in the dark days of Thatcherism, and it took 3 election defeats in a row to batter the need for change. And there were some bitter intra-party disputes, faction-fighting and purging, before the Labour Party became electable again.
The GOP hasn’t had enough severe defeats in series for that to happen. The mid-terms in 2014 are going to be more favorable to them that this election, especially given gerrymandering (e.g. PA went by 5% margin for Obama, but the House delegation is 13-5 GOP-Dem). That’ll encourage the right, and then depending on whether Rubio crashes and burns they’ll either be severely defeated in 2016 or they’ll be able to make inroads into Hispanics to make the election closer. But I can’t see a fundamental reassessment within the GOP until a defeat in 2016.