Why Obama Won :)

A funny one minute explanation compliments of Sarah.

President Elect Barack Obama

Happy Election Day

God and the Election

I received an email message this morning from Chip, my old friend, one-time church history teacher and missionary to Kenya that has some good thoughts about tomorrow's election. Here is the note in part:

Tomorrow is Election Day in the US. Scriptures indicate that God appoints kings, rulers and those in positions of authority in governments. I believe that in a democracy that means that God has appointed the citizens to rule and have authority. I don’t believe that God will get even one vote to cast on Tuesday. He has already made his choice – the citizens of the United States.

Although God does not vote in the election, please do so yourself if you are a US citizen. Chari, Amanda, and I have all voted already via absentee ballot. If we do not exercise our responsibility to vote, we are, in effect, abdicating the authority that God has bestowed upon us. I hope you can join us in praying that:

• God will grant the people of the US, wisdom, insight, and understanding to make good decisions

• The citizens of the USA will take their responsibility seriously to vote for the candidate of their choice

• Both those who are happy and those who are disappointed in the results, will reach out to each other and purposively engage in the process of dialog and collaboration to create policies, programmes, priorities, and procedures that will facilitate the wellbeing of people, both in the USA and around the world.

Please join me in saying an amen to Chip's prayer and making that trip to the voting booth if you have not already.

Pants on Fire

I remember that old childhood taunt - Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire. This morning I noticed five pants on fire icons in my sidebar. Just for fun.. here they are along with a few other "pants on fire" statements:

• "Obama would "experiment with socialism." — Sarah Palin
• "And 100 percent, John, of your ads . . . 100 percent of them have been negative." — Barack Obama
• Says Obama called Sarah Palin a pig. — John McCain
• "Obama's Ten Point Plan to 'Change' the Second Amendment…Ban use of firearms for home defense." — National Rifle Association
• Obama ad contends that John McCain endorses Rush Limbaugh's comments about immigration. — Barack Obama
• "Barack Obama thinks terrorists just need a good talking to." — Republican National Committee
• Michelle Obama ordered $400 worth of lobster and caviar at a New York hotel. — Chain Email
• "(Bill) Ayers and Obama ran a radical education foundation together." — John McCain
• Says McCain "voted to let governments charge rape victims" for forensic exams. — Planned Parenthood
• "The Books Sarah Palin tried to have banned." — Chain Email
• Sarah Palin "got more votes running for mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, than Joe Biden got running for president of the United States." — Mike Huckabee
• Obama wants to increase the size of government by 23 percent. — John McCain

Feel free to check them all out at Politifact.com

Voted My Gut

Last Monday I voted early by mail. On Tuesday I wrote a post giving my rationale for why I voted the way that I did.. it is still sitting in my draft pile.. I decided that it really looked a bit too much like an endorsement of one of the candidates.. and I am really not comfortable doing that.

So my advice.. if you haven't voted yet is to vote the way that I did - get informed.. find out everything that you can about the candidates - then vote your gut.. follow that inner voice.. whatever you call it.. be true to yourself when you vote.. don't pay attention to the pundits or the squawking heads.. or other bloggers.. just follow your conscience.. you will be glad that you did.

Record Early Voting

In Dallas, Texas:

Elections administrator Bruce Sherbet said 477,455 people voted early in Dallas County, according to a preliminary tally.

The record of 322,000 early votes was toppled by Wednesday night, with two of the heaviest days of voting left.

In Illinois:

Early voting, making its Illinois debut in a presidential year, provided election officials with a window into voters' excitement for the race. In all, more than 779,000 people from Chicago to McHenry County cast ballots between Oct. 13 and Thursday, the final day for early voting, officials said. Those totals beat the estimate of 697,000 given this week.

In Florida:

Almost 185,000 people have cast ballots at the county's 17 early voting locations as of Thursday. Another 87,600 people have returned absentee ballots. That approaches the previous high of 275,000 votes cast before Election Day in 2004.

In West Virginia:

As of Friday morning, nearly 122,000 state residents had cast ballots in West Virginia's 55 counties. That's about 10 percent of the state's eligible voters.

In 2004, the state recorded 126,503 early votes.

In Charleston, South Carolina:

With just one day left to vote early, we've already shattered previous records. Long lines are the norm at polling places across the state these days. Secretary of State Betty Ireland says the turnout is record-breaking, "Through this early voting period we've already had 133,000 people cast an early voting ballot or an absentee ballot. That's a record".

In Hawaii:

With thousands of early voters still expected tomorrow, balloting on Oahu has already topped total early turnout in the last presidential election.

The number of people voting had hit 53,000 statewide when polls at county seats and other early voting sites reopened Friday for the final two days of voting. On Oahu, the count was 29,343, compared with 29,000 total early ballots in 2004, according to elections spokesman Rex Quidilla.

This is gearing up to be a great election here in the USA. I think that, in the end, voter turnout will be of record proportion with many voters coming to the voting booth for the very first time.. and some disenfranchised folks will return to the booth for the first time in many years.. and that is good.

The Electoral College

I am not really a proponent of the electoral college.. if you are not familiar with it check out the wiki on it here. I think that the idea of states voting for a president seems bureaucratic and a bit off to me.

Gary posted this interactive map (above) on his blog and I thought that it was a good way to show how crazy the electoral college is. I mean really.. does it make any difference which presidential candidate a Kansan votes for?

Here is how to use the map widget. Click on a gray state and choose who you think will win. Do the same with each remaining gray state and watch the path to 270 (Victory) for one candidate. Try different combinations to achieve different outcomes.

I agree that Kansas will go Republican. How do you think your state will go?

Election Issues Poll

 

I voted with the 23% because of it's impact on all of the other issues.

Which one would you have voted for?

The Vote Hour

Interesting one minute video.

What time of the day will you vote?

Our Need to be Liked by Politicians

This Christianity Today article titled "Can We Come to the Party?" reveals how Evangelicals and their leaders are often carried away by their desire to be influential in the political process. Here is the way that the article starts:

"I know you can't endorse me, but I want you to know that I endorse you." Nothing solidified the alliance between evangelicals and the Republican Party so much as that 1980 comment from Ronald Reagan to 2,500 pastors.

"You can imagine what that did for caring, traditional-values people," James Robison, who organized the event, said later. "He endorsed us. It was a big impetus."

Reagan, who was divorced, did not attend church, and gave less than 1 percent of his income to charity, hardly delivered on any of evangelicals' expectations as president, William Martin noted in a CT article after Reagan died. "What Reagan did give evangelicals, in great abundance, was symbolic affirmation in the form of photo ops. For many, that was enough."

Evangelicals didn't care that Reagan wasn't like them. It was enough that he liked them.

Did you catch that phrase "symbolic affirmation"? I have to admit that I was sucked into this whole mess.. often buying the rhetoric and believing that politicians were actually like me and had values similar to mine.. and I voted that way as well. I liked that these politicians really seemed to "like" me.

In hindsight, voting for people who seem to "like" us is pretty foolish. Better to vote for people who we believe will make a good mayor, congressman or president than to vote for someone who "likes" us.

What Undecided Voters Think

Just a few notes that have been spinning around in my head.. and yes.. even though my wife has voted by mail.. I have not voted yet because I am yet undecided. Here are my thoughts of late.. I think that they may be representative of undecided voters:

• Neither candidate is evil.. each is a sitting US Senator.. they do not deserve to be demonized with talk about being Un-American.
• Obama is pro-choice but not pro-abortion.. really.. undecided voters aren't buying the idea that Obama thinks that it is okay to kill babies born alive.
• Talks of socialism are political rhetoric.. our country redistributes wealth all of the time.. Medicare and Social security are a few redistribution programs that comes to mind.
• The main stream media may lean left but it is not evil.. and neither are those fair and balanced news networks.
• Medicare, social security, the budget shortfall and the national deficit are sadly nowhere to be found in the candidates dialog and debates.. this is indicative of why this campaigning falls short for many of us.
  
• The real issue is the economy.. both candidates seem to be comfortable with spending billions of our dollars.. neither candidate is a fiscal conservative.
  

Undecided for a reason.. do not see a candidate that is clearly better than the other.. unless you are a single issue voter.. which most undecided voters are not.

Happy Days Mayberry Endorsement

See more Ron Howard videos at Funny or Die

Worth watching for the memories even if you are voting against Obama -
no one is really voting for McCain.

HT: Barbara

Blaming Younger Evangelicals

At Christianiy Today's politics blog, Sarah Pulliam points out that the 16-page letter from Focus on the Family offering a hypothetical look back on the first term of an Obama administration that's disastrous for religious conservatives blames young evangelicals for an Obama victory:

Many Christians voted for Obama - younger evangelicals actually provided him with the needed margin to defeat John McCain - but they didn't think he would really follow through on the far-Left policies that had marked his career. They were wrong.

Is this "talking to" from evangelical elders to the younger generation likely to help reverse the migration of young evangelicals out of the Republican column? Or will it urge more to leave?

HT: God-O-Meter

McCain on Unborn Babies

According to this article:

In an interview with evangelical leader James Dobson that aired Wednesday Palin said she thought Republican presidential candidate John McCain would implement the GOP platform if elected - "I do, from the bottom of my heart" - but McCain doesn't support the platform on three issues important to evangelicals: abortion, gay marriage and embryonic stem cell research.

The platform calls for a constitutional ban on gay marriage, an issue McCain says should be left to individual states. Similarly, the platform seeks a constitutional ban on all abortions; again, McCain supports allowing states to decide the question. McCain supports research using embryonic stem cells, which the platform opposes.

Interesting that McCain believes that the rights and person-hood of the unborn is one that should be relegated to the states. Got to wonder if he understands this issue at all.. or if his pro-life position is just another case of pandering for the votes of folks that have deep felt and strongly held beliefs that the rights of the unborn are ones endowed to them by their creator.

Voter Test

You Should Be Allowed to Vote

You got 14/15 questions correct. Generally speaking, you're very well informed. If you vote this election, you'll know exactly who (and what) you'll be voting for. You're likely to have strong opinions, and you have the facts to back them up.

Should You Be Allowed to Vote?

Related articles by Zemanta

• Baby Boomer at the Polls on Election Day
• Keeping Those Voting Machines Honest
• Internet Voting: It's Here (Kinda)

Voting the Supreme Court

Over at Rose's Reasonings we have been having a spirited debate about the presidential campaign. Several of the commenters have asserted that "discerning" Christians could not vote for Barack Obama because he would appoint pro-choice justices. The insinuation and innuendo is that to vote for Obama is tantamount to sinning.. but I digress. Following is a comment I left about presidents and their supreme court nominations:

For the past 28 years.. in the last 7 presidential elections I have voted pro-life.. the abortion issue trumped every other issue.. I believed that Ronald Reagan and George Bush (the elder) would nominate pro-life justices.. Reagan nominated O'Connor and Kennedy.. Bush nominated Souter.. and Ford nominated Stevens.. much of the present court make-up can be attributed to these republican presidents.

I understand how strong this issue is but I simply no longer believe that the supreme court is the answer to abortion. I think that the best that they will do is return the issue to the states.. they will not outlaw abortion in our country.

The rights of unborn babies is not a state issue.. it is one which.. like slavery.. demands a national answer. William Wilberforce was a man of integrity who made a change in slavery for England. We fought a civil war to give slaves person-hood.. this led to a change in our constitution.

I do not believe that John McCain has a fire in his belly about the unborn.. he has never introduced legislation to abolish abortion in our country.. his support for unborn babies has been passive at best.. he will do nothing for the unborn if he is elected.. and I don't think that even a pro-life justice nomination is assured.. he makes many decisions by the seat of his pants.. if he had not listened to advisers we would be looking at a pro-choice Ridge or Lieberman VP nomination.

What do you think? Is it the position of the high court to send the legalization of abortion back to state legislatures? Do you think that they would ever rule that unborn babies have a right to life? I am interested in your thoughts.

Colin Powell Endorsement

This Sunday former Four Star General and Secretary of State Colin Powell will appear on NBC's Meet the Press. There is speculation that he may endorse one of the candidates. Vote in this poll and let me know what you think.
Will his endorsement.. if he makes one.. affect your vote at all?

Candidates Roast Each Other

Two funny videos from last nights Alfred E. Smith memorial dinner in NYC. I love to see this sort of stuff. You can view both videos in under 20 minutes.. well worth your time.

Inconvenient Truths and Myths

A blog friend recently sent me a link to this website. Here are two inconvenient truths presented there:

Each household's share of the nation's $53 trillion hole is $455,000.

Our children and grandchildren will face tax rates that more than double over time without real reforms to the government's existing entitlement programs and current spending and tax policies.

Here is their list of their inconvenient myths:

We cannot grow our way out of these problems. To do so, our economy would have to grow by double digits in real terms for decades. Even during the relative prosperity of the 1990s, the economy grew at an average rate of 3.2% per year.

We cannot solve the problem simply by eliminating earmarks and pork-barrel spending, cancelling the Bush tax cuts, and ending the war efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan. Combined, these actions would get us only 15% of the way to solvency.

While I am not sure that I agree in total with the specifics of their truths and myths I do agree with their sentiments on what we need in a president:

"We need a President who will tackle these critical issues, help educate the public, and lead a bipartisan effort to make meaningful reforms a reality."

Not sure that either candidate is up to the task.. and I'm pretty sure that no one will be debating Medicare in tonight's debate.. but I hope that I am wrong.