Since we are still on the topic of the election this year and the next one, I would like too add my few sense into this. For this election I think McCain only lost because of the comparison the Obama camp made as the 'next Bush' I mean, all I hear is that "We don't need another republican, it'll be another Bush". But as far as I know, McCain is not a real right-wing conservative the media and the public make him out to be. He seemed to be more bipartisan then Obama is.
And this is something that the pundits have gotten people to believe sometime around 2000-2002. That McCain is this sort of moderate Republican.
Don't get be wrong. He can and does work in a bi-partisan manner. His Democratic colleagues aren't just saying that he's a great person to work with just to save face, I bet. But just because he works in a bi-partisan manner doesn't make him a moderate Republican, like someone like Jim Jeffords (well, was), or Rick Santorum or Arlen Specter.
He's a very reliable vote for many of the main Republican issues out there. He's got a good, independent voice, but he's still a reliable Republican.
If there's one issue he's been more moderate on, it's probably immigration, and maybe education.
Also, I find this election to be utterly weighed by Obama being the first major bi-racial canidate. I mean, I know many people that don't know anything about his policies and supported him simply because he was black and they wanted to hlep make history. Now I'm all for making history but, when you are blindly voting for someone without any knowledge of the canidate. It was absolutely ridiculous the week prior to the elections.
People vote for shallow reasons all the time. This is nothing new (nor does it make the aforementioned reasoning okay).
It's no secret that I'm really ****** that Stevens is still in office. It's ironic that the party that wanted to clean up Washington has one of the biggest pork barrel Senators and is now a convicted felon because of this addiction to greed he has. And even without changing the ideology (we could go on for days if Republicans should be more center , more right, more whatever), if the Congressional Republican caucus could get together and just find out everything ethically wrong, so that they don't find out about it on the news. And they either come forth with it and solve it in the open, or have them resign. Voluntarily becoming the party of ethics and doing a sort of self cleansing ritual would at least increase respect for the Republicans, if not actually help them gain seats in 2 years.
(Psst, Congressional Republicans. Your next target should be Dan Burton).
Of course, if Stevens wins (and it's looking that way, though just barely), it makes you think. What would a Republican have to do to get kicked out of an office in Alaska?
Something interesting I found, from Indiana's voting.
Obama won by about 23,000 votes. And Governor Mitch Daniels won by 500,000.
Daniels and Obama have two things in common:
They're both basically the "change" candidate.
Flooded the state with campaign money.
It looks like Daniels' supporters who split their ticket put Obama over the top. And while Governor Daniels has been quite public in saying that this is the only elected office he'll ever hold, it might bode well for either a role in a major campaign or something like the RNC chairmanship in a few years. During the inevitable soul searching the Republicans will turn to, I hope they sit down with Governor Mitch, an he can show them how to run a real campaign.
