Home > Uncategorized > 5 Quick Thoughts From The Immediate Aftermath

5 Quick Thoughts From The Immediate Aftermath

November 7, 2012 Leave a comment Go to comments
  • I’m sorry my liveblog tailed off so early tonight. I left the computer lab to go to the county Dem gathering at Shadows in Poughkeepsie, where the wifi infrastructure is not up to snuff. I had to constantly reconnect and had long lulls with no connection. So getting results and relaying them to the people in the room was hard enough, let alone processing them in a meaningful fashion here. So I had to abandon that effort. For those who were following, thank you. I hope that in the coming days I can provide something worth reading in appreciation for those who drop by this blog to see what I have to say. I am deeply grateful for any and all eyeballs who make their way over here.
  • Thank you so much to everyone who put something into the electoral process this year, on any side – whether as a poll worker or a campaign staffer or volunteer. In particular, let me thank two people on the ground. One is my collaborator here, Matt Clausen, who decamped for Ohio in June to reelect the president. The result was that Matt couldn’t post here throughout the season, but he has provided myriad sanity checks and news flashes and a man-on-the-ground sensibility that fueled my race ratings this autumn. And thanks to my brother, Patrick Kelly, who spent the final weeks of this campaign in Colorado helping to turn a tough race – one we weren’t sure we’d pull off – into another victory for Barack Obama in that state. I think I’m capable of separating my forecasting and analysis from my rooting interest; my race ratings, for one, have been incredibly sober. But I do root, and Matt and Pat uprooted for the cause, and I respect and thank them for it.
  • Democrats made a lot of history in Dutchess County tonight. I’ll be writing in more depth about that in the coming days. But this was the greatest night in the history of the Dutchess County Democratic Party. Congratulations are in order for all of the party’s candidates and for chairwoman Elisa Sumner.
  • After the 2008 election, I was talking with a wise Republican colleague of mine. She noted that her side couldn’t keep picking groups of people and saying, “We don’t want your vote.” Four years later, the situation is little changed. I’m talking here about minorities and immigrants and gays and the non-religious and college students and even a great many women…the list is awfully large, and some notable segments of it are growing quickly. Now, I think Republicans would find that to be an overly-dramatic statement. After all, so many of them are pretty chill – at least in theory – with the groups I just named. But at some point policy matters. Tone matters. The Republican Party, over the last last four years, has demonstrated that it is at worst hostile and at best ill at ease with these groups. Elections aren’t going to get any easier for them if that remains the case. Even if they do win under those circumstances, they’ll find that governing with that hostility or ill-ease is quite difficult. It’s time for an adult discussion about feelings and policy when it comes to many segments of the American public. And look, it cuts both ways occasionally – I think a lot of liberals could do more to understand where the religious are coming from, for example. But let’s not pretend that the shortcomings are equal at this moment in time.
  • I have subsisted largely on doughnuts today. I spent six hours driving to Scranton and back, four hours on doors, some time writing, and then it was results time, so dinner didn’t happen. I am looking forward to cooking something fantastic tomorrow.
Categories: Uncategorized

Leave a comment