Blasting Box

Like many of us in this country I watched the election this past November 4 with a great deal of interest.  No matter which campain was successful for the election for president, it would have been an historic event.  Senator Obama has become the first African American to be elected president of this land, and that is a remarkable event on so many levels that it would take volumes to express it all.  Think just for a moment about the irony of the initial designation of people of his race by the constitution in Article II, section 2, as 3/5ths of a person, to fully appreciate the distance this land has come.  To be sure we have much of a journey to continue, but I believe we should pause for just a moment and celebrate the portion of that journey just completed. 

Also, should the McCain-Palin ticket have been successful it would have marked the first woman elected to the office of vice-president.  Think for a moment of that journey as well.  My mind, and that of my fiance, went immediately to Susan B. Anthony, Lucy Burns, Alice Paul, and so many others who pushed for the equality that was aluded to by the founders of this nation to not be withheld from women.  Regardless of your agreement or lack thereof with Mrs. Palin's perspective or politics it should be an automatic to think of her in historic terms should that ticket have been successful.  I think it's also quite depressing in that respect to think that it's been 24 years since the last woman candidate for national office had been nominated by either of the two major parties.  More must be done.   

Because I spend a substantial amount of my professional life consumed in numbers and equations I spent a little time looking at the results of the election on a numbers basis.  Based on the total of the popular vote in the election, it would seem at first glance that Mr. Obama was  elected by a huge margin of almost 8 million votes.  However, there's another evaluation of the numbers which warrants consideration.

In following the results of the election on the website from CNN I observed that approximately 112 electoral votes went to Obama in states where the voting majority changed from 2004.  On the CNN electoral map, those states are referred to as "battleground states", a designation which always puzzled me.  Those states are Florida (27), Ohio (20), North Carolina (15), Virginia (13), Indiana (11), Colorado (9), Iowa (7), New Mexico (5), and Nevada (5).  In those states, the total number of votes received by the Obama-Biden ticket was 1.22 million greater than those for the Republican opponent.

Electoral	State	Obama	McCain	Margin	%
27	FL	4,143,957	3,939,380	204,577	2.53%
20	OH	2,708,988	2,502,218	206,770	3.97%
15	NC	2,123,395	2,109,402	13,993	0.33%
13	VA	1,905,588	1,703,478	202,110	5.60%
11	IN	1,367,503	1,341,667	25,836	0.95%
9	CO	1,209,821	1,017,468	192,353	8.64%
7	IA	818,240	677,508	140,732	9.41%
5	NM	458,754	340,857	117,897	14.74%
5	NV	531,884	411,988	119,896	12.70%
112		15,268,130	14,043,966	1,224,164	4.18%

If you look at this data you'll see that a switch of only 1.22 million votes in these critical battleground states would have changed the outcome of the election through the revised electoral college totals.  The firestorm of controversy that would have resulted is almost too horrendous to contemplate.

Imagine for a moment that those 1.22 million votes had been cast for Senator McCain. The popular vote nationwide would still favor Senator Obama, by a revised total of 63.9 million to 57.2 million, however, the revised electoral college results would then be 275 for McCain-Palin,  and 252 for Obama-Biden, with Missouri still not final/official.  The 11 electoral votes there would not be enough to give Senator Obama the election. 

Also, consider the scenario that the two battleground states with the largest percentage margin for Obama (New Mexico and Nevada) had remained in the Obama column.  The electoral college numbers now are 265 for McCain and 262 for Obama.  The impact of the Missouri vote counting process then becomes the de facto decision maker for who becomes the president of the United States.  Would we be looking at a Florida 2000 scenario once again?

I guess the summation of this diatribe (rant?) is to underscore the concerns that I have over the allegations of vote fraud, from the phony registrations to the irregularities in vote counting to the difficulties with computer ballots.  Two very good discussions of those problems are in the wonderful book Stealing Democracy, a long discussion of the often flawed, and sometimes very unjust election system in this country, and in the documentary Hacking Democracy, which outlined the potential for vote fraud and shenanigans with use of computers.  When you look at the numbers I've discussed above, and I'm sure others in numerous other political offices around the country, you can see how very important it becomes to not only get the count accurate, but to prevent vote fraud.

Isn't it interesting?  I find all sorts of fun things to think about the world of the presidential campain currently underway.  Most fun of all though is the remarkable whining that seems to come from some of the campain staff of the candidates who just don't think their candidate should have to answer those tough questions that seem to surface now and then.  Senator Clinton's campain doesn't like the rough attack she received, Senator Obama's supporters want Charlie Gibson and George Stephanopolous to be beheaded on the steps of the capital for daring to ask him questions he didn't want to address, and Senator McCain gets into a little bit of a discussion with E. Bumiller of the NY Times, and the press goes balistic on McCain's "meltdown."  I love it, the more needling and irritating the question the better, for my money.

A couple of things to note here.  First off, I think there's no "out of bounds" questions for someone who wants to sit in the Oval Office.  If you want my vote to hold the reins of the executive branch then you'd better be able to handle a few pesky embarassing questions.  Nothing is out of bounds.  Absolutely nothing.  Think of the stupidity of the following, and then tell me the candidate had a right to be evasive:

1. William Jefferson Clinton, when asked about whether or not he used marijuana, a perfectly logical question for millions of Americans in his generation responded by saying he had tried it but "didn't inhale."  That was his answer?  He didn't inhale.  Right.  How about this as an answer, which would have been completely understood by a generation, and accepted just as easily:  Yes, I did try it, like millions of my peers of that era.  I didn't continue on with it because for whatever reasons it didn't do anything for me.  Tried it, didn't like it, didn't do it again.  Next?  My word how much he would have gained politically from that kind of answer. 
2. George H.W. Bush, on the "Larry King Live" program during the 1992 campain against Clinton, takes a "random" phone call from a viewer who just turns out to be George Stephanopolous, one of the senior members of the Clinton campain.  Bush responded to a relatively tough question: "Well, I don't want to have a debate with Stephanopolous I want to talk to the American people."  Oh brother, ducking the enemy isn't what I want in a president.  The fact that Stephanopolous had the inside number at CNN aside, if you're the president, or the candidate, you better be able to handle all comers, sir.  What if you had said: George, I'd love to discuss this with you in a more elaborate forum than we have available to us now.  How about you and your candidate agree to a debate where my staff gets to question him, and your staff gets to question me?  What do you say, George? I can't even imagine how it would have turned the table on Mr. S, not to mention make Clinton reach for an antacid tablet.  Imagine the delicious exchange that might have occured if that lunatic Carville had the chance to ask questions of Bush 41, or if Carville's wife Mary Matalin was given the opportunity to directly challenge then-Governor Clinton?  You know who might have won that debate?  You and I because it sure as the day is long would have shown us what both candidates could do under pressure, and how well informed they were regarding the office they're seeking.
3. Lloyd Bentsen, in the famous vice-presidential candidate debate in 1988 with Dan Quayle, responds to Quayle's comment regarding his lack of experience by comparring his level of experience to that of the late John F. Kennedy.  Bentsen's quote, more like the shot heard round the world, is "Senator, I knew Jack Kennedy, I worked with him.  Senator, you're no Jack Kennedy."  Quayle's response (distilled) "Wahhhh".  What Quayle might have responded with was:  No, Senator, the late president and I have many dissimilar qualities and perspectives.  I was speaking merely of my level of experience at this time in my career as being similar to his at the same point.  Perhaps I would be more appealing to those on your side of the aisle if I were acquire more of his character, such as finding the time to sleep with every female I could talk into a horizontal position.  However, we're not discussing President Kennedy, or even Senator Kennedy, we're talking about experience and perspective.  Perhaps that would be a better discussion than lapsing into personal attacks, don't you agree Senator?  I can't even imagine the heart attack Bentsen would have endured, and the press fire storm that would follow.  It would have been delightful, watching the responses, and of course the blasphemy - BLASPHEMY I tell you! - of a few "behind the curtains" truths about JFK being placed front and center.  

Think of it this way.  You're asking the American people to vote for you, and you're unhappy that the questions being asked of you aren't 12' arc softball pitches that you can knock over the fences?  Do you honestly think that in the world we live in today that conduct of that nature is a good indicator of how you're going to handle the difficult times ahead for that office - both from within and without the US?

No, Mr. Bin Laden, I won't respond to your threats and violent attack on Americans, that wasn't in the "rules of debate" I signed up for.    No, President Kim-Jong Il, I won't discuss your nuclear program, I'm not prepared by my staff with sound bytes to hammer you with.

If you're asking for my vote, you better be able to handle the job without putting pre-conditions on the questions you're going to be asked. 

Up early this morning for reasons that still are unclear. It's Saturday and I should be sleeping late and resting up from a stressful week. In any case, I was disinterestedly flipping through the TV dial when I learned that in the night the town of Greensburg, Kansas was devastated by a tornado.

A couple of serious connects here for me. I lived in Kansas for four interesting years while I went to college. I found the area interesting, and populated by intelligent, compassionate and responsible people. There's always going to be a large warm spot in my heart for that part of the country. I have many friends who live in Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, Oklahoma, and northern Texas - the region frequently referred to as "Tornado Alley" by meteorologists.

Secondly, the first time I ever remember seeing my father scared was during a tornado my family encountered when I was four years old in Burkburnett, Texas. We spent the evening in a storm shelter with a number of other families, and I could see the strain on my dad's face, and it has stayed with me, fully 48 years later.

I know the people in Greensburg are devastated. But I also know the surrounding communities were planning to help their neighbors out even before the debris was brought back to the ground by Isaac Newton. There's something remarkable about the people of the Great Plains, and something I will always admire. They help. They don't ask a lot of questions or wait for "someone else" to do things for them. They help.

I'm proud to have been a part of that area of the country, even for a little while. And I'm even more proud of the friends I have in that state who're most likely working at this very moment to help their neighbors in Greensburg.

May their efforts be aided from above.

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