Get Out The Vote?

Political Animal 124 Comments

For all Obama’s professed ability to motivate new voters, it seems that more people turned out for Kerry vs Bush than for McCain vs Obama.
2004 Popular Vote: 121,069,054
Bush 62,040,610 Kerry 59,028,444
2008 Popular Vote: 118,225,016
Obama 62,682,389 McCain 55,543,527
Those figures may be preliminary, but considering the population growth in the past four years and the hype surrounding Obama, it’s interesting what the clear light of November 5th has to say. (For one thing, it’s seems he’s scarcely more popular today than Bush was two years into the Iraq war.)
Related: Short coat tails. Gay marriage bans look to have passed from Florida to California. So much for the end of social conservativism.
More on the numbers here. As commentor Free Thinker points out, considering his “unprecedented half billion dollar war chest, total media subservience, timely stock market panic, celebrity endorsements” (not to mention the massive potential for voter fraud in certain precincts) perhaps the Democrats Chicago machine should be asking themselves what went wrong?
Nov. 6 Update – American University’s Center for the Study of the American Electorate (pdf)

Despite lofty predictions by some academics, pundits, and practitioners that voter turnout would reach levels not seen since the turn of the last century, the percentage of eligible citizens casting ballots in the 2008 presidential election stayed at virtually the same relatively high level as it reached in the polarized election of 2004.

2008 US Election Results

Political Animal 155 Comments

Open Thread as first polls begin to close.
You’re supposed to ignore exit polls, and with good reason, but these are entertaining, nonetheless.
Stephen Taylor is liveblogging with an electoral map as icing.
Update – 8:45 eastern
Well, as indicators stand now (Florida not good, other battlegrounds tight), look at the bright side – the big spending, big government Republicans are getting what they deserve tonight, albeit for all the wrong reasons. The people get the government they deserve, or so it is said, and with the even bigger spending Democrat-led Congress posting 8% approval ratings, maybe it’s more of the same they wanted all along.
Conservative renewal south of the border is long overdue, and my hunch is that the combination of Obama, Pelosi, and Reid are just the folks to pull it off. I only hope our economy can withstand the protectionist winds about to blow our way.
Though, every time the networks compare McCain’s vote totals to Bush ’04, I wonder if they wouldn’t have done better had W. been back on the ticket. I miss him already.
Oh, and I nearly forgot the best part. Tomorrow, the election over and awash in red ink, the slashing at newspapers and networks begins in earnest.
Update: Good pre-postmortem here
Update: A glimmer of hope: Norm Coleman (who led the fight to investigate Oil For Food) has pulled a little ahead of Al Franken in Minnesota with 50% of the polls reporting.
John Derbyshire compares Obama to a different history making politician. And quite rightly.

2008 US Election Day Linkfest

Political Animal 52 Comments

I’ll be following the events of today as best as I can, as I have work demands as well. I recommend you follow the usual hot spots for updates – Drudgereport, Instapundit, and NRO’s The Corner.
Lots at PJM and Hot Air
Just a reminder – beware the exit poll reports. They were intentionally wrong (manipulated and leaked) in 2000, wrong in 2004 and wrong again in 2006.
One I”ll be watching – on behalf of the wrongly accused, and Murtha-convicted Marines of “Haditha”.
Speaking of which – for all the mealy-mouthed Democratic “support” for the troops, why is it always the Republicans doing the suing to ensure military votes are counted
Family Reunion in Chicago
Also, via Free Dominion;

If you are a Canadian and have volunteered on the McCain/Palin ticket, please contact Jeff Semple
jeff.semple@cbc.ca

Update – Voter intimidation in Philadelphia

For what it’s worth – behind the scenes chatter indicates that the McCain campaign genuinely believes they have a chance at pulling out a win, based on the way the polls have been breaking in battleground states.
Drop your own links in the comments. I’ll start a new thread for discussion once actual returns begin to come in.
A Why Vote McCain-Palin argument from one of my favourite states – North Carolina. (With a shout out to my lurking dogshow peeps there!)
Obama – McCain, the younger years. Heh

“I don’t think that we’re convinced Maher Arar was vindicated or acquitted by your process”

Terrorism 46 Comments

“What you did was re-evaluate the treatment of Maher Arar and decide that procedural mistakes along the way had been made. That didn’t vindicate him from the charge that he was involved in fundraising for terror.
“People in Canada have turned the man into some sort of national hero, but if you expect the next administration to join you in sending him laurels, I think you’re going to be mistaken. Even Barack Obama … is not going to go near that with a 10-foot pole” and Mr. Arar will not have his name removed from the U.S. no-fly list “in my lifetime.”

Via reader Harry, who adds – “This confirms RCMP ex-Commissioner Zacadelli’s observation that other security intel officials around the world were “surprised” at the Arar settlement.”

What Is This Google That You Speak Of?

Freespeechers 8 Comments

Binks;

During the event, Professor John Miller of Ryerson slagged Mark Steyn as a mere ‘polemicist’ and not a responsible journalist. As an example, he used Mark’s quoting of Ayatollah Khomeini from (he said) the now infamous Macleans article. Looks like he’s been trusting the citations of the SockPuppets, because as Steyn himself notes, it’s actually from the Maclean’s article ‘Celebrate tolerance, or you’re dead‘.
Miller asserted that after a thorough Internet search, he found the Khomeini quote only in one comment on one [echh, ptui] blog.
Meanwhile, Ezra was surfing online, and interrupted a minute later to point out he’d just then Googled 100+ references to the quote in question, including one from the eminently liberal Harper’s Magazine, 1985. Public pantsing accomplished.
The point isn’t the fact that Ezra scored a point, but that the new media mindset is different. “Fact? Fact-check. Don’t take old media or other political speech as taken for granted. Dig around; check the sources.” In leading up to this presentation– for which Dr. Miller and others presumably had week and weeks to prepare, why didn’t a journalism professor know how to Google and fact-check on the internet?

(Because everything he knows about journalism, he lurned by reading the New York Times.)
Lots more freespeechy goodness today there and at FFoF, where, if you search the fine print, you’ll discover she has a new book out.

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