Tag: Election

President Obama Re-elected

President Barack Obama was re-elected for a second term at 11:12 PM tonight, November 6, 2012.

Earlier this evening, I was recounting where I have been on Election Day of each of the prior presidential elections for which I have been eligible to vote.

In November of 2000, I was 19 years old and in my first semester at the University of Michigan. I do not recall much from this election beyond being around the “fish bowl” computer lab. Incredible to think that the 9-11-2001 terrorist attacks has not yet shaken the country. And the tech bubble had burst.

I spent Election Day of 2004 in Northern Virginia, just outside of Washington DC. I had moved there to work at Ruckus a few months earlier.

In 2008, I was sitting on a bed studying for some law school class while waiting for Obama to be elected. That was an entertaining election with The Palin VP candidacy and SNL parody thereof. This was one of the most historic elections of all time.

Now, in 2012, I’m watching the election coverage from my home in my hometown, am married, and practicing law.

It will be interesting to see what the next four years bring and what Lindsey and I will be up to in 2016!

GOBAMA

Barack Obama’s win last night goes down as one of the major historical events of my lifetime — the kind of event that makes me remember where I was when it happened. The only other event like it that I remember clearly is the terror attacks on September 11, 2001. I was eating pizza at the La Famiglia pizza restaurant (now a Jimmy Johns) on the corner of E. William St. and S. State St. in Ann Arbor, MI when I heard, faintly on the store radio, that a plane had flown into one of the World Trade Centers. I was shocked — scared somewhat, although Ann Arbor didn’t seem like it would be next on the list of terror targets. I walked to the fishbowl and watched video news feeds on TV and on the web. It was a surreal moment — one I couldn’t believe was happening at the time.

Last night was equally memorable. I sat in the bedroom of my sublet watching the election results on both my computer and CNN HD. Next to me was my best friend and the one person I would most want to share a moment like this with. I smiled. I didn’t jump around. I just felt relieved and happy.

Then, this morning, while I was on my way to get donuts, I screamed, “GOBAMA!” a few times. What a tremendous moment in the history of the United States of America. Definitely not something I imagined I would see in my lifetime.

Election Day

Today has been really boring as far as exciting days go. I voted weeks ago by absentee ballot, so I didn’t even get to go to the polls, stand in line, and pull the lever.

The only source of anxiety is, well, not knowing for certain who is going to win. Duh, right? Well, I’ve been hearing for weeks now that Obama has a solid lead. But I wonder if, like a mismatched college bowl game where the media commentators twist the facts to make the possibility of a close game seem more likely, I have been misled by hours of CNN.

The earliest east coast polls just closed on what is guaranteed to be a historic day.

Undecided? Really?

I’d like to echo the sentiments expressed by David Sedaris in a recent New Yorker article, “Undecided.” I am as astonished as he that people can still be undecided between John McCain and Barack Obama. Beyond the fact that they’re both politicians, they are very dissimilar. If you can’t find something by now that pushes you towards one candidate or the other — even if it’s a primal gut feeling you get by looking at them or maybe you’ve gotten close enough to smell them — that should be enough to go on.

I was thinking about what I would call “progressive Catholics” yesterday. How do you reconcile a political conflict with your religion? (Even if you have seen Bill Mahar’s Religulous?!) That is, if you believe in Obama how do you reconcile that he’s pro-choice? Or if you believe in McCain because of a specific issue, how do you reconcile that he may simply continue the mediocrity of the past eight years?

That is just a limited example that could play out a thousand different ways if you change the player and the inputs. My point is that you have the right to vote. You are allowed to have an opinion. Don’t waste either on being undecided. Make a decision and live with it. If it turns out to be wrong, you’ll probably get another chance. Or at least you can complain about something for the next four years and know that you actually partook in the process.

Or, as David Sedaris writes:

To put [undecided voters] in perspective, I think of being on an airplane. The flight attendant comes down the aisle with her food cart and, eventually, parks it beside my seat. “Can I interest you in the chicken?” she asks. “Or would you prefer the platter of shit with bits of broken glass in it?”

To be undecided in this election is to pause for a moment and then ask how the chicken is cooked.

I mean, really, what’s to be confused about?

Mania This and Mania That

Golf Digest’s Jaime Diaz has in interesting proposition: that pre-1997 Tigermania paved the way for the Barack Obamamania we’re experiencing leading up to the 2008 Presidential Election. He writes:

Obamamania really isn’t all that different from Tigermania pre-1997 Masters. Woods was still mostly promise, although there was a certainty and presence and sense of destiny to the young man, the kind Obama increasingly has demonstrated in his campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination. Both manias reflect an America willing to trust its gut more than its head. But tellingly, with Woods there was no second-guessing, and the same seems to be true with Obama.

Without getting too political here on Yugflog.com, if Obama is elected President, he will have a lot to live up to. Tiger has far exceeded the pre-1997 hype with his incredible on-course success. On top of that his image and influence reach far beyond the course and affect many reaches of life. By default, Obama will have the reach if he were to take office. The tough part would be backing it up with results.

Super Tuesday 2008

Super Tuesday is almost as dip worthy as the Super Bowl. I wonder if the game will be as good. The anticipation is killing me.

I struggled with whether to add Mike Huckabee and Ron Paul to the graphic, but it wasn’t worth the extra effort in Photoshop to fit them in. Maybe if I could do some sort of footnote graphic – a “kind of running, but not really,” type of thing.

I’m in New Hampshire, so there’s no voting to be done today. Instead, I’ll be hopping between FOX and CNN as I read Antitrust, Federal Courts and Wills, Trusts & Estates for my classes tomorrow.