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November 4, 2008
Landslide? Hardly
The AP is saying that Obama won the election in an Electoral College landslide. A what? What the heck is an Electoral College landslide other than over-the-top journalistic rhetoric? Strafor is more reserved, and hence why I prefer them, and say he won a “solid majority” of the popular vote but nowhere near a landslide and that his Electoral College win was “decisive”.
Stratfor goes on to point out that, in effect, now it is time for Obama to perform. They discuss his statement that he will withdraw from Iraq but he does not have a timeframe nor does he discuss how this will work with Saudi Arabia or Iran. They ask, can he offer Iran anything that will cause them to accept Iraq as a neutral government serving as a buffer between Iran and Saudi Arabia? They state:
“What is important is that Obama, having won the election, will now have to face a range of foreign policy issues that will challenge his ideology and policies, and where his personality will matter little. He will be dealing with people like Vladimir Putin, Hu Jintao and Angela Merkel, none of whom are swayed by charisma and all of whom govern countries with interests very different than those of the United States.”
Yes indeed. Now it is not charisma and charm, it is the real world.
Posted by robertgreen at 11:39 PM | Comments (0)
Obama Elected
It looks like Obama has won the election. Of course I am disappointed because I have not really heard of anything he is going to do other than offer “hope” and “change”. I caught a little of C-SPAN and they had some young guy call in to say he voted for Obama and was excited because “he was a good speaker”. Okay, we elected a good speaker as president. Now he is going to have to do something. He cannot vote present and he cannot talk. It is time to perform.
The good thing about America is that the shift from Bush to Obama will happen without revolt. Power will shift orderly and the union will survive. It is also not likely much will change either. It seems every candidate promises change but few actually deliver it.
I will go out a limb here and predict that Obama will be a one-term president. By the way, I would have predicted the same thing if McCain had won. Why? The problem today is the economy. The US did not cause the so-called crisis it but is suffering from it and is a contributor to the problem. The economic problems are global and there is only so much any president can do to fix the problems. So, when the next election rolls around the economy could still be the problem and Obama will be to blame for it. The problem is that I do not anyone who has an idea of what to do or how to do it.
Posted by robertgreen at 10:47 PM | Comments (0)
High Voter Turnout?
I’m wondering what turnout was for voting in Mississippi. There was a lot of talk of record turnout so I voted early this morning rather than my usual mid-afternoon time. I had to wait about 25 minutes when I usually have to wait less than five. However, I heard that later in the afternoon there was little to no wait. So, I wonder, did all of the talk of high turnout get people out early to “beat the rush” or was there really an increase in turnout?
Posted by robertgreen at 8:26 PM | Comments (0)