For example, I’m pretty much a pacifist. But maybe a Cindy Sheehan style of leaving Iraq in 34.2 seconds is not such a great idea. Maybe the way to actually have the least loss of life and produce the most stability is to phase it out over the course of, say, a year. These types of decisions are so incredibly complicated and difficult, it boggles the mind that anybody would want to actually have to make them. As for FISA, yes I would have preferred a “no” vote, but Obama fought hard to water that bill down a lot. It was a “bitter pill” as they say. It was OVER 9000 times better than the original republican bill. And the only way to prevent that vote from becoming a political disaster for Democrats was to compromise. It sucks, but guess what? Life isn’t always fair.

Now that Dems have control, as long as the Repubs stop fillibustering every single damn bill that comes to the senate floor, we may actually be able to finally undo some of the damage Bush has done. We might even be able to undo some of the bad, but watered down, bills Dems helped support. And as we have primaries again in the House and Senate two years from now, maybe we can vote out some more of the Repubs and Bush Dog Democrats and finally restore this nation to greatness once more.

And Obama is the best person to lead this effort.

Not one of your examples would even exist today, if it hadn’t been for eight years of Rethuglican rule. Obama is far from perfect. I would have preferred a liberal. But as I said before, we have to take these things incrementally.

This year, I am incredibly voting FOR Obama. Sure, I’m also voting against McCain because I think he’s incredibly incompetent, but if my for/against ratio is 50/50, my passion about this race is 100x higher than in 2000 or 2004. So that makes my Obama 50% waaaaaaaaaaaaaay higher than my against-Bush vote in 2004.

As for the older generation… I think that is where the majority of the PUMA style of racism is coming from (including the so-called Bradley Effect racism). It’s sad, but true. I’m reminded of Harriet, that lovely Hillary supporter who spoke of the “inadequate black male” and how we were “throwing it all away” after Hillary conceded…

S., you raise a very important, if somewhat morbid, point. Generational changes do have massive impacts on things like politics and even religion. As we watch the numbers get crunched tonight, I won’t be surprised if seniors overwhelmingly went for McCain, since that’s what polling yesterday indicated. These are the people most resistant to change of any kind. Also, I’m sure our friends the evangelicals will come down in favor of McCain as well. If Obama wins (and he will) and has a successful presidency, I think modern conservatism as we’ve come to know and loathe it will die off along with its adherents. Yeah, that’s an impolite thing to say, but no one ever said the truth had to be politically correct.

PL, I was asked a few months ago by someone I work with if I am voting for Obama or against McCain. Truthfully, I think its largely an even split of both, and the percentages vary depending on my mood. I will say that Barack Obama is the first candidate for president since I’ve been able to vote who I really, really wanted to win, which partially explains my ambivalence a few months ago about Hillary Clinton. My vote for John Kerry on ’04 was, I admit, a vote against George Bush. I’d have voted for William Hung if he was the Democratic Nominee then.

Yes, I also voted against McCain, Palin, Bush, Cheney, and the entire goddamned Republican party today, and I don’t feel the least bit apologetic about it. I hope we are seeing the start of a true sea change in our politics and our collective positions on various issues. We shall see.

Despite this, I feel Obama’s campaign is more than just being in the right place at the right time. The way people seem so energized about him and his policies seems more than just being upset at the other guy. However, I’m a realist too. I think if (when!) Obama pulls off the victory tomorrow, it will largely be helped by the “I’m tired of Bush” voters. This is not to diminish anything Obama’s campaign has done. They have run a damn near perfect campaign. They also have ideas and policies that sell really well to most Americans. But if Bush hadn’t totally clusterfucked the country, McCain very likely would be VERY close.

And that is the nature of presidential politics. There are 40% on either side that love their side. Then there’s this “independent” vote that the media fetishes over. What Obama has done better than anything is get new voters. He’s gotten the youth active and registered to the Democratic side. That’s powerful. That is going to stay with us for decades.

So who knows? I hope the Republican Party splits. That will ensure a long enough liberal agenda that we might actually be able to fix this country well enough that the next time a smooth-talking Reagan or Bush comes along, we’ll survive it better than we did this time.

But if Obama does win, and I both caucused and early voted for him, there’s no way Palin will have a political future. She will be blamed for dragging the Republicans down and left to her fate in Alaska.

I do expect widespread domestic terrorsim if Obama wins. This could be a good thing in a way if only a few lives are lost. It would be an excellent opportunity to thin the ranks of the most extreme fundies with multiple criminal prosecutions.

How about the comparison of fundies to vermin taken in a literal sense – that frankly, stupid people tend to breed more than intelligent people. There has been considerable research in the link between the amount of time a woman spends being schooled and their fertility.

http://www.un.org/esa/population/publications/completingfertility/RevisedCLELANDpaper.PDF

http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2008-08-18-fertility_N.htm?csp=34

http://discuss.prb.org/content/interview/detail/1172/

So true, so true. One of the things we must continually remind ourselves is that fundies are in this – quite literally – for all eternity. For them, whatever insult to human intelligence or desecration of human dignity they’re committing is all well and good as its being done in the service of their god. When you’ve got the lord on your side, any inanity can be excused, and any malfeasance can be justified.

Fundies are like roaches in that they carry and spread the virus of religion, infecting the minds of those whose mental defenses aren’t yet up to snuff, like children or people in the midst of a personal tragedy. Like a lion picking off the weakest member of the herd, religion seeks out and thrives within the weakest among us, ready to be passed along to the next victim by its new carrier. It cannot survive by itself in a “marketplace of ideas” because in two thousand years theology has not generated one new idea, and the ones it has have all been discredited and debunked.

Education and reason are the cures to religion, and fundies know it. Why else would they fight so hard over what kids in schools are learning? Why else would the far right have developed such a disdain for intellectual achievement? How else can we explain the political success of the Republican party in recent years? Certainly they are also bereft of new ideas, and rely on the stupidity of the masses, motivated by fear, for their continued survival. All of which explains why in about 72 hours they’re going to be reamed like never before, and I’m going to thoroughly enjoy it.