The title of the post is one of my favorite lines from Sex and the City – said to Carrie by Aiden when they were living together in cramped quarters. I suppose today is as good a day as any to return to my blog. Where have I been and what have I been doing? Unfortunately not a lot due to my back but things are going decent with the herniated disc recovery – I do want to talk about that whole thing in a separate post. But today I want to talk about yesterday. I have so many thoughts and observations but one keeps resonating with me loud and clear. I feel really good that American banded together and elected Obama our next President-Elect. Being a resident of Indiana, I feel honored to be part of such a historic election that took place not only at the national level but the state level – Indiana’s electoral votes have not gone to a democrat since 1964 and more than once I found myself crying last night – it was a truly moving evening.  I thought McCain’s speech was amazing, genuine and sincere. And I think the combo of Obama getting elected and the spirit of McCain’s speech is what needs to happen to repair this country.  Those of us who voted for Obama need not gloat – those who worked so hard to get Obama elected should certainly commend themselves on an amazing job well done. But there is no place for nose-thumbing and middle-finger shooting right now or ever. And those who voted for McCain need to put their anger, bitterness and hostility aside. Hate is not a family value. Because this country is fractured in a way that troubles me and I believe the only way we can get the real work done needed to make this country great again is put aside party affiliations and work together as Americans.  I voted for Obama and woke up feeling (not to use what seems to be an overused word at the moment) hopeful – gleeful almost.  If McCain had won, I would also still feel hopeful – it would be different but whatever the outcome we need a change and whoever ended up being the President-Elect needs our support.   Whatever the case, people need to step out of the peanut gallery and get on with being a productive citizen. So with that I will leave you and hopefully return to my regularly scheduled blogging again!

Shame on you mainstream media. Shame. On. You. I am so done with your coverage of the 2008 presidential election and regrettably you are poisoning the majority of voters’ minds with this garbage – voters who won’t take the time to do objective research.  You’d think by the way the media has been handling things that the fact that Hillary is a woman and Barack is black are really the only things that matter. I was already getting fed up with all the nonsense about Barack and his pastor this past week. Barack is on trial for things he didn’t even say and as usual have been taken out of context and now this? It makes your front page political news CNN.com that after releasing 8 years of Hillary Clinton’s schedules as the First Lady (a demand I found absurd to begin with…)that the one thing that stuck out on those schedules and was worth reporting is that she was in the White House when Bill was dingling Monica Lewinsky? Shame on you. I guess I knew it was inevitable that the Pandora’s Box of Bill Clinton’s infidelity get reopened and that Barack would eventually get placed between a rock and a hard place on the race issue to try and sway votes. I’m saddened by the fact that it seems as though the majority of this country is not ready for a black president or a female president.  Those things don’t matter! Don’t vote because of gender or race. Vote for who you think will lead this country in the right direction and how you match a candidate on your personal views.  The GOP has to be lighting the cigars up. If the media keeps on this path, neither Hillary nor Barack will be electable by November because instead of focusing on what they stand for you are talking about what Hillary was doing 6 years ago in a situation unrelated to her being president and talking about things someone Barack knows said that have been taken out of context and perceived as inflammatory.   This is why I am done.

Ok I’ve upgraded my state of mind on the November 2008 election from apathetic to ambivalent. There is a difference. And while I’m happy the Iowa Caucus is over, the results were quiet interesting to me. Before I launch into some opinions, and citing some fascinating poll stats, let me provide some caveats, mainly for the benefit of readers like Catskill Commentator. Which, by the way Catskill, citing Obama’s full name (which happens to include Hussein) is a nice touch on your nutjob website.  Anyway, I’m the product of 12 years of private/parochial education, and then 4 more at a private liberal arts college. I’m not a product of a “liberal public school education” which you deem useless. I hardly think a public education is a useless or a bad thing *at all*, and it does not invalidate a person’s opinion. I just went to school where my parents sent me. And I do bathe regularly. And I also shave my armpits. Some of the polling stats I picked up for this blog I read on CNN.com. I like their fact-driven and concise reporting. I also read the round-up over at foxnews.com, just to make sure there was not too much skewed reporting going on. And while I don’t care for Fox’s more touchy-feely, narrative approach, the messages were for the most part all in-line so there is no “damn that liberal cnn.com” business to be had here.

Anyway, I was not surprised Huckabee won Iowa. I was surprised that Clinton lost, and by almost a 10% margin to Obama.  Iowa is just one of many indicators still to come before the primaries, but some of the poll stats gleaned were what interested me most.

On the Huckabee win, entrance polls (stats courtesy of CNN.com) cited 3 out of every 5 Republicans were self-described born again or evangelical Christians. Huckabee beat Romney by better than 2-to-1 in this voting bloc. Among the rest of Iowa’s Republican electorate, however, Huckabee finished a distant fourth behind Romney, McCain and Fred Thompson.”  This explains Huckabee’s win. Fox News gives credit somewhat to the Christian voting right on Huckabee’s wine and also attribute it to his charisma as well. What charisma they might be referring to is still up for debate.

On the Obama-Clinton front, entrance polls (stats again courtesy of CNN.com) show “that the New York senator was the top choice of women over 60, while Obama was strongly preferred by women between the ages of 18 to 59.” Which helps explains Obama’s Iowa win. Knowing several women over 60 and 18-59, I will say I would have expected just the opposite. I would have thought the 60+ age group would vote against Clinton, and the 18-59 age group for Clinton. Perhaps the skew here can be attributed to lingering racial issues in the 60+ generation – granted I grew up south of the Mason-Dixon line but my mom (and her friends, and my relatives in this age group) would rather see a female president than a black president. And unfortunately she tends to look not much farther beyond those things.  Fox attributes Obama’s win more to his message of hope. Again with the touchy-feely.  

Another thing to note was the increased voter turnout. It will be interesting to see if the trend continues. Attendance was way up in Iowa. Perhaps a sign that the country is ready for change one way or the other. Or perhaps not. One candidate having won Iowa in the last 30 years has gone on to be president- Jimmy Carter. Which of course begs the question – is this Iowa stuff simply much ado about nothing?

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