Why McCain?

Just something I was thinking about yesterday for no reason in particular... this will be the last post I make about the 08 pres. election - for real - I promise!* I really can't think of one positive reason why I wanted McCain to be president. None, nada, zip, zer0. The most prevalent reasons given for voting for McCain, and largely the reasons why I connected the lines for him on the ballot were largely based off the fear of what Obama might do if he was elected (ex. radical judges, universal healthcare, etc) - not real reasons why McCain would be a excellent or even good president. McCain was a terrible debater ("my friends/my friends/my friends"), not really inspiring on any of the major issues, essentially very baaaaaaaaaaah.

On the other hand unfortunately there really weren't any great alternatives to vote for soooooo... Obama probably really was the "chosen one." It's an understatement to say the the Republican Party is a total mess right now. Who knows... Federalist Party (1792-1820ish) - Whig Party (1834-1854) - Republican Party (1854-today) - ?

*unless I am bribed with $$$$$$$$ - then I'll think about it

HuckALead

CNN News released an interesting survey today regarding who Republican leaning voters would like to see running as the party's nominee in 2012. According to the poll, among Republicans and independent voters, Mike Huckabee would have a lead if the primaries were held starting today (thankfully they are not!)

• Mike Huckabee - 34%
• Sarah Palin - 32%
• Mitt Romney - 28%

Interestingly enough, also according to the poll, Huckabee leads Sarah Sixpack among female voters (aka, the people that are supposed to be going crazy over her). On the negative side, first, my name didn't appear in the poll so the online ads and commercials I've been running seem to be failing, and secondly, Huck is still losing among older voters (to Palin at least).

Anyway, the election isn't until about four years from now so a few things could change between then and now. People change, party's change, positions change [reference Mitt Romney for proof of that...], voters change, babies get changed. Change.

Just another thought... Maybe we should just give Obama a few months (or days, hours... no really how about a few months) in office and see how he does before everyone starts picking who should run in 2012? I mean, isn't there at least the possibility that he might actually be a decent president? Just a thought.

The Blame Game - McCain vs Palin

According to news reports, Sarah Palin is upset about the comments that some of McCain's staffers made about her following Tuesdays loss. The infighting between her staff and McCain's isn't as surprising as the fact that it is becoming so public. Either way you look at it though, it's hard to say that Palin was a good choice for vice president (as I wrote, and Aaron commented, shortly after she was picked). The whole idea that she was going to pick up Hillary voters was absurd and proved to be absolutely false and she really seemed to just be a one liner machine whenever she had a speech or interview.

So, did she inspire some support originally?

Yes. Just look at the jump in McCain's polling numbers after the GOP convention.

Did that support last?

No. Look at the Nov. 4th results.

On the other hand, I'm not sure there was anyone that would have been a good VP pick for McCain. Maybe the problem was McCain - not the VP pick...

Post Election Party/Aftermath

Sorry that there aren't more pictures. Don't blame me! I only had the camera from around 5am to 8am before I gave it to someone else. Also, for some reason the camera really seems to be having problems with the resolution when it starts to get dark so you'll just have to bare with the fuzz. Think of it like a TV with rabbit ears that gets bad reception if that makes you feel any better.

Around 8:30pm, it was getting pretty dark, and things were shutting down so most of the poll-standers headed back to the house for the post-election, hopefully *victory* party.

One of the local guys that dropped in for the party just a short while after I think this photo was taken thought that the bottle of Cola I was holding was something other than what it really was... apparently that was an issue for other sign wavers also (talk to Josh)... Someone started a game of soccer (we lit up the field with car headlights) and I didn't even think about the results until I took a step inside about an hour later...

and saw that they weren't exactly looking all that great locally or nationally

just before Ohio and Florida go blue

The next day... time to start the clean up and reorganizing. On my way to school I grabbed a bunch of our yard signs, Peter & Aidan, Dad, etc also went on runs to collect the 400+ signs around the district. Who knows, we might need them again someday

Overall the feeling around here is actually pretty optimistic. It's one thing to be embarrassed, lose by a ton of votes, and on the other hand, it kills when you lose by the slimmest of margins (60 votes for example, leads to "if only I knocked on 30 more doors..." nightmares), but the margin we lost by was about as painless as you could get (4%, 250'sh votes). So yeah, right now things are peachy. There's things to be done, places to go, people to meet and thinking about "what if" really doesn't make any sense. Despite the loss, it was still a great experience, and well worth doing.

Rhode Island 08 Statewide Race Results

Presidential Voting Results

• Barack Obama (D) - 296153, 63.1%
• John McCain (R) - 165219, 35.2%
• Ralph Nader (I) - 4,819, 1%
• Bod Barr (L) - 1380, 0.3%
• Cynthia McKinney (G) - 793, 0.2%
• Chuck Baldwin (C) - 673, 0.1%

United States Senatorial Race

• Jake Reed (D) - 320,197, 73.4%
• Bob Tingle (R) - 116,051, 26.6%
• Tom Brady (WI) - 1, 0.0%

United States House of Rep. Race - District One

• Patrick Kennedy (D) - 145052, 68.6%
• Jon Scott (R) - 51, 302, 24.3%
• Kenneth Capalbo (I) - 15,095, 7.1%
  

United States House of Rep. Race - District Two

• James Langevin (D) - 158,196, 70.1%
• Mark Zaccaria (R) - 67,357, 29.9%

Medcaft Elementary School

Richmond Elementary School

Meadowbrook Inn

Charlestown Elementary School

Exeter Jobs Corps Academy

The Results

NBC 10 News has the results. Things didn't turn out the way we or I had hoped they would but God is in control, his ways are perfect and he has a reason for everything. Sometimes it's just hard to understand those reasons right away.

In retrospect, when you look at the numbers on the statewide races, the Obama effect really killed anyone that wasn't running as a Democrat. I'm only aware of one or two Republicans left in the statehouse actually after tonight's election (and one of them ran unopposed). Considering those factors, 52% to 48% isn't anything to get depressed over, in fact, it's only 1% less then what the RI GOP minority leader (who had been in forever), Nick Gorham got in his race (which he lost).

I wanted to say a special thank you to all of you guy's that came down to help out on election day! You made it a great day no matter what the outcome was (or how many times my soccer team lost...).

HuckaHack

Last Thursday night a few sib's and I went to see Mike Huckabee speak at Brown University. The building that he spoke at was packed (every seat taken and people who couldn't fit in watched on a videocast outside), and Huckabee had an absolutely great speech and Q&A. The Providence Journal has an article about the visit here. Not suprisingly, considering how far right-leaning a college Brown is, some of the more liberal students tried to be the one to "get" Huckabee on a "tough" (great answer on abortion for example) question but he had great answers for all of them.

Six Days Left

As much as I dislike Obama, the national Republican party is going to get what they deserve next Tuesday. Below is a short list of GOP accomplishments in the last eight years and proper thank you's to those responsible

• Thank you Karl Rove for tearing down a real conservatives like Steve Laffey & Pat Tommy, so Lincon Chafee & Arlen Specter and could run.
• Thank you Pres. George W. Bush for No Child Left Behind
  
• Thank you John McCain for McCain/Feingold
• Thank you Congress for letting spending and the debt get out of control
  

I could go on some more, Bush and veto's, immigration, etc... Don't get me wrong, I'm a registered Republican and agree (by far!) with more of the Republican ideas then the Democrat ones, but anyone with a brain has to admit that the Repub's really messed up the last eight years.

The Joe The Plumber Debate

This Joe guy must have left quite an impact on McCain... Obama seems sort of skeptical ("Joe, if you're out there...) that "Joe" exists though not suprisingly. One other thing I notice [my friends] was that McCain has stopped saying "my friends". That should result in at least a 2% jump in the polls alone.

Overall it's been a pretty mixed debate. Obama is the better speaker and some of McCain's ideas are wacko but I get the feeling that he's going to get at least a little bit of a bump from it.

Update. Joe is actually a real person. The New York Post has a video of Obama telling him that he's going to raise his taxes but not to worry because "My attitude is that if the economy's good for folks from the bottom up, it's gonna be good for everybody. I think when you spread the wealth around, it's good for everybody."

I guess that goes along well with spreading happiness...

Victory!

District 39, Exeter, Richmond and Charlestown GOP State Rep Primary Results

With 100% reporting
-Dave Hathaway, 56%
-Joseph Arsenault, 44%

You can view the results by precincts here

RNC Photos

Saterday Political Notes

Let me the first to say on this site that I'm not sure the pick of Sarah Palin was as brilliant as some are making it out to be. On the surface it may seem like a great choice by McCain but I have some reservations about it (also, Rush Limbaugh was going nuts about it yesterday, one more reason perhaps to be concerned).

Apparently Huckabee was never considered by McCain as a potential vice presidential candidate. I'm not really disappointed at all because I'm not sure Huckabee actually would have been a great VP but that sort of was a surprise.

Palin Is The One

It's official

Drudge Say's It's Palin

Sign Wars

One of our best sign locations right when you enter Richmond.

One of our 4 by 8's that was right outside the entrance of the Washington County Fair. Approximately, over 100,000 people would have driven by/at it as they entered or left the fair.

Setting up a 4 by 8

a 2 by 4Another 4 by 8

Back home after another successful sign setting up mission