Enjoying “the day after” the election – life goes on
Posted By RichC on November 5, 2008
I’m glad the election is over and in the routine of living life rather than worrying about something that I have very little control over — my vote is pretty small in relation to let’s say someone living in Wyoming (see “How Much Is Your Vote Worth“). 
Anyway, in traveling today I notice gas prices in part of Ohio a bit lower still as I filled up with unleaded regular today for 1.84. Amazingly a few hours later in the day my wife called and filled up for $1.69 at a Shell station! How low will it go?
Since I had my camera out and enjoy sailing and sailboats, I spotting this one “sailing” along the interstate next to me … I was oggling with envy.
According to FoxNews at 9:15 PM, they have announced that Ohio has gone to Obama with 9% of the vote counted. The projection is early, but after watching a significant number of other states fall, the election looks to be over. Unless something freaky happens, the next President of the United States is Barack Obama. (time to take an Advil)
This Bush administration legacy has created an uphill battle for every Republican candidate, including the realistically moderate Republican John McCain. Unfortunately the last 8 years have made it nearly impossible for a good man like John McCain to be seen without the baggage, even though he has spent his life focused on cutting government waste, its inefficiencies and the corrupt lobbyist driven Washington DC insiders. Unfortunately for Senator McCain, the final hurdles of high energy prices zapping money from consumers this past summer and the years of excessive borrowing by Americans (encourage by both Democrats in congress and Republicans fatcats on Wall Street) have combine to rock the world into an economic crisis. Republicans have received much of the blame and they are tainted with the public’s disgust, leaving the road far easier to travel for an unknown and untested Democrat Barack Obama. I’m not sure all the votes being cast for him are in favor of Senator Obamas’ positions on foriegn policy, or his more government and income redistribution approach, or more a loss in confidence the Republican administration that, besides national security, did little to prevent the recent economic collapse or improve life for the average American — and the poll have been pretty reflective.
Early voting problems are already being noticed in Ohio, at least in my precinct — or perhaps I’m just being hypersensitive? I haven’t cast my ballot yet (waiting for line to shorten), but my wife needed to arrive at the polls early this morning before work — 7:00 AM. She stood in line for a little longer than an hour and noticed that their was a shortage of access cards and that three of the electronic voting machine were down. Poll workers have already made calls to get them back and running and also commented that the line was already formed at the door about 5:30 AM when they arrived. It could get testy if the vote is close in Ohio; expect to hear “
One of the advantages to carrying a full featured PDA Smartphone (eg. Treo 700p) is that messages are sorted into threads. This makes receiving them a bit more welcoming, although I still respond like 
