Election Day Results

[Update 11:50p]: Likely my last update tonight.  I have another all-day meeting tomorrow that will be brutal to sit through if I stay up any longer.  I’m watching a couple of numbers: IN, OH, VA, NC, FL Presidential numbers.  The vote differential in these states (O-M) at this time stand at: 23,000 (IN), 160,000 (OH w/ 83% precincts reporting), 121,000 (VA), 12,000 (NC), 200,000 (FL).  If these differentials don’t change, that’s an additional 25 electoral votes (IN & NC); OH, VA, FL have been called already.  But these are small vote differentials.  The fact that these five states have likely voted for Obama is amazing.  A whole lot of blue has been painted over the country tonight.

[Update 11:30P]:

A clear trend has emerged: Coloradans don’t want to amend their Constitution.
A46: 50%-49% (N-Y)
A47: 55%-44% (N-Y)
A48: 73%-26% (N-Y)
A49: 60%-39% (N-Y)
A50: 58%-41% (N-Y)
A51: 62%-37% (N-Y)
A52: 63%-36% (N-Y)
A54: 48%-51% (N-Y) the only one so far
A58: 57%-42% (N-Y)
A59: 55%-44% (N-Y)

[Update 11:15P]: The b.s. spin by Cons has begun on CNN.  This election did not bring in a new set of conservative Democrats to Congress.  It brought in a set of Democrats that are proud of being Democrats; proud of being liberal.  America is a more liberal country than it is a conservative country.  The corporate media has, unfortunately, spun a very different story to the American people for too long.  Americans want solutions to the climate crisis, the occupation of Iraq, the economic crisis, the health care crisis, etc.  Americans tonight quite clearly rejected the failed Con policies of the past 30 years.  They want to move in a very different direction.  That means that Obama doesn’t need to cater to the right-wing extremists that have taken over the Republican party.  He should interact honestly with moderate and liberal Republicans, because they more accurately represent more Americans.  The pundits will try their darndest to move Obama to the right over the next four years.  It is up to the 3 million+ donors to Obama’s campaign and his 55 million voters (so far) to ensure he stays true to what he ran on during this election.

[Update 10:45P]: President-elect Obama had another outstanding speech.  America did not vote for fear or anger this year.  America voted for opportunity and equality.  I didn’t keep good track of the state-by-state electoral vote calculations, but Obama has 338 to McCain’s 156 right now.  Again, Obama has garnered more electoral college votes than Bush did the past two elections.  Obama has also taken the lead in Indiana, which has 11 electoral college votes as well as North Carolina, which has 15 electoral college votes.  Obama is behind in Missouri currently, which also has 11 electoral votes.  I don’t expect final results from Missouri for quite some time – tomorrow at the earliest.  They have some repressive voting rules, unfortunately.  Obama currently leads in Montana, which only has 3 votes, but would represent a major political coup if he can win there.

Senator-elect Udall’s lead is 53%-43%.
Polis’ lead is 60%-36%.
Markey’s lead is 56%-43%.  Post calls it for Markey.

Republican’s ceilings in Colorado seems to be 43-45%.

Unfortunately, Amendment 58 didn’t get passed.  If it passed, oil and gas corporations would have paid the taxes they owe to the state, instead of using a loophole to avoid doing so.

[Update 9:00P]: CNN just called the race for Obama nationally.  I cannot believe what I’m hearing.  I’ve waited 8 long years to see a Democratic President elected.  I hope this result holds.  CNN has projected 297 electoral votes for Obama, 139 for McCain.  Those 297 are more than Bush received in 2004 or 2000.  Let’s start talking about mandates, shall we?

[Update 8:25P]: Obama is up in Colorado 55%-42% with 16% of precincts reporting.  Mark Udall is up by a similar margin: 55%-40%.

[Update 7:45P]: Dropping down into Colorado, Mark Udall is performing well in early returns versus Bob Schaffer: Udall is up 50%-39% with 8% of precincts reporting.  Betsy Markey is ahead of Marilyn Musgrave 61%-39% with 31% of precincts reporting for CO-04.  So far, it’s about 93,989 votes to 61,041 votes. In CO-02, a race I worked on this year, Democrat Jared Polis is leading his wing-nut Republican opponent 67%-30% with 9% of precincts reporting.  So far, the vote totals are 36,554-16,117.  Jared is going to make an awesome Representative.

CNN has called LA and KS for McCain.  No surprises.  Still no path toward success with PA and OH being called for Obama.

[Update 7:15P MST]: A number of states have been called.  I’ve been tooling around on interactive sites so far tonight while watching CNN, which is doing a pretty good job overall.  A couple of early calls, in my opinion, which I’ll get into later.  I’ll start with states called for each candidate.  Obama has: ME, NH, VT, RI, CT, MA, NJ, MD, DE, NY, NJ, IL and PA.  I can’t believe they’ve called PA already.  I expect Obama to win it eventually, but I’d like more actual votes to come in.  Oh well.  McCain has: SC, KY, TN, OK.  That’s it.

Obama has had some additional states called: MI, WI, MN, and DC.  No surprises there.  McCain got some more also: AL, AK, and WY.  Right now, Obama’s electoral vote lead is 175-52.  Obama needs 95 more votes.

CNN gave McCain ND.  I wouldn’t have done that.  Obama was polling very well in ND for a Democrat, coming up with right around 50% of the vote in a traditionally deep-red state.  It’s not going to make much difference in the electoral collage, but it’s a big swath of red that could change blue.  We won’t know until all the votes are counted.

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I’ll update this as the afternoon shifts to evening.  Polls likely just closed in portions of IN & KY.  A number of states’ polls could close within the hour.  I haven’t yet heard of any news reports of polls being ordered to stay open later.  I’m also not aware of any long lines in the eastern states.  If you haven’t voted yet, get out there and get it done!  Nothing is set in stone until you make your own voice heard.  I voted early.

News Items 10/14/08

NASA has kept October 2009 as the target launch date for Mars Science Laboratory, despite hardware and software delays.  It is the flagship mission in NASA’s plans for Mars.  Decisions to be made for future missions depend on data gleaned from MSL.  MSL is a wheeled rover, and much larger than Spirit and Opportunity (which continue to function!).  After landing in July 2010, MSL should be able to move up to 20km away from the landing site.

NASA’s Cassini spacecraft has taken a closer look at Saturnian polar storms.  After pictures of Saturn’s south pole a couple years ago showed a hexagonal band surrounding a giant cyclone, scientists’ interest was piqued.  They wanted to take a look at conditions over the north pole and compare the two.  Conditions turned out to be similar between the two poles.  Clouds are circling Saturn’s north pole at about 325mph, vastly higher than wind speeds found over Earth.  It turns out that vigorous convective storms form inner rings of both cyclones, much like hurricanes do on Earth.  The difference between storms on the two planets is hurricanes move across Earth’s oceans while the cyclones over Saturn’s poles don’t move.  Fascinating stuff.

Republicans’ inability to admit responsibility for anything continues.  The sub-prime mortgage crisis?  CONServatives are saying it’s the fault of poor people.  And the government.  Which is strange, since this is what really happened: more than 84 percent of the subprime mortgages in 2006 were issued by private lending institutions.  CONServatives got exactly what they wanted in 2005 and 2006 after winning elections in 2004: no government regulations on those private lenders.  CONServatives are busy pointing their fingers at everyone else, again.

John McCain has lied 132 times so far in the 2008 presidential race.  Heroes don’t lie.

George Bush sets yet another all-time record – 73 percent disapproval [h/t DailyKos]:

Banks around the world are being nationalized.  Do CONServatives realize that their president and their party’s elected officials in Congress and their party’s appointments to the government have socialized massive portions of the U.S. economy?  In the future, any time a corporate-con talks about how Democrats want to socialize things and how horrible it would be if they got away with it, it will be easy to point to the largest socialization project in world history.  The Republican “socialization” talking point is now moot.

Erin Rosa has a piece up at Colorado Independent about one of the Amendments Coloradans will vote on this year.  Amendment 54 would restrict political contributions by certain unions and from family members of union officials.  Advocates for A54 have described it as being a ‘clean government’ intiative.  Why then have $405,000 in individual contributions come in … from anonymous sources.  Unsurprisingly, the nonprofit accepting these donations has ties to the Independence Institute, a right-wing “think-tank”.

A majority of Coloradans want a new administration to decide how to treat 4.4 million acres of roadless areas in forest lands.  It’s another vote of no confidence in the current administration’s 8-year long effort to open up the public’s forests to loggers, drillers and miners.

20 out of 22 candidates for federal office in Colorado haven’t responded to Environment America’s questionnaire.  There are a lot of things going on in America and in Colorado right now – I understand that.  But I’d sure like to go into 2009 equipped with the answers to the following questions:

Do you support or oppose mandatory limits to reduce global warming pollution 80% by 2050?

Do you support or oppose producing at least 20% of America’s electricity from clean power sources?

Do you support or oppose additional subsidies to build new nuclear power plants?

Do you support or oppose more federal funding for public transportation?

Do you support or oppose increasing fuel efficiency standards to at least 50 mpg by 2030?

A majority of respondents support issues 1, 2, 4 and 5.  A minority support additional subsidies for new nuclear power plants.  Overall, good news.  Garnering additional answers will help activists channel their efforts appropriately next year.