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.

CO-02 Candidates & Climate Change

Last week, CO-02 Republican candidate Scott Starin told the Colorado Independent that humans weren’t forcing the climate system.  Jared Polis, the Democratic candidate in the race, justifiably took Starin to task over his comments.  The issue has now been covered by the Boulder Daily Camera.  Interestingly, Starin backtracked from his comments when talking with the Camera:

Starin, 47, said he may have overstated his views to the Independent, saying Tuesday he simply doesn’t know for sure what the relationship is between the burning of fossil fuels and rising temperatures around the world.

Then, Starin threw out a tired right-wing attack, calling Polis “arrogant”.  There are many difference between the Polis-Starin race and the Obama-McCain race, but calling the Democrat arrogant (or elite) isn’t one of them.  Voters are tired of the silly personal attacks.  The rabid right-wing base laps it up, but personal attacks don’t translate to good governing once in office.

What Jared is doing, and what more politicians should do, is he’s basing his approach to climate change on the actual research done on the subject.  That research has pointed in one direction for over 30 years now: the climate is being forced by anthropogenic activities.  The big problem is the climate is responding on a time-scale that is unprecedented in history.  There are cases in which greenhouse gas concentrations likely rose to similar concentration values, but the time span it took to do so are much, much longer than what we’re witnessing today.

The case is quite simple: global climate models that do not take into account rising GHG concentrations do not reproduce today’s climate – those climates are significantly cooler.  Global climate models that do take into account GHG concentrations more accurately reproduce today’s climate.  I say more accurately because the models used to produce the 2007 IPCC Report actually underestimate the effects on the climate – they show cooler Northern Hemispheric temperatures than what we’ve witnessed the past two years.  Model solutions diverged from the actual climate in the opposite way that climate change deniers like Scott Starin and other ideologically pure conservatives say they do.

An additional important difference between Starin and Polis is their preferred method of producing energy in the 21st century.  Jared Polis wants to bring renewable energy technologies to market so they can produce a larger proportion of our energy portfolio.  He wants to burn fewer fossil fuels, recognizing their harmful impact on both the environment and our security.  Jared has a ‘can do’ attitude.  Starin is exactly the opposite.  He wants to wait for the magical moment when renewable technologies are mature enough that they can produce all of our energy, at which time he might advocate for their deployment.  He wants to keep burning fossil fuels, which would continue to wreck havoc on the climate system and threaten our security.  Scott has a ‘can’t do’ attitude, like many other conservatives.

Oh, the comments after the Camera article are comedic.

Cross-posted at SquareState.