Finally, Florida has finished counting (well mostly) and can certify that President Obama won the state on November 6. Woot-Woot!!! Those 332 Electoral Votes were hard-won and I applaud all the hard work done by Obama For America, the League of Women Voters, and many other groups in Florida. You did good!
Even Rick "Voldemort" Scott couldn't stop the Obama with voter suppression. I hope and pray that Obama really meant it when he said "we have to fix that" about the long voting lines in Florida and elsewhere. Seems to me they could tell states not to load up the ballot with written referendums during a Federal election. A 12-page ballot in November should go the way of the dinosaur.
After a four-day count with neck-and-neck tallies, President Obama was declared the winner of Florida's 29 electoral votes Saturday, earning 50 percent to Mitt Romney's 49.1 percent, according to the Secretary of State's office.
The victory puts the president - who had clinched reelection Tuesday night even without Florida - at a final 332 electoral votes to Romney's 206. It also marks his sweep of eight of the nine swing states, with North Carolina his only battleground loss.
Mr. Obama's margin of victory is over the half-percent mark that would trigger a computer recount unless Romney had waived it. A handful of overseas and military ballots, which have a Nov. 16 deadline, are believed to remain outstanding, but under Florida law, recounts are based on Saturday's results.
I've been trying for three days to make a list of all the good things about this election but there are so many it is overwhelming. And then last night Rachel Maddow spoke it all to power (or lack of power) in a righteous rant against the Republicans and the Tea Party that made my jaw drop in admiration. She said it better than I could, or probably anyone ever could. So I'll let her words speak for all of us:
That happened (the re-election of Barack Obama). That really happened.
We are not going to have a Supreme Court that will overturn Roe versus Wade.
There will be no more Antonin Scalias and Samuel Alitos added to this court.
We're not going to repeal health reform.
Nobody is going to kill Medicare and make old people in this generation or any other generation fight it out on the open market to try to get health insurance.
We are not going to do that.
We are not going to give a 20% tax cut to millionaires and billionaires and expect programs like food stamps and kid's insurance to cover the cost of that tax cut.
We'll not make you clear it with your boss if you want to get birth control under the insurance plan that you're on.
We are not going to redefine rape.
We are not going to amend the United States Constitution to stop gay people from getting married.
We are not going to double Guantanamo.
We are not eliminating the department of energy or the department of education or housing at the federal level.
We are not going to spend $2 trillion on the military that the military does not want.
We are not scaling back on student loans, because the country's new plan is that you should borrow money from their parents.
We are not vetoing the Dream Act.
We are not self-deporting.
We are not letting Detroit go bankrupt.
We are not starting a trade war with China on Inauguration Day in January.
We are not going to have, as a President, a man who once led a mob of friends to run down a scared gay kid, to hold him down and forcibly cut his hair off with a pair of scissors while that kid cried and screamed for help, and there was no apology not ever.
We are not going to have a Secretary of State John Bolten.
We are not bringing Dick Cheney back.
We are not going to have a foreign policy shop stocked with architects of the Iraq War.
We are not going to do it.
We had the choice to do that if we wanted to do that as a country, and we said no last night, loudly.
Ohio really did go to President Obama last night.
And he really did win.
And he really was born in Hawaii.
And he really is legitimately President of the United States, again.
And the Bureau of Labor Statistics did not make up a fake unemployment rate last month.
And the Congressional Research Service really can find no evidence that cutting taxes on rich people grows the economy.
And the polls were not screwed to oversample Democrats.
And Nate Silver was not making up fake projections about the election to make conservatives feel bad. Nate Silver was doing math.
And climate change is real.
And rape really does cause pregnancy sometimes.
And evolution is a thing.
And Benghazi was an attack on us, it was not a scandal by us.
And nobody is taking away anyone's guns.
And taxes have not gone up.
And the deficit is dropping, actually.
And Saddam Hussein did not have weapons of mass destruction.
And the moon landing was real.
And FEMA is not building concentration camps.
And U.N. election observers are not taking over Texas.
And moderate reforms of the regulations on the insurance industry and the financial services industry in this country are not the same thing as communism.
Listen, last night was a good night for liberals and for Democrats for very obvious reasons, but it was also, possibly, a good night for this country as a whole. Because in this country, we have a two- party system in government. And the idea is supposed to be that the two sides, both come up with ways to confront and fix the real problems facing our country. They both propose possible solutions to our real problems. and we debate between those possible solutions. And by the process of debate, we pick the best idea.
That competition between good ideas from both sides about real problems in the real country should result in our country having better choices, better options, than if only one side is really working on the hard stuff.
And the if the Republican party and the conservative movement and the conservative media is stuck in a vacuum-sealed door-locked spin cycle of telling each other what makes them feel good and denying the factual, lived truth of the world, then we are all deprived as a nation of the constructive debate about competing feasible ideas about real problems.
Last night the Republicans got shellacked, and they had no idea it was coming. And we saw them in realtime, in real humiliating time, not believe it, even as it was happening to them. And unless they are going to is secede, they are going to have to pop the factual bubble they have been so happy living inside if they do not want to get shellacked again, and that will be a painful process for them, but it will be good for the whole country, left, right, and center.
You guys, we're counting on you. wake up. There are real problems in the world. There are real, knowable facts in the world. Let's accept those and talk about how we might approach our problems differently. Let's move on from there.
If the Republican Party and the conservative movement and conservative media are forced to do that by the humiliation they were dealt last night, we will all be better off as a nation. and in that spirit, congratulations.
I'm almost too happy to blog today, but this has to be said:
YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
And congratulations to President Obama, the Democratic Party, and every Progressive voter who voted for fairness and sanity in their government - last night we got our country back.
Honestly, if anyone says that Mitt Romney (A) Won this Debate (B) Tied this Debate or (C) Gained Ground with any focus group, they didn't see the same debate that I watched at my house.
It was a no-contest this time: Obama Won, and He Won Big.
Romney tried to bully moderator Candy Crowley as well as President Obama, but their attitude was "bring it on." They were ready for him.
Often Mitt stood there babbling as fast as he could in an attempt to out-talk Obama again, but the President just calmly sat watching him with a smile on his face, and when his turn came he let Mitt have it, pointing out lies and inconsistancies. A few times things got heated as the candidates invaded each other's personal space.
It seemed to me that the nuttier Romney acted, the more serene Obama appeared to be.
As Rev. Al Sharpton said on MSNBC: "A Bully Got Whipped Tonight."
For proof, here's a gif from Atlantic Wire of Mitt Romney just after the debate. He looks as if he is about to hurl.
President Obama took on the bully. I substance, demeanor, and debate style he was far more effective than Mr. Romney. No doubt a good night.
— Reverend Al Sharpton (@TheRevAl) October 17, 2012
Obama is a dreamer who hasn't fulfilled his promises to working folks. Mitt is apampered bully/salesman with no clue about such people.
— Howard Fineman (@howardfineman) October 17, 2012
Mr. Ryan was no Dan Quayle, but he did make the mistake of mentioning John F. Kennedy in an argument over whether tax cuts recharge the economy. Mr. Biden flashed a Cheshire Cat grin and said to Ryan, after waiting a beat to let the moment sink in, “So, now you’re Jack Kennedy?”
The vice presidential debate on Tuesday was supposed to be a reboot for the Obama campaign after the president’s dismal performance at his debate with the Republican nominee for president, Mitt Romney, last week. Mr. Biden, clearly delighted to come to President Obama’s rescue, relished his role, addressing his opponent as “my friend” but dismissing his arguments as “malarkey.” He laughed at Mr. Ryan’s remarks so often and so heartily that at times he seemed like a guest at a comedy club roast, not a vice president debating the fate of the nation with his opponent.
. . . For Mr. Biden especially, the night was his chance to relive past debates and unleash his inner barroom brawler. He had to be contained and courteous when he debated Sarah Palin four years ago, lest he look like a bully. This time he let loose. And unlike the courtly Mr. Bentsen in 1988, Mr. Biden turned his temperature up, singeing the young man across the table with patronizing grins, but mostly withering retorts. His interruptive barrage was as relentless as his silent mugging for the camera.
Huge turnout for President Obama in Madison, WI, yesterday. I love to see him with all that adoration in Paul Ryan's backyard, not to mention Scott Walker.
This is laugh-out-loud funny, so enjoy and Happy Friday! The guy who plays Romney, Jason Sudeikis is perfect, LOL. Also, I added the list of the "corrections" that Fox and Friends had to make just for one morning, LOL. It scrolls by too fast to see on the video.
The Bible was not a movie first.
Stalactites is not a childhood disease.
Iowa City never elected Mayor McCheese.
Allegra is not a religion.
Jeremy Lin was traded, not deported.
The sun and the moon do not high-five as they pass each other.
Vaginas don’t look like that.
A dead person’s skull does not contain their memories.
Ron Paul is one person.
Not all cats are gay.
The Atlanta Hawks are a team, not an infestation.
Ellen DeGeneres never married a car.
Benedict Arnold was not a character on Diff’rent Strokes.
A wind turbine has never cut off the head of a pretty girl in a convertible.
The Tasmanian Devil is not the president of Tasmania.
Star Wars is essentially a work of fiction.
Al Gore never claimed to invent Nintendo.
Hawaii does not rotate every six months.
Neil Armstrong was not the first person to moon someone.
The Keystone Pipeline is not filled with Keystone Light.
Swiss banks are not “full of holes.”
Camp David doesn’t have a sister camp called Camp Denise.
Oogielove is not a sexually transmitted disease.
They did not name Mars after the Mars Rover.
Monica Lewinsky was never in an internment camp.
Six comes after five.
Kim Jong-Un is not the CEO of Yahoo.
Left-handed people cannot read your thoughts.
Lobsters are not “ocean spiders.”
Cat Fancy is a magazine, not a man/cat dating website.
The U.S. Postal Service never released a Kesha stamp.
“F” is not a blood type.
Parsley is not one of the Spice Girls.
Bolt is not a new action movie starring John C. Reilly.
LIBOR is not a giant praying mantis.
Old Navy is not one of the armed forces.
The letters in “Massachusetts” cannot be rearranged to spell “same sex marriage.”
Crabs don’t breastfeed.
Animal Planet is not an acceptable nickname for Telemundo.
Marco Rubio does not play for the Timberwolves.
Al-Jazeera is not the co-host of “Tool Time.”
Babies never “skip ahead” to being 10.
Angela Merkel is not a palindrome.
You can’t outrun polio.
The Negro League is not “back and better than ever.”
Latin Inches is not the Mexican metric system.
The Russian national anthem is not the U.S. national anthem played backwards.
In a sublime moment of probably unintentional clarity and funniness, Rick Santorum looked out over the Tea Party crowd at the Values Voter Summit and earnestly called them "stupid" and "uneducated." But that's okay - they don't need those elite brainiacs in their party telling them what to do. According to Santorum that's the job of the church.
Somehow this is both an epic fail and an epic win. Truth is good - hearing a conservative speak the truth, priceless.
We will never have the media on our side, ever, in this country. We will never have the elite smart people on our side, because they believe they should have the power to tell you what to do. So our colleges and universities, they’re not going to be on our side.
The conservative movement will always be – and that’s why we founded Patriot Voices – the basic premise of America and American values will always be sustained through two institutions, the church and the family. (Applause.)
And so economic conservatism - libertarian types can say, oh, well, we don’t want to talk about the social issues. Without the church and the family, there is no conservative movement. There is no basic values in America in force, and there is no future for our country. (Applause.)
So it is our job in this election, it is our job, to go out and make a difference. It is our job to go out and talk to fellow believers. And I don’t mean Christians. I mean fellow believers in the American creed, fellow believers in those basic principles that built our country.
We’ve all learned Mitt Romney doesn’t know much about foreign policy. But he has all these ‘‘neocon advisors’’ who know all the wrong things about foreign policy. He would rely on them - after all, he’s the great outsourcer.
But I say to you: This is not the time to outsource the job of commander in chief.
~~~
Despite what you heard in Tampa, an exceptional country does care about the rise of the oceans and the future of the planet. That is a responsibility from the Scriptures - and that too is a responsibility of the leader of the free world. The only thing exceptional about today’s Republicans is that - almost without exception - they oppose everything that has made America exceptional in the first place.
~~~
It isn't fair to say Mitt Romney doesn't have a position on Afghanistan. He has every position.
He was against setting a date for withdrawal—then he said it was right—and then he left the impression that maybe it was wrong to leave this soon. He said it was "tragic" to leave Iraq, and then he said it was fine. He said we should've intervened in Libya sooner. Then he ran down a hallway to duck reporters' questions. Then he said the intervention was too aggressive. Then he said the world was a "better place" because the intervention succeeded.
Talk about being for it before you were against it!
~~~
"Ask Osama bin Laden if he's better off now than he was four years ago."
~~~
"For Mitt Romney, an overseas trip is what you call it when you trip all over yourself overseas. It wasn’t a goodwill mission - it was a blooper reel."
But a Romney - Ryan foreign policy would be anything but funny.
~~~
“[Romney] even blurted out the preposterous notion that Russia is our “number one geopolitical foe.”Folks: Sarah Palin said she could see Russia from Alaska; Mitt Romney talks like he’s only seen Russia by watching Rocky IV.”
~~~
Mitt Romney: out of touch at home, out of his depth abroad and out of the mainstream.
~~~
No nominee for president should ever fail in the midst of a war to pay tribute to our troops overseas in his acceptance speech. Mitt Romney was talking about America. They are on the front lines every day defending America, and they deserve our thanks.
