11:05pm and no one does it better than CNN. The intro to its election night special looks like a trailer for a Hollywood action blockbuster while reliable Wolf Blitzer keeps his emotionless face fixed on. I could turn over to Fox news or the BBC but they don’t have the level headed Wolf Blitzer. There’s no better man to have in a crisis than good old uncle Wolf!
I guess the only thing that truly disappointed me about last night’s election was waking up this morning to find that Donald Trump’s call for “revolution” did not come to fruition. Some people took the news of Obama’s victory last night a little harder than others. But, in fact, it seems as if the world is roughly the same out there.
Four years ago, I was a nervous wreck. The polls showed my guy, Barack Hussein Obama, with a commanding lead, but what did the polls know? What about the Bradley Effect? What about the conservatives and their voting machines and their lying, cheating ways? Diebold was a thing, right?
I am deeply proud to be an American. With all sincerity I do believe this is the greatest nation on the planet. A lot of my progressive brothers and sisters look wistfully at Europe. Oh, in Germany you get eighty weeks off every year, they say. In France there’s a free nanny for every baby. In Switzerland, chocolate bars are good for you! Whatever.
There’s no choice for me on Election Day. Barack Obama is the only candidate on my ballot because not only do I disagree with Mitt Romney’s economic policies but I disagree with him on a human decency level. I will simply not vote for a candidate who does not have any interest in human rights for gays and women
Regardless of who wins the election next Tuesday the issue of primary importance in the lives of most Americans—the increasing wealth gap and economic hardships that arise from it—is not likely to be addressed in any serious way. Barack Obama came into office with a chance to overhaul the financial system, and arguably a mandate provided by his decisive victory to do so. But instead, Obama played to the status quo, inviting Tim Geithner and Larry Summers and other key players in the 2008 collapse to be heavily involved in determining the financial direction of the country.