We have already demonstrated the recent Presidential election was much closer than the Electoral College results would indicate. This excerpt from the FairVote.org Blog shows that same viewpoint in another way. "Closer Than You Think – How McCain Could Have Won While Losing by Seven Million Votes: Barack Obama apparently has won 365 electoral votes (if he picks up Nebraska’s 2nd congressional district), which is 95 votes more than needed to win. He also has won a comfortable majority of the national popular vote, defeating John McCain by more than seven million votes. But remarkably a shift of less one-third of a percent of all votes cast would have elected McCain. "Thanks to the current Electoral College system, << MORE >>

This Huffington Post entry reports what is also out in the national news media. Senator Chuck Hagel, in an appearance at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, made a number of pointed remarks. Of particular note to me was his remarks about Right Wing Radio Talk Show Hosts in General and Rush Limbaugh in particular. Quoting from the article, "We are educated by the great entertainers like Rush Limbaugh," said Hagel, sarcastically referencing the talk radio host who once called him "Senator Betrayus." "You know, I wish Rush Limbaugh and others like that<< MORE >>

I noted with some consternation the week before the election full page ads in newspapers by the hierarchy of the Catholic Church instructing their members how to vote. The ads may not have said specifically "Vote for McCain-Palin", but the criteria given may as well have done so. I've talked to several Catholics since, especially Irish Catholics. They all tell me << MORE >>

My web site and company is named Kindred Minds. This article by Charles M. Blow definitely establishes him as a Kindred Minds. His article is a reinforcement of my Weekly Ezine #36. ". . .earlier this week, the Republican governors whisked themselves away to Miami to lick their wounds. Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota assured the morose assemblage that all was not lost. “We can be both conservative and we can be modern at the same time,” he said. Yes you can, but first << MORE >>

When I was writing the first draft of this entry, I had this long drawn out story I was going to tell you. I’m still going to tell the story, but I assure you it will not be long and drawn out. The Constitution states that all men are created equal. This is a mantra that I have lived by since I was old enough to understand its true meaning. As a young man growing up in North Omaha, I was always fascinated with the world. I remember being 11 years old, and after the 1988 Presidential election in which the senior Bush drubbed Mike Dukakis, I decided that I would be << MORE >>

Today’s Ezine topic is the second of three. Under discussion is how Democrats appealed to Independent voters in order to win the 2008 Presidential election. By now you have read any number of post mortem’s on the election. Most of them focus on the impact of selecting Governor Palin and the financial meltdown. While accurate, these assessments take a short term view. If Republicans are truly looking for what they could have done differently to win in 2008, then they need to go back to at least 2005. Five events and a trend caused moderate independent voters to wish for a “do-over” button for the November 2004 election. First was the March 2005 << MORE >>

I met Matt Best through another forum I belong to. Among other things, Matt has been a consultant and campaign manager for various candidates. His normal business is helping people succeed in their businesses. Here is Matt's comments on the election. Matt does an excellent job of merging the lessons of politics with the lessons of business. I invite you to look at Matt's web site located at the bottom of his commentary. Being someone who has an extensive background in politics, I would be remiss if I didn't write an article on the lessons learned from this past Tuesday's election. Here's a few lessons/reminders that apply to politics, and certainly apply to business. First, for professionals, election night<< MORE >>

Right wing radio is in a tizzy and can't figure out how their candidate lost. I've been listening and one thing this article says is right. They are all reading off the same talking points. The commentary on this article is as informative as the article itself with an excellent back and forth. Here's an excerpt. "Sean Hannity's post-election broadcasts continue the same impugning of the incoming President's character McCain himself hesitated to use, because it was based more on conjecture than the concrete. Hannity's arguments ignore or distort Obama's policy proposals, for example telling listeners Obama wants to raise their taxes when most would receive a net tax cut under the new structure. Hannity also emphasizes a trillion in new spending without factoring in the expected military cuts that would greatly offset this. "Throughout the campaign, Sean's tactics were << MORE >>

A friend sent me this email and I've decided to post it. To me, this is not about Party or Politics, per se'. This is about righting a wrong. How Saxby Chambliss won 6 years ago was a disgrace. Don't take my word for it. Do your own research. I'm just telling you that if I could vote in GA I would be voting for Jim Martin. To: Fellow Agents of Change and Veterans, There is an important run-off election between Vietnam Veteran Jim Martin and "Chicken hawk" Chambliss Saxby. Six years ago Chambliss Saxby << MORE >>

Before the invasion of Normandy (D-Day), General Eisenhower wrote a letter after he had made the decision to actually do the attack, but before the results were known. The letter was written with him acknowedging responsibility for the failure of the attack and resigning his position as Supreme Allied Commander. Because the attack was successful, the letter was never submitted. In a similar vein, here is a just before the 2008 election letter from the Blue States to the Red States. As the numbers come rolling in, a little tongue-in-cheek fun ... Dear Red States: << MORE >>

I was reading through this article and flashed on the old (but long running and highly successful) prime time soap opera, Dallas. For those of you too young to remember the show, let me give you some background on why I flashed on it. One of the principal characters was named Bobby and Bobby was married to Pam. Real life Bobby was tired of doing the show and wanted out, so the producers had him killed in a car accident in a season finale one year. The next year the show went in the tank for ratings without Bobby. So one of the show's other main stars and the producers prevail on Bobby to come back, but they keep it a big secret. In the finale for the "in the tank" season, they have Pam wake up one morning. She goes in the bathroom and << MORE >>

"The Republican vice presidential candidate attracted criticism for accusing Mr Obama of "palling around with terrorists", citing his association with the sixties radical William Ayers. . . . "The Secret Service warned the Obama family in mid October that they had seen a dramatic increase in the number of threats against the Democratic candidate, coinciding with Mrs Palin's attacks. Michelle Obama, the future First Lady, was so upset that she turned to her friend and campaign adviser Valerie Jarrett and said: "Why would they try to make people hate us?" The revelations, << MORE >>

This is the second commentary I've posted on this drumbeat about America being a Center-Right nation. See also this posting by David Sirota. http://thecenterstrikesback.com/2008/11/03/david-sirota-mandate-08-reagan-vs-fdr.aspx This is a discussion at odds with itself because << MORE >>

"A week ago, I had a long conversation with a four-star U.S. military officer who, until his recent retirement, had played a central role in directing the global war on terror. I asked him: what exactly is the strategy that guides the Bush administration's conduct of this war? His dismaying, if not exactly surprising, answer: there is none. "President Bush will bequeath to his successor the ultimate self-licking ice cream cone. << MORE >>

One of my fears going into Tuesday was we would have a disputed outcome based on voting difficulties. Regardless of where you stand on the left right spectrum or which candidate you supported, there is one thing we should all agree on. We want an election process free of both voter fraud and suppression. Now is the time to go to work on ensuring all voters in this country vote on paper ballots with a system capable of giving them a receipt for their vote. Andrew Gumbel's article << MORE >>

Yesterday's Weekly Ezine was about how President Elect Obama built his winning coalition. Seth Godin echoes that theme with this blog entry. Here's an excerpt. " Barack Obama also had a challenge. He knew that the traditional base for Democratic candidates wouldn't be sufficient to get him elected (it had failed John Kerry). So he too set out << MORE >>

The aftermath of any major contest involves a dissection of the turning points leading to the final result. This is particularly true for the recently concluded 2008 election. There is no lack of such viewpoints. Probably there is no one decisive dissection. Rather, each dissection is like a piece of a jigsaw puzzle. Carefully placing each piece will eventually reveal a pattern that allows you to make sense of the whole. This writing will offer one of three pieces to the pattern puzzle, with the other two pieces to follow. This first piece involves a << MORE >>

The thought occurs to me about you readers might expect from this Blog with the election of Barack Obama as President of the United States. I have not commented that much about the election itself. Several things happened that really upset me and I didn't want to write without control over my emotions. My control is back and I already have the next three Weekly Ezine topics ready to be written. Overall, you can expect<< MORE >>

With Barack Obama's election to the presidency, the evangelical moment in US foreign policy has come to an end. The United States remains a nation of believers, with Christianity the tradition to which most Americans adhere. Yet the religious sensibility informing American statecraft will no longer find expression in an urge to launch crusades against evil-doers. Like our current president, Obama is a professed Christian. Yet whereas << MORE >>

One of the things I advocate changing about our elections is how the Electors are allocated. My idea is to allocate the electors based on the popular vote within each state. This would give blue voters in red states (and vice versa) a higher incentive to vote. So, based on the MSNBC Electoral Map at http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23887017 I calculated how the Electoral College would be distributed based on my proposed methodology. As it stands<< MORE >>