Election Scraps

Apparently watching Chris Matthews quack and shout for a prolonged period of time gives you writers block. Who knew. While I sense lengthy prose on the horizon, it ain't happening today.

Jim Leach did lose his seat in Iowa, after 30 years in Congress. The wave was high enough to carry him away. Unfortunately the wave failed to sweep away much more deserving candidates like Marilyn Musgrave in Colorado, Michelle Bachmann in Minnesota or Peter Roskam in Illinois. I'd trade any of those punks for Leach. Even Brian Williams was shocked when Chris Matthews relayed the news of his loss, "The guy with the crew cut sweaters!" Williams lamented. I guess this leaves Connecticut's Christopher Shays to uphold the crew cut sweater tradition.

Amazing that the Webb-Allen race will become the one with a prolonged results process. On many trips to Iowa, Senator Allen complained about how the Senate was boring and how he wished he had been born in Iowa (perhaps he's confused and thinks Iowa was in the Confederacy). Everyone knew Allen wanted to be President. But now he gets to spend several more days fighting for a job he didn't even really want. What did I see someone call that on Daily Kos? Oh right, Kharmacaca.

I just loved the tone and substance of Harold Ford's concession speech, and I'm not one to swoon over Jesus-dropping in campaign speeches. He's the real article and obviously a public servant above all else. He'll be back.

Angelides couldn't even scratch 40% in California. I voted in the lobby of a "Mailboxes, Etc." type store at 630pm PST. There was a line, and most of the voters ahead of me in line didn't seem to have made up their minds entirely before stepping into their plastic voting squares (which I always look like they were made by Fisher Price. I guess it puts a new spin on saying, "Let's play House.") In a state with so many complicated Propositions, I think it behooves a voter to plan ahead. Either read them and decide ahead of time or vote "No" on them. That's my stance. I voted NO for all of them except the clean water and renewable energy proposals, and I'm pretty sure those both failed. Of course they did. At least my Congressman, Henry Waxman is up for a chairmanship. And hey-- evil GOP figure McClintock lost for Lt. Gov. Phew.

CNN had an amazing results & tallying system on its website. Once able to "borrow" a wireless signal from the neighborhood, I was checking this site all evening an no others. I specifically loved the county-by-county voting info and the party color-coding for each county. One thing the networks really dropped the ball on was telling the viewers which counties and votes remained uncounted once races became too close to call. For a good hour I was crying in my wine glass about Claire McCaskill until I figured out St. Louis and surrounding urban areas were not counted yet. Perhaps if Chris Matthews and Olbermann weren't trying so hard to outdo one another with cutesy barbs and puns they could have shared some numbers. It was an alpha dogpen in that studio, and added extra drama to an already exciting night. Don't get me started on Bob Shrum. Or Nora O'Donnell, who looked dressed for the role of Miss Adelaide in Guys in Dolls. Is she a journalist? I wonder.

Despite my fears about voting machines and tabulating, by the time I hit the sack at 2am only 2 senate races were undecided. Not bad at all. What a country.