Bah! Living blogging is boring and doesn’t afford me enough time for drinking and enjoying. Hey, did CNN call Georgia for McCain? See you all tomorrow. GOBAMA!
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This hologram thing on CNN is:

1.) creepy
2.) distracting
3.) but also cool!

Answer: All of the Above.

I remain glued to CNN (they’re starting state-win projects, Obama gets Vermont, McCain gets Kentucky) — sadly, Bender’s Game was not enthralling enough to capture my attention for ninety minutes — and I decided to make some Apple Betty. Some people this dish an apple crisp, and some people it apple brown betty. No. It’s Apple Betty. Show it some fucking respect.

Really, it’s a pretty simple dish. Cut up about six apples — Granny Smith and Mcintosh are my choice — and put them into a baking dish. Pour a quarter cup of orange juice over the apples (it’ll bring out the tartness).

Mix 1 cup of sugar, 3/4 cup of flour, 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon, and 1/4 teaspoon of nutmeg, and 1 cup of butter. Sprinkle this mix over the apples, then bake the whole thing for forty-five minutes at 375 degrees. Serve hot, in a bowl, with cold milk. YUM!

Mine is cooking now. My apartment is smelling delicious. If you’re not jealous, it’s because you don’t know what you’re missing.

I have never, in my life, donated money to a political campaign. This year, I spent $2.50 for an Obama sign to stick in my window, and I witnessed the Obama machine in full gear, as my inbox was flooded with mail this weekend from Barack Obama, Michelle Obama, Joe Biden, and assorted campaign figures asking for one last donation before today. So I opened up my wallet and coughed up $25. Why? Because Barack Obama is a candidate I can believe in.

I remember, living north of Baltimore, a city struggling with a declining population and a huge crime and murder rate. The city’s slogan for several years was “Believe.” And though it was mocked, I think it was spot on message. Belief, faith, whatever you want to call it, is so vitally important, especially when you’re looking at a situation like Baltimore City. Do I believe in Baltimore? Do I believe that Baltimore can overcome? Do I believe that Baltimore can overachieve? Yes to all. Do I believe that Baltimore will one day have a decent public transportation system? No. That I don’t believe in.

I remember, also, as if it were yesterday, casting my vote for John Kerry at Dulaney High School in Baltimore County four years ago. After, I drove to the Exxon station on York Road in Hunt Valley, and as I recorded how many gallons I’d pumped into my car, I jotted down on the beaten notebook I used, “BYE BUSH!” I felt so optimistic about Kerry’s win … and I felt so disappointed as the race, when I finally turned to bed, seemed to have gone the completely wrong way. I’d been certain that residual anger over Bush’s “win” over Gore in 2000 would have prompted a massive get-out-the-vote effort, but it didn’t happen. (I still have a Gore campaign sticker somewhere in my copy of Catch-22).

I don’t think I thought that there would be a time when I wouldn’t regret that George W. Bush won a second term. But I’m thinking back on my votes for Gore in ’00, and Kerry in ’04, and I think that if either had won, the conditions which have allowed for Obama to be the favored candidate today wouldn’t exist.

The last eight years have been a period of increasingly bitter and acrimonious partisan fighting. And while the country came together briefly in the wake of September 11th, it didn’t take look for people to confuse nationalism with patriotism and to assume that those who criticized the execution of the war in Afghanistan, and to question the invasion and conduct of the war in Iraq, as traitors to the stars and stripes. It hasn’t even been party against party, as George W. Bush has almost destroyed the Republican Party, pushing it towards the socialist right, where government might supports the fundamentalist agenda of socially conservative churches. Libertarians, fiscally responsible, principled conservatives, haven’t been welcome in W’s new Republican Party. Meanwhile, our nation’s hurting: our economy is in the toilet, we’re occupying two countries, and we seem to be trying to provoke fights with Pakistan, Syria, and Russia, too.

And so through all this acrimony comes Barack Obama. He’s lampooned as a messiah, and of course he’s not, but what is he? He’s Ronald Reagan: he’s a guy who can take the high road, can inspire confidence, and can unite the country. You’ve heard, of course, of Reagan Democrats, and you’ve been hearing the last few months about Obama Republicans. He’s not going to solve this country’s problems overnight, I don’t think he’ll solve them if he’s in office for ten or twenty years. But what I think he will do is unite the country, and I think he’ll do it by not telling us what we want to hear, but by the responsibilities upon us.

Actually, in a lot of ways, I think he’s going to turn out to be much more centrist than what the McCain camp would have you believe. I remember how people decried Bill Clinton as being an uberliberal, when, in reality, he was a centrist Democrat. I’m also not worried about the Democrats controlling Congress and the White House for two years: a lot of the party’s gains two years ago were by conservatives who switched parties in opposition. You’re not going to convince me Jim Webb is a flaming liberal, and you’re not going to tell me these Blue Dog Democrats are just going to bow weakly and do their masters’ bidding.

I think Obama is deliberate enough to recognize that he won’t win all his battles, and even with a party majority in the Congress, I think he’s smart enough to reach across to work with the Republicans whose help he won’t immediately need. In short, while I don’t think Obama is the messiah who will single handedly save this country from doom, death, and destruction, I do think he’ll restore civility to the process, and create a forum where every American can believe in the importance of their single vote.

I don’t know if four years will find me pulling the lever for Obama. As I age, I find myself moving more and more to the center. There are some issues that I feel very strongly about, and these tug me to the right (guns), or to the left (social issues), and these will be strong motivators for my vote. But here’s what I’m looking forward to in future elections:

Goodbye identity politics. There’s no reason for the tickets of both parties to be comprised of white males. Even though I don’t care for Palin’s candidacy, I can admire the vast enthusiasm she has inspired among right-leaning voters. As for Barack Obama, I can remember as little as two years ago thinking a coworker was right when he said that we’d never see a black president in our lifetimes (this is when most people thought Hillary had the candidacy just about wrapped up).

Goodbye negative campaigning. By and large, the Obama campaign has stayed positive. You watch a Palin rally on CNN, and she’s talking about Obama and his ties with terrorists. You watch Obama, on the other hand, and he’s talking about how there are no red states, and no blue states, only the United States. That’s powerful rhetoric, and I think it resonates, particularly with those of us who get really tired of being vilified as “demoncrats” or “re-pube-icans.”**

*I am aware that he is not literally Ronald Reagan.

**Me especially! I’m a registered independent, and likely to stay that way.

Obamaslide.

So, say, McCain wins. And then he dies, lets say, in the spring, and Sarah Palin becomes President. Assuming she ran for President and won in 2012, would she be eligible to run again in 2016? I guess what I’m asking is, we all know Presidents are limited to serving two terms in office, but a VP who becomes President on the death or resignation of their predecessor, does filling out the remainder of that person’s term count towards the term limit?

Comment on my AstroEmpire’s (the MMOG I’m addicted too) guild board:

with all the money they spended on the election campaign we could feed all the poorest population of the earth,we could build …..deathstars,could save a lot of firms from bankrupcy
but hey
go and vote
it is for the best of all world

Response:

The Center for Responsive Politics calculates that, by Election Day, $2.4 billion will have been spent on presidential campaigns in the two-year election cycle that began in January 2007, and an additional $2.9 billion will have been spent on 435 House and 35 Senate contests. This $5.3 billion is a billion less than Americans will spend this year on potato chips.” – George Will

So stop buying potato chips and let’s save the world.

Will you?

Off to cast my vote. Make sure you vote, or I don’t want to hear you bitchin’ and moanin’ when your candidate doesn’t win.

I took the day off from work — both works, actually — because I am that much of a political junkie. Following my early morning vote — I’ll be leaving in a couple of minutes to walk two blocks to my polling place and cast my first vote as a resident of the District — I plan on making the trek to Giant, and spending my morning making pumpkin pies and apple betty, and my afternoon watching Bender’s Game, and I plan to spend tonight glued to CNN.

The day’s already off to a good start for Obama:

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama emerged victorious in the first election returns of the 2008 presidential race, winning 15 of 21 votes cast in Dixville Notch, New Hampshire.

People in the village in New Hampshire’s northeast corner voted just after midnight Tuesday.

It was the first time since 1968 that the village leaned Democratic in an election.

Obama’s rival, Republican John McCain, won 6 votes.

A full 100 percent of registered voters in the village cast ballots. And the votes didn’t take long to tally.

The town, home to around 75 residents, has opened its polls shortly after midnight each Election Day since 1960, drawing national media attention for being the first place in the country to make its presidential preferences known.