Blue Mass Group

One of the most interesting factoids gleaned from the exit poll data now available is, to my knowledge, getting very little attention to this point. Given that during this campaign we heard a lot about taxes, “spreading the wealth”, and so forth, this exit poll factoid may point to a shift in American politics that could be quite important in economic and tax policy going forward.

In the extended text below, I’ve compared the exit poll numbers from Kerry in ’04 and Obama in ’08 based on income level. The results are quite surprising and counter-intuitive.

Election Day was bittersweet for LGBT Americans across the country. Barack Obama’s victory filled me with hope, while the passage of anti-gay amendments in three states left me feeling dejected. California’s vote to ban same-sex marriage is especially disturbing. Gay couples in that state have been able to marry since June. The equality ended on Election Day. Thousands of people are taking to the streets to protest the discriminatory amendment. There was a candlelight vigil in San Francisco on Wednesday. Thursday saw rallies in Los Angeles. Friday brought huge marches in San Francisco, Long Beach, Palm Springs, and Salt Lake City. These protests are making national news: CNN, New York Times, and even our very own Boston Globe. Let’s keep this in the national spotlight by showing that people across the country are protesting against discrimination. Gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people, along with our straight allies, must come together across the country and stand up for civil rights. Please join us at this protest against Prop 8. Sunday, Nov. 9 12:00pm – 3:00pm Central Square Cambridge, MA

An open letter to our legislators: As you know, the ethics and integrity of our government have come under urgent scrutiny in the last few weeks. In response, Governor Patrick has formed a “public integrity task force.” This is a particular interest of mine.  Among other efforts, I, together with two citizen co-plaintiffs, have spent over three and a half years trying to force the Boston City Council to obey the Open Meeting Law. I am asking you to take an active role in the Governor’s integrity task force effort, although few of you were appointed to it.   To begin with, I ask you to: -request that the Governor’s task force hold public hearings across the state; reach out to your constituents, e.g., hold public forums, crate a hotline (phone and e-mail) for citizen corruption reports; submit recommendations of your own, and present them in a public forum (newspaper opeds, your web-sites, etc.); -file legislation to make the legislature subject to the Open Meeting Law and the Public Record Law. I will be preparing a set of recommendations from my own experience.   Unfortunately, elected officials tend to wait until corruption bursts out on the public scene before taking [...]

Congrats on returning John Kerry to the Senate!  Though Election Day has passed, Massachusetts has the chance to help send more Democrats to the Senate! With the Georgia Senate race headed toward a run-off election and the Alaska Senate race amid a protracted vote count, both Jim Martin and Mark Begich need your continued support! Please, please, please make a contribution to them via the Expand the Map! ActBlue page this weekend! Democrat Current  Goal Difference Jim Martin  $3,385  $4,000  $615 Mark Begich  $5,553  $6,000  $447 Please, please, please contribute this weekend!  It will give President-elect Obama a stronger Democratic majority with which to pass his Democratic agenda.

Let’s not lose it. We all need to work hard to take advantage of the opportunity we have created. An excellent summary of Election Day evening 2008 in 10 minutes:

Please do not try to be funny anymore.  You are bad at it, and trying will bring you grief unless the joke is scripted into a speech. Nancy Reagan seances?  A mutt?  WTF?

(XP.)

As many of you know (ad infinitum), I have done some work in support of a few candidates this cycle, and in particular, for Jen Benson (Representative-Elect, 37th Middlesex) and Obama in NH. Now it is time to analyze the experience and share some thoughts I had in doing it.

Jen was running against a very negative candidate, who was willing to lie and distort her record and her positions, not only in his own literature (some of which he didn’t bother to even label as from him, due to some loophole), but also in the local media. Though this seat was previously held by a progressive Dem, whose values Jen shares, it was by no means a slam dunk that she would win this election. There are several small towns in the district, many of which go Republican as much as Democrat.

Obama Win Causes Obsessive Supporters To Realize How Empty Their Lives Are Charley and Paul beat me to the Get Your War On punch by five minutes. Fabulous. But won’t embed, sadly. From Daniel Kurtzman: Ladies and gentlemen, Barack Obama is our new president. And I think I speak for most Americans when I say, anybody mind if he starts a little early?” –David Letterman “I would like to say one thing to Senator John McCain. Listen, senator, you don’t show up for me, America doesn’t show up for you.” –David Letterman “But right about now Joe the plumber is meeting with his transition team. They’re going to help ease him from obscurity back to oblivion.” –David Letterman “At the end of the evening, the electoral vote count was 349 for Obama, 148 for McCain. Or, as Fox News says, too close to call.” –David Letterman “How about Sarah Palin, ladies and gentlemen. Right now on her way back to Alaska. And I’m thinking oh, I wouldn’t want to be a moose now.” –David Letterman “You know who is really, really happy that John McCain did not win last night? The boyfriend of Sarah Palin’s daughter. He doesn’t have to [...]