Wednesday, November 05, 2008

Election Analysis (Intro)



Before some interesting analysis, let's take a look at how Obama made it happen.

Bush 2004 vs Obama 2008



What are my take-aways from the Electoral Maps above?
1) Obama delivered on his promise to change the map
2) It was an electoral college route (compare the blue states to the density of US population)

I believe this all happened because of the Obama grass-roots organization, of which I played a small part but for which I certainly felt a lot of passion and patriotism. As one small example here is the email I got from Barack right before his nominee speech last night:



I know it was computer generated to fill in my name - but it's a classy touch. And what I like best is that there is always a bigger picture to his messages and as you can see he is going to call on his grass roots organization to continue to work for the country. The local group I volunteered with sent out a similar email in summary stating "congratulations - where do we want to direct our volunteer efforts next?".

So what's the point of all of this? Well I want to comment on Karen's most recent blog who I know was a McCain supporter. What I like about Karen is that she is very open with her opinions (and isn't afraid of how others may take it) AND she isn't blindly locked in her views - so I hope she doesn't mind me stealing a quote from her blog but I want to use it to make a point. In response to what will happen in the next 4 years Karen said:

I want to see some of this [positive] change he’s been talking about. And if it does, and we’re on the right path, I’ll vote for him in 2012.


I too would like to have her vote for Barack in 2012 but let me tell you how I think it can happen. I really think Obama's email and volunteer list (and text messages) will continue as president and it's going to opened up to all American's now to join him in making the positive change this country wants. If Republicans can get the results they want for our country in the next 4 years too - then we would all benefit from Barack as president. And maybe our efforts will be small scale and local but they will be none-the-less meaningful. My goal in 4 years is to have my retirement savings recover to 2006 levels which is sad to think of losing 6-8 years of growth and lost time. So Karen - maybe the sentiment is you have as much say as to whether or not you see the change you want in the next 4 years as anybody else.

If that all sounds like pie in the sky talk - I submit to you the fact that Hamilton County turned BLUE this year!



I've decided to split this in two from my election analysis, please read that in my next blog below.

1 comment:

Karen said...

Thank you for the compliments and your lack of offence to my comments even though we don't always agree (at least politically).

I will say, at least publically on your blog, that when I commented about friends who influenced me to be more calm about the election results I was largely talking about you. I hold your opinion very high, consider you smart, educated, logical, and open-minded. So, if someone I hold in high regard not only is going to vote for this guy but will take his TIME to WORK for him, that says a lot.

Feel free to remind me about his successes along the way.

Oh, and the computer generated email is a classy touch – I'm all about the personal touch though so I think that’s great. Further, a personal touch flows right along with the grassroots approach to his politics.