2008 US Presidential Results

It’s one week later and the dust is settling down. I’m happy to say that most Americans voted with hope, not fear. Despite worries of voter fraud or voter suppression (depending on who you were listening to), Obama had the clear victory in both the popular and electoral votes. It’s hard to say whether this is a mandate or not (Bush claimed a mandate in 2004 with a mere 51% of the vote), but there is no doubt who won in 2008.

That was 7 days ago, and a lot has happened since.

In the past week, Obama has hit the ground running naming staff and outlining ideas; the GOP blame game blazed brightly especially around Palin; and many are wondering why Obama can’t just go ahead and take over from President Lame Duck.

We Voted for Change!

A week and a day ago, I was at Obama’s last rally at the Prince William County Fair Grounds in Manassas, VA. It took 3 hours to make the 25 mile drive and then 2 hours to get back. With a nasty head cold, I stood in a freezing field with 80,000+ other human beings for 2 hours. Obama was late, and we had to sit through really bad jokes from some state politicians. It was totally worth it!

Obama’s speech was the most inspiring public event I have ever personally attended. Although mostly taken from his stump speech (which I probably know better than Obama by now), he ended with a great story that I had not heard. It was abut a city councilwoman he had met in South Carolina who showed him how to get motivated even on the worst of days. All 80,000+ people leaving the rally were using her chant “Fired up, ready to go”.

The next day, after voting and a quick coffee with my wife, I went out and spent the next 4 hours canvasing with my new friend Tom (whom I had just met in the Obama offices in Herndon). Going door-to-door with a list of Obama supporters, we checked if they had voted, and offered them a ride to the polls if not.

GOP RIP?

That night, I had several close friends over for an Obama Victory party. My wife’s criteria for invitation to this event: “They have to be willing to bear his children.” We were not looking for anyone who was not enthusiastic. That evening ended well.

Now, a week  on, and I have to wonder: what of the GOP? Will the Republican Party come back from this? Is there really a GOP anymore? Many Republican’s I talked with didn’t vote for Obama, but neither did they vote for McCain. For a variety of reasons, they do not feel he represents the party they joined. Cultural conservatives and fiscal conservatives have always made for strange bedfellows, and that finally came home with this election. If anything cost the Republicans in this election, it was the “Southern Strategy” started by Richard Nixon and perpetuated by every Republican since then.

Personally, I do not want a one party rule in this country, even if I agree (mostly) with that party. But then again, I don’t really like the two party system either (I always point out that that’s only one more choice than the Russians had under Communist rule).

My hope is that from the wreckage of the 2008 GOP there might come two separate parties to better represent those constituencies. We’ll see.

For myself, with the election over, I need to turn my attention to the backlog of other projects I have. webbedENVIRONMENTS will not be going on hiatus, rather I will be slowing down my publishing schedule. I’m currently working on a new Web design book, Speaking in Styles: a CSS Primer for Web Designers, and will be writing more on my new site www.writing-in-styles.com.

However, I will still be talking politics, culture, technology and science issues in webbedENVIRONMENTS. This will especially be important as I get ready for my Comics Panel at SXSW and Yuri’s Night. Stay tuned!

If you do nothing else Tuesday, VOTE!

Now, when you do pull that lever on Tuesday (whether literally or metaphorically), let hope guide your hand. Fear is easy to sell. It takes no evidence, but only needs to be convincing. It steals hope and only plays to our darkest paranoia.

All  I have heard coming from the McCain/Palin camp in the last few weeks is fear. Fear Obama the socialist. Fear Obama the inexperienced weak leader. Fear Obama the terrorist sympathizer. Of course the message not coming straight from McCain or Palin, but from their surrogates, is to fear Obama the secret Muslim. And yet, there is no evidence to believe any of these accusations.

Obama’s economics plans make true socialists cry. Obama has over 25 years of experience in and out of government. And if you believe that a secret Muslim terrorist is the front-runner for the US Presidency, then you should just head for the bomb shelter now.

I do not fear what I think a McCain/Palin administration MIGHT be. I dread what they actually say they will do. If you are still undecided, think about what you have heard the candidates say they will do. think about what they have done. Don’t listen to the bizarre accusations flying around. Instead, consider which of the candidates is talking about a future of hope and which one a future of fear. Then, pull that lever for Barack Obama.

Obama has the right stuff to take us into the future.

As for John McCain, despite recent comments that NASA would not fall prey to his federal spending freeze, he is now waffling on funding. Just this week, he made confusing statements that NASA would have it’s budget frozen. Given his indecisiveness, and the fact that he has not laid out any clear vision other than the same-ol-same-ol of the Bush administration, there is little doubt that a McCain administration will be no friend to space flight.

Human space-flight is vital to this country! And Barack Obama knows that. That’s why veteran astronauts like John Glenn and Bill Nelson have long endorsed him. Now former Space Shuttle astronaut Dr. Dan Barry, founder and past president of the Association of Space Explorers Rusty Schweickart, and former Space Shuttle astronaut Dr. Kathy Thornton all signed on to be Obamanauts in order to show their support for Sen. Barack Obama’s space policies.

Other Obamanauts, like the first American woman in space Sally Ride, are speaking up for Barack Obama, because they know the stakes are just too high. We need someone in the White House who can lead us into a future of peace and prosperity in space, not drag us back into the mistakes of the past. She says in her editorial:

Obama also has impressed me with his grasp of the challenges our space program faces and his agenda for where we go from here. Obama clearly understands the importance of human spaceflight and exploration.

Even noted pointy-eared alien, actor Lenord Nemoy seems to have a fondness for Obama, talking about meeting him at an event where they exchanged the hopeful Vulcan greeting “Live Long and Prosper.”

There are a lot of reasons to vote for Barack Obama, and even reasons not to vote for him. However, If you simply do not trust Barack Obama, if you are paranoid that he is not what he seems to be,  then there is little I can say to you. But I can at least ask you to open your mind for a moment and know that Obama’s vision of the future is one of hope, exploration, inclusivity, and, yes, adventure, the same vision that Gene Rodenbery had for our future in Star Trek. In Star Trek, Rodenberry asked us to believe that humanity would boldly go into space to make our own world better.

Isn’t it time we elected a president with the right stuff to get us back on the right track?