Wednesday editorial: America voted
Voters cast their ballots Tuesday morning at Twillman Elementary School in Spanish Lake. John L. White | Post-Dispatch
On Tuesday, for the 55th time in the nation’s history, the United States held a presidential election. America voted.
It was 55,395 days since the Dred Scott decision, when the Supreme Court ruled that Americans of African ancestry could not claim citizenship. It was 41,077 days since the Court ruled, in Plessy v. Ferguson, that segregation was legal under the doctrine of “separate but equal.” It was 64 days since Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, the Republican nominee for vice president, when asked by Katie Couric of CBS News, was unable to name any Supreme Court decision other than Roe v. Wade. On Tuesday, America voted.
It had been 1,463 days since George W. Bush defeated John F. Kerry and 2,824 days since the Supreme Court ruled in the case of Bush v. Gore. It was 2,611 days since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, 2,057 days since the United States invaded Iraq, 2,014 days since George Bush stood under that “Mission Accomplished” banner on the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln, 1,651 days since the Abu Ghraib torture story broke and six days since PFC Bradley Coleman, 24, became the 4,190th American to die in Iraq. America voted.
America voted on the 2,698th day since George Bush first looked into the soul of Vladimir Putin and 88 days after Russian forces invaded Georgia. It was 1,159 days after President Bush stood with FEMA director Michael Brown amid the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina and told him, “Brownie, you’re doing a heck of a job.” It was 1,054 days since Americans learned that their government was eavesdropping on them without warrants and 698 days since the administration fired eight U.S. attorneys, mostly for political reasons.
America voted 1,155 days after Mr. Bush appointed John G. Roberts Jr. as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court and 1,100 days after Samuel Alito was named an associate justice. It was 495 days since Mr. Roberts and Mr. Alito joined the court’s majority to gut Brown v. Board of Education. America voted.
It was only 50 days after financial regulators emerged from a bleary-eyed weekend with Wall Street tycoons to announce that Lehman Brothers was going into bankruptcy and Bank of America was buying Merrill Lynch and AIG insurance was toppling and a massive financial bailout might be necessary. Wall Street melted down and America voted.
It was the 1,561st day since Illinois state Sen. Barack Obama, D-13th, gave the keynote speech at the 2004 Democratic convention and 633 days since he announced he was running for president. It 273 days since Super Tuesday, when he took the lead for the Democratic nomination away from Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York, 231 days since he gave his “More Perfect Union” speech on race in Philadelphia and 150 days since Ms. Clinton conceded the nomination.
During all of these days, he ran an astonishingly disciplined, focused and prescient campaign. He stayed true to the message he had delivered in Springfield 633 days earlier: “This campaign has to be about reclaiming the meaning of citizenship, restoring our sense of common purpose and realizing that few obstacles can withstand the power of millions of voices calling for change.”
As all these days went by, Americans by the millions rallied to that call as if it were more of a crusade than a campaign. They sensed that somehow, in the last 2,800 days, some things — many things — had gone terribly wrong. They looked at John McCain, and they looked at Barack Obama. And knowing that wrongs of past days can be righted in hopes of better days ahead, America voted — and elected Barack Obama.
Congratulations to president elect Obama and his dedicated supporters. This has been a historic election in many ways. It is my sincere wish that Obama could temper his Marxist foundation and, as he promises, be the agent of healing and repair of our fractured society.
As with the Republicans, Obama and the Democrats will be faced with the temptations and corruption of centralized power. More important than the new personalities in government will be the special interests controlling it. Unfortunately, federal obesity will prevent any agile or effective solutions to the critical problems we face.
The coming struggles with mathematics, bureaucracy, and human nature will foster continued rigorous debate in these blogs. The ideologies won’t change, but perhaps the vitriol will abate somewhat.
This was a watershed election, an election that showed America can overcome the past. It shows that people can look to the future without regard for the stain of the past. 30 years ago, who among us would have believed that we would someday elect a Governor named Nixon.
“Marxist foundation”!? You mean like the progressive income tax, developed by that uber-communist Theodore Roosevelt?
Thanks, A#. I needed a good laugh this morning.
BSDetector…. I mean - redistribution of earnings; sharing the wealth; controlling free speech (fairness doctrine); banning firearms ownership; eliminating the secret ballot; sponsoring class warfare; and collectivist economics. The election is over and some folks are still in denial of Obama’s core values. The laugh is on you BS.
I just want to thank the Illinois Republicans for being so prudish that they yanked Jack Ryan from the 06 senate race because when he was married he wanted to have ‘kinky sex’ with his wife in Paris (several YEARS before the election) and thus he was obviously not the proper choice to run as a republican, which gave us Alan Keyes, somewhere to the right of Atilla the Hun. So the Illinois Republican Party shares some of the credit today for Obama’s win. Thanks guys!!
Congratulations to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and for that matter, all of the “mainstream media,” for your part in tilting this election to the most far left President we have ever had.
“The election is over and some folks are still in denial of Obama’s core values.”
Yes, A#(Bflat), and just when are going to get over your denial?
Horrigan, well said. Keep hope alive, just five more years before we’ll have the newspaper bailout arrangement in place. In the meantime, icksney on the Obama competenceney thing. Market’s first full day and it tanked 500 points but remember “It’s STILL BUSH’S Fault!” And dragging out white guys in black robes disemboweling Brown v. Board. Brillant!
BSdetector,RHarnack Wonderful! Rub those conservative noses in it, twist their words even as they congratulate Mr. O. We shall crush their God guns and Ronnie Reagan dreams.
The real Bill Ayers gave his first interview yesterday since becoming an issue in the presidential campaign. You can find it here:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/04/AR2008110404171.html
That was about the lamest Ayers interview yet, for a guy who supposedly has so much to say. Still - HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!! Bill Ayers - BILL AYERS - called the media liberal. That so totally cracks me up, because if he - HE - is calling the media liberal, then the media is worse than I thought. A conservative calling a Conservative Republican conservative is like calling them a fascist. Bill Ayers calling the liberal media is calling them — Marxist-Lenninist commies. Hillarious stuff, even though the “interview” is lame.