President Obama

It’s official, the Democrats have won in the greatest presidential landslide since 1992, proving once again that unless the country’s in a severe economic crisis, we don’t have a shot of winning this thing.  After eight solid years of mismanaged campaigns marked by inconsistent veiled messages, I was beginning to believe that pigs would need to grow wings to carry one of our boys (or Hillary/Pelosi) into the White House.  Instead, all it took was two wars, a broken economy, a hurricane ravaged Gulf Coast and a celebrity candidate.

The real question now is, will Barack Obama be content to go down in history as merely the first Black man to sit in the oval office; or will he choose to be remembered for something bigger?

If one were permitted but eight words to sum-up FDR’s presidency, would they more likely be “held office for three terms in a wheelchair;” or “we have nothing to fear but fear itself.”   JFK said it himself: “I am not the Catholic candidate for President. I am the Democratic Party’s candidate for President, who happens also to be a Catholic.” It’s only from personal courage such as this that politicians find the strength to say: “ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.”

Yes, Obama owes much to trail blazers like FDR (our first physically disabled president), JFK (our first Catholic president) and yes - to George W Bush (our first mentally retarded president), but it is never enough to be remembered for that.

The Nation

Democrats now have total control of our elected government.  It doesn’t appear that they will be able to over-ride a filibuster but given last night’s resounding endorsement of our platform I’m fairly confident that the GOP isn’t going to attempt any organized resistance to President Obama’s early legislation until time and approval ratings start slipping.

Typically in Democratic politics, however, a big tent means many factions.  And with victories such as these in key swing states we’re likely to see some dramatic clashes between “pro-business” moderate democrats and more progressive members of the House and Senate.

Case in point, last night California gave 61% of the vote for Barack Obama, yet somehow failed to vote down the pernicious Proposition 8 a significant blow for gay-rights Democrats and a major last-minute bummer during our victory party.  Numbers like that can only suggest that California’s social conservatives might have helped Obama break “that last political barrier for African Americans today,” but they weren’t prepared to live in a country where all are treated equal.

Obama was elected on a popular message of change, but if even California can’t vote to protect gay marriage then surely there will still be much work to be done after he leaves office.

STATE & LOCAL

Perhaps the best local news of the night was the overwhelming endorsement for I-1000 Death-with-Dignity.  Coming from Oregon, I was especially proud that our little northern neighbor finally got with the program.  Now, if only Washington caught up to our: recycling, tax and school-testing policies, this wouldn’t be such a bad place for low income people to live.

Governor Gregoire, having won the closest gubernatorial race in US history in 2004, emerged the clear victor early in the evening despite poling that suggested the race to be extremely narrow.  Gregoire’s victory came with a healthy 53% of the vote behind Obama’s 58%.  It would not be too much of an exaggeration, however, to say that the race was ultimately decided by voters who identified Rossi with Bush and Gregoire with Obama.  Aside from putting Obama’s face on the cover of their mailings, the Gregoire campaign managed to get Joe Biden to fly out to Tacoma for a 12,000+ rally just a week before the election, followed by a second rally hosted by Howard Dean literally two days before the polls closed.  It’s very likely that without Obama, Rossi would have been our governor today.

Once again, Darcy Burner seems to have come really close to unseating Reichert.  Again, however, she failed to make Pierce County a personal priority.  I’m not gonna call this one either way.

It’s probably premature of me to do it, but I’d just like to congratulate our new Public Lands Commissioner Peter Goldmark and Superintendent of Public Instruction Randy Dorn.  Both Dorn and Goldmark accomplished the unenviable task of unseating entrenched incumbents. That said, I’ve come to believe that it would be best if both these offices were appointed by the State Legislature, with the option of recall to be left to the people (an odd suggestion to some, I’m sure, but I believe a good idea nonetheless.)  I’d also like to congratulate our former guest and new State Auditor, Tacoma’s own Brian Sonntag.

Other melon guests to safely secure re-election were Congressman Norm Dicks, despite harsh criticism and even an insurgency from within his own party, and State Representative Dennis Flannigan who easily fended off his seat from fellow Democrat Jessica Smeall in one of the few single party districts of the state.  I of course spent my time in the neighboring 28th Legislative District campaigning for Debi Srail (read extended article here.)

In the IRV battle for Pierce County Executive, our former guest Calvin Goings is trailing while Mike Lonergan has been eliminated.  It’s now between Shawn Bunney and Pat McCarthy, respectfully, though it’s very likely we won’t know the winner for some days to come.  If the defeat of Goings is final, then it is certainly a tragedy for the more progressive Democrats of the area.

Finally, we remain waiting for the result from the Pierce County Sheriff race, though at 5:14pm Melon Standard Time, we’re prepared to name Paul Pastor the winner with Jessie (aka Robert “The Traveller”) Hill a distant second, despite outspending Pastor in the race.  On a side note, The Melon is currently exploring the possibility of making a full-length documentary on Mr. Hill and the city he calls home.

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 6th, 2008 at 7:00 am and is filed under Local News, Politics, Politics & Business, Ripe!, Tacoma, Washington State. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.