Motley Moose – Archive

This is the first part of two posts describing a fascinating election in Georgia. The second part can be found here.

Georgia is a red state. It votes reliably Republican; the Republican Party controls every level of Georgia’s state government. It would be miraculous for Barack Obama to win the state in 2012.

However, Georgia used to be a very blue state. It belonged to the Solid South, a Democratic stronghold for generations. As early as 1948, however, the first signs of change came. Backlash against the Civil Rights movement and the growth of Republican suburbia eventually destroyed the Democratic Party in Georgia.

The 1980 Georgia Senate Election

I have come across a very interesting election which illustrates this shift. To the best of my knowledge there is not any election similar to what happened in the 1980 Georgia Senate election:

More below.

Good morning/afternoon/evening, my fellow Mooses! Sricki here, welcome to her sentimental rant.  Okay, so I posted some of this in a comment and it was so long I thought I might as well just ramble in a diary.

This election saved my sanity.

No, really.

That is not an exaggeration.

Good afternoon/evening, my fellow Mooses!

Sricki here, and I’ve volunteered to be one of your “hosts” for the evening. For some reason, no one deigned to stop me, which means that you’re stuck with me for quite awhile, as I will be blogging throughout the night due to my already unusual sleep schedule. I trust some of you will be staying up with me, yes?

Senator John McCain’s vice presidential pick is looking like a bigger mistake day by day. There is growing evidence that Governor Sarah Palin has become a drag on the flailing Republican ticket.  The Republican nominee is already weighed down by the failures of the Bush administration and our deteriorating economy, but it’s looking more and more like Palin may be the final nail in the coffin.

This is almost sad, guys.

Well, not really.

But I think this shows us the depth of the hole McCain has dug running this disgraceful campaign. He has never lost an election in Arizona, but now he’s poised to lose the most important race of all. According to a new a Cronkite/Eight Poll, AZ is now a toss-up. Obama has whittled McCain’s lead down to two points, 46 to 44, a statistical tie.

So, I’ve been having a look at the latest maps the last couple of days, and things are looking better and better for us.  Maybe what I’m doing here is a bit controversial, but this by far is my favorite map:

I’m lame.

No commentary.

Just….GOTV.

Blask!!! WTF??

Has been crackin’ me up all night.

Check out the Jerome version on MYDD. 😉

Enjoy.

GOTV

This morning Barack Obama received what may prove to be the second most important endorsement of his presidential campaign. For the sake of party unity, obtaining Senator Clinton’s support was quintessential, but in terms of reaching out to Independents and Republicans, this is perhaps the ultimate endorsement.  Despite having donated $2,300 to longtime friend Senator John McCain’s campaign during the primaries, General Colin Powell endorsed Senator Barack Obama for the presidency today on Meet the Press.

Straight talk.

Apparently it’s a dying art.

John McCain was never a maverick. He was a staunch Republican whose positions deviated from those of his party only on occasion. But the one thing he had going for him was honesty and sincerity. He told the country what he believed and why he believed it, firmly and unapologetically. He stood up for his beliefs even if they were unpopular. He defended his principles. But somewhere along the line John McCain gave up. He sacrificed his principles, he surrendered to the sordid tactics of his party, the tactics he once despised and vocally denounced. To fully understand the magnitude of his fall, one must look back — a glance at the McCain of a month ago, really, is sufficient to understand the duplicity of his statements and positions, but the differences between the McCain of 2000 and the McCain of 2008 are staggering. A brief list compiled by blogger Alex Valentine shows the stark contrast between the two McCains: