November 04, 2008

Election Day In Bay Ridge and across America

The lines at Bay Ridges' P.S. 102 were longer than normal, but manageable. I had the great fortune of not having to wait in line at all. No lines at the 83 Election District as oft 715 am.
(click photo to enlarge)







This is one year I'll be swimming against the tide. The Republicans made an immense error by not choosing John McCain in 2000. Eight years later, the country is set to make the same mistake. A fake reformer will be chosen over a real reformer.





Finally, a long line at a Wall Street Manhattan polling station at 830 am.

Don't forget to go to Starbucks today. If you tell them you voted, you get a free cup of coffee!

7 comments:

Mark said...

Sorry your man didn't win. He gave a wonderful and classy speech.

Anonymous said...

McCain woulda been a "real reformer" just like GWB was a real cowboy (and remember '00, when GWB posed as a conciliatory Regular Joe kinda moderate)?

McCain's platform was GWB Squared, he threw his straight-shooter rep to the winds via trashtalk, and Palin triple-frosted his cake. Instead of making him look like a refreshing maverick, that choice inadvertently emphasized & raised concern re: his age, health, and judgment.
Sure didn't help when Palin went diva-maverick vs. McCain himself, maxing out people's risk-and-surprise tolerance.

And you can't always have a "redo." A lot has changed since 2000 and 2004 (and since the VN War) -- including McCain.

Anonymous said...

Man, bitter much? Your guy didn't win, gave a good speech, despite his sometimes-booing crowd. Bay Ridge is changing. Get used to it.

Anonymous said...

Agreed - McCain was far better than that crowd around him. A case of really poor crowd-control there.

Or maybe that was the problem all along - he didn't see, or get, who'd glommed onto him, and how it made him miss the mark.

Anonymous said...

Agree with the general sentiment here. Too bad McCain didn't win 8 years ago, when he seemed to actually stand for something and before GWB destroyed the USA's reputation and helped torpedeo its economic standing--mostly by standing by while Cheney et al helped their greedy pals. McCain, who was himself the victim of negative campaigning by Bush, turned around 8 years later and allowed his campaign to make GWB's look like a cub scout rally through their uber-nasty ads. Plus he picks a dumb bimbo as a "maverick move", sealing the deal--he's no outsider, he's just a man grasping to win the last chance he's got by kowtowing to the fundamentalist element in his party. And he may have believed he was a "reformer", but given his history with lobbyists I can't believe he would have done much if anything to change the status quo. I feel sorry for him, I believe he's genuinely a good guy (and Mark, he did give a good concession speech, he seemed like the old McCain there), but if he can't stand up to his own campaign, if he can't even make a VP decision that shows he cares about the direction of this country, then how can he be trusted to make the bigger, more important decisions and to stand up to Putin etc.? Obama may not have a lot of experience, but he sure presents an image that he's on target, he's smart, and he's presidential. Biden may be a bloviater, but he's got the experience. And the enthusiasm now is palpable. History has been made, in more ways than one.

Anonymous said...

to "glad it is all over":

Great comment. I agree with you 100%.

Ken said...

Republicans have had a good run of dominance(over a quarter of a century of steering the political discourse of this country ever-rightward), and now they must retreat to the political wilderness. It happens to all political parties/factions eventually. They ran that car maarked "conservatism" hard, till the wheels came off, and now they must build a new model. May it take a long, long time for them to come up with a new design.