Calling It A Night

More thoughts tomorrow; I'm exhausted.  I'll just leave you with this.  Some people have said, since we've all seen Obama's first term, the result was the triumph of hope over experience.  I add too that it is the triumph of denial over reality, and of a cold, narrow, bitter and embittering vision of ever-increasing division over a greater, warmer, brighter promise of inclusion.  Nobody seemed to care that the entire country is going to go bankrupt paying for entitlement addiction by spending borrowed money.  The sheer cynicism of the Obama campaign was breathtaking in places, as it quite knowingly decided to discard half the country with contempt, and the rank complicity and corruption of the media reached almost comical proportions.

I'm not going to lie: I'm sorely - sorely - disappointed with the Romney loss.  I honestly thought the whole thing could - no, would, given the dire straits that we're in at home and abroad - go our way.  It's a bad night for conservatives and libertarians, but ... (and I'm reminding myself as much as I'm reminding anyone) we're optimists.  Fundamentally.  Moping does not become us.

As believers in limited government, the American Dream, the boundless potential of the individual, and the power of actual (not crony) capitalism, free markets, and the private sector to create jobs and improve lives, we don't buy that other vision of drab collectivist dependency, that half-defeatist outlook on life, that zero-sum game, that grasping state leviathan distrusting any success (indeed, any activity) it does not somehow control and compel.  

Oh, soon there will be all kinds of "Monday morning quarterbacking" about the Romney campaign, but that's not really the point.  We have to articulate our cause better.  We have to engage still more.  If ever there were a time to be happy warriors, my darlings, it's now.  

UPDATE: Can't sleep.  I'm going to eat a bunch of leftover Halloween chocolate and read a novel that has nothing to do with school, and I'm going to do that until I pass out, probably with all the lights still on.

7 PM Eastern Time: The First Polls Close, So Cue Crazy Media Coverage in 3 ... 2 ... 1 ...

Oh, boy!  Here we go!  I think we're in for a loooooooooooooong night, gentle reader.  This could be a real nailbiter.  (PS: I don't give a hoot about which candidate "the world" prefers.  This is OUR election. Get your own!  Though ... I do like this sassy British op-ed.) 

Here's something amusing if you need something to take the edge off as you watch election returns (and loopy journalists) tonight:

And It Begins! New Hampshire's Midnight Vote

It's the presidential election equivalent of midnight movie premieres!  New Hampshire has a charming long-standing tradition: two tiny spots in the little Granite State will vote at midnight and cast the first votes in the presidential election.  OK, citizens of Dixville Notch and Hart's Location, GO!  

(And as jaded and weary as I am, I still have to say that it's kind of exciting to see the voting actually and finally begin!)

UPDATE: Oh, boy:

The first presidential election results are in - and it's a tie.  

President Barack Obama and  his Republican rival, Mitt Romney, each received five votes in Dixville Notch,  New Hampshire. 

The people in the town in the state's northeast corner has opened its polls shortly after midnight each election day since 1968 - but today's tie was the first in its history.

Taiwanese News Animators Vs. the Election

Campaign Fatigue: One More Day

It's Guy Fawkes Day today, but the date that we all really care about is Election Day tomorrow.  Thank goodness this campaign season is almost over.  I think we're all exhausted.  I know I'm tired of hearing about campaign this and campaign that on every single communicative medium possible.  

We've reached saturation.  Polls, schmolls.  The only poll that matters is the one we have tomorrow.  Laughter is the best medicine, though, so here are a few things to make this last day a little more bearable:

Change You Can Believe In!

Hmmmm.  Well, that is certainly some change.  Oh, and at the end ... et tu, Canada?

"Secretary of Business" as Symptomatic

I've already mocked this, but Ricochet points out that the President's whole risible (and clueless) "Secretary of Business" suggestion is actually (and grimly) symptomatic of Obama's entire approach to business:

This is really how President Obama sees the private sector. It’s just one more interest group in need of care and feeding by Big Government. And since we already have a Commerce Department, let’s just rebrand that sucker and subject it to a little technocratic tinkering. Given this administration’s love of industrial policy — picking winners and losers — Obama might as call the position Secretary of Crony Capitalists.

Do recall, gentle readers, that crony capitalism is not the same thing as actual capitalism.

UPDATE: Well, that took no time at all.  Add this.

One Last Thought on Newspapers Breaking For Romney

I've been looking at this for a while (the latest previous is here with the Los Angeles Daily News).  Now yet another paper that endorsed Obama in 2008 has publicly declared for Romney, the Nashua Telegraph in the swing state of New Hampshire.  As ever, the argument is about the economy.  Here's a piece of it:

True leaders also don’t wait until two weeks before Election Day – in the form of a 20-page booklet, no less – to lay out a specific agenda for the next four years. Coupled with the negative tenor of the campaign, that merely confirms the president and his strategists felt that attacking Romney’s agenda was more politically expedient than releasing one of their own. 

Some cynics have suggested, only partly in jest, that Obama-Romney is at its core a contest between a man with no plan and man with a plan that doesn’t add up, a reference to Romney’s own unwillingness to lay out details of how he would balance his campaign promises with his tax-and-spending plans. 

Nevertheless, we are confident Romney is the candidate who would tackle the serious issues facing this nation, starting with jobs, the economy and the debt. In the end, we couldn’t say the same about the president.

Investors' Business Daily has its own editorial about this trend of newspaper editorial boards changing sides this time around. As I've said before, this is in itself rather interesting because so much of journalism these days leans (or flat out runs) left.  It's a fascinating look at the editorial boards, and I think some credit must be due to them for being able to look at the real world outside and understand that policies have consequences. Of course, the actual effectiveness of newspaper endorsements on the voting public is another issue entirely.  Here's an opinion piece about why they don't matter.

Romney and F-16s to Taiwan

The Romney campaign has declared its support for selling the fighter jets to Taiwan. Well, GOOD.  As Dignified Rant also just said, "Have no doubt that Taiwan needs the planes and that we need Taiwan to have the planes."  

Preference Cascade-rama: LA Daily News Endorses Romney

Well, whaddyaknow?  Another one.  Oh, California will go for Obama, but the fact that any Los Angeles paper at all would endorse Romney is some kind of news to me.  The second largest paper in the City of Angels, the Daily News endorsed Obama in 2008, just like the increasing hoard of other newspaper endorsements that I've found interesting lately, and like all the others, hammers Obama on the economy.

The Des Moines Register Endorses ...

Romney.  For the first time in 40 years, this Iowa paper backs a Republican for the Presidency.  Hope and change, folks, because it's about the ECONOMY.  Anyway, add this to the growing list of papers who went for Obama in 2008 and are now endorsing Romney.  I know, I know, newspaper endorsements in themselves don't really sway the undecided reader, but I find them fascinating this time around as an exhibit of a preference cascade among the editorial boards.  As for the Des Moines Register in particular, I think we all kind of saw this coming.  By the way, here's a piece of its official endorsement:

From Florida: It's the Economy, Stupid

That's the overwhelming reasoning behind every single newspaper endorsement for Romney that I've read, and that is the overriding reason why papers that endorsed Obama in 2008 are supporting Romney now. (A little background.) The latest paper is the Sun Sentinel, and these Florida papers I think may be especially interesting because Florida is the perpetual battleground state. Here's a piece of it:

A Tale of Two More Newspapers

Now that we're fast approaching Election Day, things are getting interesting.  A couple days ago I noted 3 newspapers endorsing Romney.  I just read another one from a Detroit paper.  Yeah, you read that right. DETROIT.  It's a pretty good read too.  Still, the paper that did actually made me stop and look twice, though, was Iowa's Des Moines Register.  Why?  Look at this front page. You can't tell me that's not a zinger (and probably just  the teensiest bit of payback too).  Meow!

Overheard at Nerdworld Today

Nerdworld, as you know, is blue to the core and filled with Obama supporters.  It's the sort of place where you stop and stare if you actually see a Romney-Ryan sticker or poster (I've only seen one during this entire campaign season.)

But today as I was talking past a cafe, I overheard a group of young guys talking about politics.  One said gravely, "I think Romney's going to win.  I don't want him to, but I think he's going to win."

Well, well, well. 

Quote of the Day, Third Debate, and Entire Election Season

Romney to Obama tonight: "Attacking me is not an agenda."  

LOL: Presidential Debate Drinking Game, Round 3

If your liver's made it through the first debate, the second debate, and the VP debate, then it's time to end with a bang tonight.  Hey, it's the foreign policy, so it's the one that I personally will find most interesting.  Besides, I think we all deserve some straight answers about the Benghazi debacle. Here are the rules for tonight, darlings:

UPDATE: Even sillier version of the game below.

A Tale of Two Endorsements and the Economy, Plus A Rant

Usually I don't care about newspapers or endorsements, but I thought I'd look around now just to see what's going on.  I'll point out two newspaper endorsements because they supported Obama in 2008 but have now come out to endorse Romney this time around: the Orlando Sentinel and Nashville's Tennessean (also former cheerleader for Gore and Kerry). They're pretty decent writeups, actually, and worth a read.  Romney is neither one's "ideal," which somehow makes the endorsements ring truer.  Here's a blurb from each, and both zero in on ... guess what, kids! ... the economy.  More after the jump:

LOL: Taiwanese News Animators Vs. Debate #2

Though I take issue with their giving the win to Obama, I am delighted that they explicitly called out dipstick du jour Candy Crowley for screwing up her interference on the Libya question. Still ... you include Romney's "binders full of women" but not Obama's "gangbangers"?  Come on.  (Oh, you may recall the hilarious animation for the first debate and for the VP showdown.)

LOL: Presidential Debate Drinking Game, Round 2

Well, we made it through Round 1 and the VP debate, so here's one game for Round 2 in townhall format tonight.  Still, I like the visual pop of this other game:

A Study in Contrasts: Campaign Priorities

A thought in passing as I rush around with research deadlines.  After that first presidential debate, the Romney campaign gave us a major foreign policy speech.  The Obama campaign gave us an ad featuring a character from a children's TV program.  One of these campaigns is proving itself to be fundamentally and irremediably unserious. 

Speaking of striking contrasts ... Tomorrow is the VP debate, and I CAN'T WAIT. 

UPDATE:  Heh.

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