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The Daily Dose/November 5, 2008
By Gaylon Kent
The Writer's Shack
   
Notes from around the Human Experience, including the last Column Four Foto of Sarah Palin until 2012!
CAPSULE ELECTION REVIEW: The 2008 United States Presidential Election: Spurred on, no doubt, by an enthusiastic Writer's Shack endorsement, American's elected Illinois Senator Barack Obama President Tuesday night, in a historic victory over Arizona Senator John McCain.
They should have. McCain was hardly Satan incarnate, but as we mentioned when we endorsed Obama, the Republicans have done nothing to deserve governing one minute past noon on Jan. 20, 2009. A once-thriving economy is crumbling and we are in a pointless war in Iraq and we are not entirely sure Afghanistan deserves American blood either.
Obama's victory was resounding. Not all the results are in, but Obama won at least 28 states and a whopping 349 electoral votes and won the popular vote by about seven million votes. Not the biggest landslide in history, but certainly a mandate. Assuming he isn't assassinated, we should be all right.
Speaking Of Which: Obama is the first US Senator elected President since John F. Kennedy in 1960.
FunFact: For the first time, Americans have elected someone with African-American blood. Of course, since Obama is a half breed and as white as I am, Americans have elected someone with white blood in them for the 56th time.
Timing, Timing, Timing: McCain, an honorable, decent man and a fellow member of the American Legion, deserved better than being the nominee of the party that presided over the fiasco of the past eight years, a party led by as bad a President as the nation has seen.
Do As I Say, Not As I Do: While the Writer's Shack enthusiastically endorsed Barack Obama for President - an endorsement that is being more or less universally hailed as being the turning point that turned the tide in Obama's favor - we didn't actually vote for him. We endorsed him because he was the candidate we favored among those with a reasonable chance to win.
And we didn't vote for Writer's Shack columnist Chuck Baldwin either, although we were as excited as having one of our own on the ballot for President as you would have been, assuming, of course, you own a hack website, too.
Well, Don't Keep Us In Suspense: Like we have in the past, we voted for Ralph Nader. We were prepared to vote for Obama if we thought the race was going to be close and the election was going to turn on a ding dong writer in Nevada.
But we didn't want Obama to win, we wanted Nader to win, and while it wasn't particularly reasonable to expect Nader to win, a vote cast for the candidate for one's choice in this country is, almost by definition, impossible to be wasted.
Yeah, This Is A Bulletin: In seven presidential elections, we have never voted for the winning candidate.
We Interrupt This Column For A Word From The Ratings Department: Following is the Official Writer's Shack rating scale:
EX - Excellent; as good as the medium can produce in every respect.
VG - Very Good. Well worth your time.
GD - Good. Worth your time.
AR - All Right. Not completely without merit.
SP - Nothing of substance; a steaming pile, utterly without merit.
Final Rating: EX. We don't throw Excellents out there too often, but we did all right Tuesday. There weren't any major headaches and and no one will be complaining to the Supreme Court about the 2008 election.
The big news is that the number of voters may well set a record. Final numbers aren't in yet, but it could be upwards of two-thirds of eligible Americans cast ballots this Election Day, which would be the highest total since 1908.
I DO SOLEMNLY SWEAR: On this date, in 1860, Abraham Lincoln is elected President of the United States, defeating John Breckinridge, John Bell and old rival Stephen A. Douglas.
In Other News: Also elected President on Nov. 6 were Benjamin Harrison (1888), William McKinley (1900), Herbert Hoover (1928) and Dwight Eisenhower (1956).
Uh-Oh: On this date, in 1861, Jefferson Davis is elected President of the Confederate States of America.
Well, It's About Time: On this date, in 1865, the CSS Shenandoah becomes the last Confederate unit to surrender, with its captain surrendering to the captain of a British naval ship in Liverpool, England. Earlier, the Shenandoah had fired the last shot of the Civil War off the Aleutian Islands of Alaska before hearing of the end of the war.
The Shenandoah had been purchased by the Confederate government in 1864 and commissioned as a cruiser, with a mission of sailing the world and disrupting whatever Union shipping it could find. In June, 1865, commanding officer Lt. James Waddell first heard rumors of the war's end, but didn't altogether believe it and continued with his mission before receiving confirmation in August.
The Prudential College Football Scoreboard: On this date, in 1869, Rutgers defeats Princeton 6-4 in the first college football game, at New Brunswick, New Jersey. A week later Princeton would win second college football game ever, shutting out Rutgers 8-0, and would not lose again to Rutgers until 1938. The series ended in 1970 with Princeton leading 53-17-1.
Could You Repeat The Question, Please? On this date, in 1947, Meet The Press makes its television debut on NBC. It is still on the air and is the longest running show in television history.
PROGRAMMING NOTE: The NFL Bottom Ten, which usually runs on Tuesday, will run later this week.
Now You Know: Today marks the halfway point of autumn, Our friends in the Southern Hemisphere are halfway through spring.
Thought For The Day: There is not much sense in setting one's foot upon the road and not traveling the fullest possible distance. - James Madison
Answer To The Last Trivia Question: According to official National Park Service information, in 1883 a lawyer named Charles Rushmore was in the area checking land titles when he asked a miner what the name of the mountain happened to be. The miner said the mountain didn't have a name, so he named it Mount Rushmore right then and there. The government recognized the name in 1930.
Today's Stumper: Over the years, how many Americans have received electoral votes for President of the United States? - Answer next time!
Comments? Recipes? Complaints? Email the Writer's Shack here!
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