100 Things About the Election, Part III

The continuing series of things I noticed during and after Election Day that I considered important. In no particular order...

20. The exit poll story will continue to simmer. Someone asked me earlier today if I was worried when I saw the numbers. I wasn't -- they were too absurd for me to think they were realistic, and I also recalled the exit polls being way off in 2002 and 2000. Wonkette had this great line from Jon Stewart...

"We thought they were scientific. Turns out they just ask a few guys who are hanging around after they vote."

21. Fox News apparently beat CBS in the ratings on Election Night, according to O'Reilly last night. At this rate, Dan Rather may have to start sexually harassing producers to get ratings.

22. Wow. Some people just won't give up. Apparently this loop job thinks Kerry won.

23. I love this story. Seriously, the Dems are just figuring out Hollywood is a liability to electoral chances? Ben Affleck's been a liability to every movie he's been in for the last five years. Why would it be different in politics?

24. I have to confess, I was rooting against Arlen Specter on Tuesday night. And no, I don't feel bad about it. Neither does this guy, apparently.

25. This post by Andrew Sullivan is very interesting. I give Sullian a lot of credit for posting it, as it runs contrary to conventional wisdom. I don't know if the methodology is right, but it plays havoc with the idea that gay marriage decided the election...

Bush improved his share of the popular vote by 3.2% from 2000 to 2004 (47.9 in 2000, 51.1 in 2004). Now how did he do in the states which had anti-marriage ballot initiatives?

Arkansas +3.0%
Georgia +3.3%
Kentucky +3.1%
Michigan +1.8%
Mississippi +2.2%
Montana +0.7%
North Dakota +2.2%
Ohio +1.0%
Oklahoma +5.3%
Oregon +0.8%
Utah +4.2%

Only in two states (Utah and Oklahoma) did he gain a significantly higher vote share than he did nationwide. Maybe comparing to the national popular vote is misleading, so let's compare each of those states to a neighboring, politically-similar state which did not have an anti-marriage initiative on the ballot:

Missouri +2.9 (AR +3.0)
Florida +3.4 (GA +3.3)
Tennessee +5.7 (KY +3.1)
Wisconsin +1.5 (MI +1.8)
Alabama +6.0 (MS +2.2)
Idaho +1.2 (MT +0.7)
South Dakota -0.4 (ND +2.2)
Pennsylvania +2.0 (OH +1.0)
Texas +1.8 (OK +5.3)
Washington +1.2 (OR +0.8)
Wyoming +1.2 (UT +4.2)

Interesting, to say the least.

26. The Democrats are losing it. Check out Jane Smiley in Slate...

The election results reflect the decision of the right wing to cultivate and exploit ignorance in the citizenry. I suppose the good news is that 55 million Americans have evaded the ignorance-inducing machine. But 58 million have not. (Well, almost 58 million—my relatives are not ignorant, they are just greedy and full of classic Republican feelings of superiority.)

Ignorance and bloodlust have a long tradition in the United States, especially in the red states. There used to be a kind of hand-to-hand fight on the frontier called a "knock-down-drag-out," where any kind of gouging, biting, or maiming was considered fair. The ancestors of today's red-state voters used to stand around cheering and betting on these fights. When the forces of red and blue encountered one another head-on for the first time in Kansas Territory in 1856, the red forces from Missouri, who had been coveting Indian land across the Missouri River since 1820, entered Kansas and stole the territorial election. The red news media of the day made a practice of inflammatory lying—declaring that the blue folks had shot and killed red folks whom everyone knew were walking around. The worst civilian massacre in American history took place in Lawrence, Kan., in 1862—Quantrill's raid. The red forces, known then as the slave-power, pulled 265 unarmed men from their beds on a Sunday morning and slaughtered them in front of their wives and children. The error that progressives have consistently committed over the years is to underestimate the vitality of ignorance in America. Listen to what the red state citizens say about themselves, the songs they write, and the sermons they flock to. They know who they are—they are full of original sin and they have a taste for violence. The blue state citizens make the Rousseauvian mistake of thinking humans are essentially good, and so they never realize when they are about to be slugged from behind.

As the Kansan Redhead noted, I guess that I'm now a gun-toting redneck. That being said, it's better than being a bitter, whiny hack who thinks she's better and smarter than everyone else. Plus, she apparently got he Civil War history wrong, according to the Confederate Yankee. (hat tip: Instapundit)

27. And before you think Smiley's a solo whack job, check out E. J. Dionne. And Richard Cohen. Need I mention Maureen Dowd, the left-wing dishrag's resident prostitute of the DNC? And let's not forget Seymour Hersch. Or Eric Alterman. And best of all, there's Daily Kos, which apparently looks forward to America losing the war in Iraq so Bush will take the blame.

28. The Lord of Truth notes that the Redskins had a TD called back that would have won their game over the Packers and kept the Redskins Indicator accurate. Perhaps the ref was a Democrat.

29. What happened to the youth vote? Nothing. Look, they don't show up. Josh Marshall's right that they did show up in greater numbers, but not all that much greater. The youth vote is like a myth people keep chasing.

30. Fox's coverage on Election Night was made even better by the fact that Brit Hume rocks. Best anchor in the business, people.

31. As Taranto points out in Best of the Web, Kerry was apparently channelling Jon Lovitz's version of Mike Dukakis...

When President Bush's poll numbers surged in April after a press conference where his performance was derided by the press and the chattering classes, Democratic presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry was baffled, writes Newsweek Assistant Managing Editor Evan Thomas in an exclusive report in Newsweek's special election issue. "He said with a sigh to one top staffer, 'I can't believe I'm losing to this idiot.'"

Maybe Kerry should call Lorne Michaels for a job.