Voting for Family and Country

Flint Expatriate Stephen Rodrick writes about everything that can go into casting a single ballot in a presidential election.

"I bit my lip all fall. I watched the markets fall and McCain's botched response remove the last doubt that he was going to lose, perhaps badly. I avoided political conversations for the most part, but found myself at a friend's house on the Upper West Side watching the last debate with a group of Ivy Leaguers and policy wonks. The derision of McCain began early. After the 17th joke about his strange facial expressions, I left, telling my host that I didn't have a problem with folks not supporting him, but the vilification of a man who spent longer in a prison camp than Obama spent in the Senate wasn't how I wanted to spend my evening.

"After that, I became more open about my McCain empathy. I argued how he had a proven record of working across the aisle and despises Bush and why his administration would be nothing like Bush's, particularly with heavy Democratic majorities in both houses. But I knew it was window dressing. I would not be voting for McCain if he were not a Navy pilot, if he had not suffered, as my mom put it, like my family suffered."

Genesee County Picks a Winner

With all the votes counted, Genesee County backs Obama:

Obama: 65.5%
McCain: 32.9%
Other: 1.6%

The New York Times has a great county-by-county breakdown of the election here.

Want political power? Move to Wyoming

One person gets one vote in the United States. But the Electoral College ensures that some of those votes are a lot more valuable than others. As Sarah K. Cowan points out in The New York Times, individual voters in states like Michigan and California have far less influence than voters in sparsely populated backwaters like Wyoming, North Dakota and Alaska.

When you study it closely, the way we elect presidents could lead to some bizarre results:

"This system, along with the winner-take-all practice used to allocate most states’ electoral votes, creates the potential for an absurd outcome. In the unlikely event that all 213 million eligible voters cast ballots, either John McCain or Barack Obama could win enough states to capture the White House with only 47.8 million strategically located votes. The presidency could be won with just 22 percent of the electorate’s support, only 16 percent of the entire population’s."

Your own personal blue-collar Jesus

I've been fairly obsessed with politics ever since I can remember, but even I'm getting a little burned out at this point in the campaign. I've already voted absentee, so all I can do now is poll watch and try not to get too stressed out.

And yet, here I am, trolling the Internet the day after Halloween for any insight into the presidential election that I haven't seen before. That can lead you to some strange, unexpected places, like the Blue Collar Jesus blog. Yes, that's what it's called. (Please note that I am not an evangelical Christian. My religious "devotion" is primarily confined to attending the occasional lecture at the San Francisco Zen Center, rooting for Notre Dame on Saturdays, and wishing the Sisters of St. Joseph were still running a school on Franklin Avenue.)

Anyway, I thought the site, and this particular post, offered a few interesting ideas about some Flint voters and the confluence of race and religion in this election. After all, if anyone is going to believe in a pro-labor, blue-collar Jesus, it would be a Flintoid.

"Popular evangelicals do not have a coherent ideology. They are often be conservative on social issues and very liberal on economic issues. They possess orthodox theological beliefs but progressive politics, but there are no forums or role models for expressing this. However, recent successes among socially conservative Democrats may be creating political space for these folks.

"When it comes to racism there are two strategies. The professional evangelicals fuel racism on the issue of immigration. Or they divert attention from the shared economic self-interests of working class whites and African Americans by substituting a vision of racial cooperation based on social issues, such as gay marriage.

"Working class evangelicals cannot see Obama as a blue collar son because of what they hear the professional evangelicals saying about him: Elitist, militant, liberal, socialist, Muslim. Scratch the surface and these words reveal a deeper racist message: Obama is the Anti-Christ with an afro.

"The great untapped truth is that white, working class evangelicals share a common economic and spiritual connection with the black church. Both benefit from progressive economic policies. And they sing the same hymns. The long history of American evangelicalism bears this out."

Again, I'm not endorsing a religion or a candidate with this post. Just thought it was a thought-provoking take on this momentous election.

Palin won't quit on Michigan

McCain may have given up on winning Michigan, but Sarah Palin still wants to visit and tour the auto plants with her husband. Maybe we can get Ben "Rivethead" Hamper and Jerry "All Things Buick" Godin to give her a tour of the vacant lots where all the plants used to be in Flint.



Thanks to honorary Flint Expatriate Michael G. for passing this along.

The presidential race in Michigan is over

Having just watched the vice presidential debate, I feel compelled to come up with something political to post. (By the way, is it just me or was Biden-Palin far more interesting than McCain-Obama, regardless of your political affiliation?)

Well, here's the best I can come up with, courtesy of Michael Cooper at The New York Times:

"Senator John McCain is giving up on his efforts to win the state of Michigan, his campaign said Thursday, in the latest sign that the faltering economy has reshaped the presidential race and cost Mr. McCain support in crucial states.

"Ceding Michigan is a major blow to the McCain campaign, which had spent heavily on television commercials there and where Mr. McCain had campaigned repeatedly in the hopes that he could appeal to enough blue-collar voters, so-called Reagan Democrats and independent voters, to bring the state back into the Republican column in November."

If you support Obama, be happy. If you liked McCain, at least you'll be subjected to fewer political ads between now and November as both candidates slash their spending in the Great Lake State. (I guess this is bad economic news for the state's media outlets.)

"The McCain campaign has spent nearly $8 million on ads in Michigan, according to the Campaign Media Analysis Group, a company that monitors political advertising, and now it has no more plans to advertise there, campaign officials said. And Mr. McCain canceled a visit he had planned to make to Michigan next week."

Please note that I'm trying to be non-partisan here. I chose this because it's about politics and Michigan, not because it's bad news for McCain. So please, no ranting and raving from either party. Or, even better, please rant and rave if you like, but let's hear from both sides, please.