Meaningless trivia (2008 Election)

Workout notes 4 mile run in 39:10; slow but enough to get in a workout.

Election trivia: not counting Washington DC ,

1. In what states did Obama fail to win a single country/parish/island? Hint: there are two.

2. In what states did McCain fail to win a single county/parish/island? I counted six. 5 are from one region.

You can get the answers on my sidebar or here.

Exit Polls and whatever

Of course I’ll be looking into the various exit polls for new trends, etc.

And of course, I hope to sneak in a 3-4 mile run right after my 8-9 am class.

A couple of tidbits:

1. Peoria County vote was actually DOWN from the 2004 level. Obama got 4000 more votes in Peoria County than Kerry did but McCain got about 7000 fewer votes.

2. Jehan Gordon won 53-47; the larger African American turnout helped her.

3. Obama won the grad degree population 58-40

4. Unfortunately, Proposition 8 in California (bans gay marriage) passed.

5. We won Lee County in Iowa (where I did GOTV efforts yesterday) 58-41.

6. Some networks have called Indiana for Obama: that is the first time Indiana went blue since 1964. North Carolina (12,000 provisional ballots to be counted) and Missouri have yet to be called. But if both go our way, that still puts me at 375 instead of the 378 that I called. My guess is that we get a split. Update we lost Missouri by 6000 votes. Crap. But we have a 12,000 vote lead in North Carolina with 12,000 provisional ballots out. That should be a win for us.

7. Texas has an interesting map. Travis County (Austin), El Paso and the extreme southern regions went blue, as usual. But what was unusual is that Obama carried Dallas County, Harris County (Houston) and Bexar County (San Antonio) by nice margins. These areas were “red” over the past several years (since Carter). Texas is gradually changing; perhaps to go the way of South Carolina?

8. John McCain gave a great concession speech. He reminded us of why we liked him. I am glad that I went to see his Davenport rally.

9. Utah: Obama won Summit County (Park City) and Grand County and barely lost Salt Lake County 49-48. Utah!!! The Democrats didn’t win a single county back in 2004.

10. Senate races: Alaska, Georgia, Minnesota and Oregon have yet to be called. Frankly, I think that we’ve lost Georgia with the other 3 up in the air. So far it is 54-40-2 with those 4 to be called.

11. US House IL-18: Aaron Schock beat Colleen Callahan, 58-39, as expected. I did some phone banking for Callahan anyway, though I had called it 60-40, Schock.

Off to teach class; yesterday’s festivities put me behind in my work.

Excuse me while I party a bit…

Back from Keokuk, Iowa

I am sitting on the couch with Barbara and the stuffed frogs; I dropped off Lynn and Gina has left for her home in Eureka.

We got together at about 6:30 am and took the long drive out; we did stop in Madison, Iowa for coffee. We were all wearing Obama gear and were well received.

One special surprise: I had no idea that the bridge going into Burlington, Iowa was so spectacular.

(photo from here)

We got to downtown Keokuk and checked into the spacious but sparse Obama field office. Bascially, Lynn and I partnered up and Gina partnered up with Tara and we went and did some get out the vote routes. Lynn and I had one rather spectacular route which featured scenic river views and two poorer working class routes. In between, we found time for some good Mexican food.

Basically, we wanted to see who had gotten out to the polls. Several people told us that they had voted and voted the right way.

Gina had some success; one voter told her that he had been a McCain supporter but changed his mind in the polling place.

The local manager (Tom) looked a bit harried; we met the wife of one the State House candidates and we also met one of the downticket local Democrats.

Afterward we drove home (left at about 5:30 pm) and stopped at a Perkins to eat. We walked in with Obama gear and got some looks; most of them positive.

On the way home Lynn got a bit impatient with some of the incoherent babbling that we heard from some of the local stations (PBS) and wanted results; the whole car gave a big cheer when Pennsylvania was announced; they called Ohio when we got home.

Right now MSNBC has it 207-135 with many of the battlegrounds uncalled; of course McCain will have to win on the West Coast (yeah, right) as well as Colorado, Missouri, Indiana, Virginia and Florida…all of these states.

So, yeah, I feel pretty good right now, and I am tired. But it won’t be as long of a night as I had anticipated.

Oh yeah, did I tell you that we won Iowa?

Local Politics

Unfortunately, Aaron Schock appears to have defeated Colleen Callahan (as expected, US House IL-18) but the local state house candidate Jehan Gordon has taken the lead over Joan Krupa in a race that featured some rather mean, negative ads (IL-92 State House)

Barbara and I did some phone banking last night for Callahan; we had to try. We don’t regret it.