Today’s the big day. This is where all the efforts since the last election are finally realized. Some of us take it much more seriously than others. Some of us vote every time there is an election, regardless of issue. Others of us have to be dragged out, screaming and kicking, to exercise the most basic of American rights, while people in far away lands risk their very lives to do what some of us take for granted.
Poor Richard will be happy to be rid of the robo calls. I can’t say I disagree. I expect I have had over 10 a day for the past month. Many will be glad they no longer have to hear endlessly about the Virginia and New Jersey elections, before those 2 states settle back in to semi-obscurity, joining their other 48 sister states.
How is election day special to you? Is it just like any other day, where you squeeze in the polls just like another errand on the way home? Or is it a high holy day of Americana? Are you one of those who live and die for elections and politics?
Tell us your poll experiences? Uneventful? Full of seeing old friends and neighbors? Did you work the polls or did you do other work for your candidate of choice? Were the ‘dreaded union people’ out at your polling place?
Having relatives in NJ, I can comment a little on this. It was a very close race and Obama did campaign very heavily up there. Not sure exactly why it ended up the way it did – as the incumbent was a pretty popular governor. Some of my relatives claim the Republican governor has plans to cut Medicare benefits or something like that. I don’t know the facts regarding that so just passing that on. Also the Republican wanted to stop the “homestead rebate” program to save money – which is where you get a rebate from your property tax each year. NJ property taxes are the highest in the country! My parents house is worth about $300K but they pay over $8000 a year in property taxes! Shocking! So the rebate is several hundred dollars (it comes from the state) and is looked forward to each year.
I am not sure what “negatives” the Democrat incumbent had, but those were the negatives for the Republican that at least caused my relatives to vote Democrat this time around (which is unusual for them – they lean Republican).
I think someone said there has been a lot of corruption. That’s all I remember. My source was not all that reliable either. 😉
It must have been bad if your relatives went Democrat, GR!
NJ is full of corruption, no doubt about that. There hasn’t been a governor or high up official in NJ that hasn’t been tainted with some corruption scandal or such. Kind of a fact of life for NJ politics – sort of like Chicago, unfortunately.
There are just some states like that.
What has become of Christie Todd Whitman? Did they throw her under the bus also? I always liked her alot.
Whitman served in Bush’s cabinet, got disgusted with politics, and went out to either make an honest living I guess. From wikipedia :
On June 27, 2003, after having several public conflicts with the Bush administration, Whitman resigned from her position to spend more time with her family.[31][32]
In an interview in 2007, Whitman stated that Vice President Dick Cheney’s insistence on easing air pollution controls, not the personal reasons she cited at the time, led to her resignation.[33] At the time, he pushed the EPA to institute a new rule allowing large polluting plants to make major alterations without installing costly new pollution controls.[33] Refusing to sign off on the new rule, Whitman announced her resignation.[33] Whitman decided that President Bush should have an EPA administrator willing to defend the new rule in court, which she could not bring herself to do.[33] Federal judges later overturned the new rule, saying it violated the Clean Air Act.[33]
She joins Susan Moanari (sic) in the “club of females once hyped by the GOP and who served as keynote speakers at their convention, who eventually got so disgusted with the way the GOP governed that they left politics altogether”.
There’s another club for African-Americans who threw their hands up in disgust, headed up by J.C. Watts.
Whitman was a very popular governor in NJ.