I don’t think I have seen anything like that in my life.

So we’ll see whether Nate Silver’s sophisticated statistical analysis of the polling data is dead on (http://www.fivethirtyeight.com), but check out the amazing numbers he provided about early voting and what that may indicate for record breaking turnout.

He provides stats on early votes cast in 2008 as a percentage of total votes cast in 2004. Some state numbers are truly eye-popping, in some cases 60-80% of the total 2004 tally. If that trend continues on election day, the turnout numbers could be staggering.

Obama the storyteller. This was how he concluded his last campaign rally in Manassas, Virginia, (about 20 miles from my house) in front of an estimated 90,000 people.  I’ll post later today or tomorrow about my personal story about “one voice”.

“The McNicholas, the Posalski’s, the Smiths, Zerillis too
The Blacks, the Irish, the Italians, the Germans and the Jews
The Puerto Ricans, illegals, the Asians, Arabs miles from home
Come across the water with a fire down below”
– Bruce Springsteen, “American Land” 

So who was voting at my polling station this morning. Everyone and every kind of one. I know a fair number of folks in my neighborhood, so going to vote is fun to see us all in line, performing our basic right and civic responsibility.

This morning the usual suspects were there, but a whole host of others I haven’t seen at other elections. Young people; old people and all of us in between. White people, African-Americans; Asian, Arabs, Hispanics and all of us in between. And I can also say with some authority that there were Christians, Muslims, Jews, Buddhists, (maybe a few Hindus), atheists and all of us in between.

We are Americans not because of our race or creed, but because we subscribe to the ideals of freedom, equality, democracy and human rights.  We don’t always live up to those ideals, but when we do it is a thing of grace.

“Pleased to meet you take my hand,
There is no way back from here”
– Foo Fighters, “No Way Back” 

I will post throughout this election day. Lots of places to get news today. I will keep it to my commentary on today’s developments. Also check out my Twitter posts that appear in the sidebar on the right.

Took my toddler son with me to vote this morning. Since the end of daylight savings time, he is getting up earlier so he was ready to go the polls by 6:30 AM. Second phrase he spoke this morning was “we going to vote?”

He was a trooper despite the fact we waited over an hour in line at our polling place. I brought food for him, which became tricky juggling a banana, granola bar, and sippy cup of milk when he decides to get on your shoulders. Thank the manufacturer that he noticed the cupcakes at the bake sale until after we voted!

Although we waited in line for over an hour, everything went smoothly. I took the choice of the paper ballot, especially after learning that many touch screen voting machines use Microsoft Access to store their votes (technical note: Access is no where near as secure as other databases).

I checked out the vote count on the optical scanner when it took my ballot. My vote was number 168 by 7:45 in the morning. That’s not including the touch screen voters.

“I find myself just looking worthy of my best intentions
Ignoring any kind applause I might receive at all
All others seem to find a road that’s tough to satisfaction
I find a ridicule that isn’t cool for me at all”
– The Raconteurs, “Salute Your Solution”

So here are some odds and ends leading into Election Day tomorrow:

• My involvement in this election was a very positive experience. I’m not the only one. Check out this post from someone canvassing in North Carolina. 
• A teenage girl in line behind me at Potbelly’s was wearing a t-shirt that read: “future wife of Track Palin.” Way to aim low future Stepford Wife. Seriously, in 2008 that is the lofty aspiration of a teenage girl rather than be President herself? Another reason that this anti-intellectualism strain in our society needs to be checked.
• Comedian Jon Stewart interviews a preeminent thinker for the conservative movement, Bill Kristol, and makes him look like a student on the first day of debating class.  This is the intellectual spring from which the movement grows?
• If I didn’t have two kids and had lots of time on my hands, I would compare how many times Obama says “we” in his stump speech compared to times John McCain says “I” or “me”. Who is putting their country first?
• Look at the cornucopia that is a Barack Obama rally and tell me that this is not the candidate to unite America.
• Every single senior McCain advisor I have seen on TV is a dick. It’s not just the sophmoric spin and Orwellian doublespeak either. Telling the type of people McCain surrounds himself with on a daily basis.
• The phone prank on Gov. Palin proves: she is as shallow in person as she is on the campaign; and that the people who work for her are idiots.
• Oh, to have a President that can inspire people rather than ask them to go shop or for “one more mission.” Hopefully the American people will elect Obama even though he is telling them to get off their ass.
• If McCain loses on Tuesday, the knives are going to come out for control of the Republican party. The uneasy alliance among the “business-oriented” Republicans, the Christian conservatives and neocons will be just as bloody and ridiculous as the TV network gang-fight in Will Ferrell’s Anchorman.

“I know how to run a business
And I can make you wanna buy a product
Movers shakers and producers
Me and my friends understand the future
I see the strings that control the systems
I can do anything with no assistance
I can lead a nation with a microphone
With a microphone
With a microphone”
– Flobots, “Handlebars”

So with the 2008 Presidential campaigns coming to a close, it is a good time to reflect on what the respective campaigns have brought us.

Obama: ideas, inspiration, calm, reason, hope, innovation

McCain: fear, uncertainty, and doubt

Let’s take a closer look, shall we?

Obama has offered ideas for redirecting and restructuring our government policies to address both the dire economic situation we currently face and the challenges for creating a competitve economy in the future. To be specific: focus on restoring the middle class; improving our infrastructure and education; fixing the money pit that is our health care system and pushing for a new, green economy, among others.

McCain has offered much the same that got us into the straits we are in: conservative dogma on extending the Bush tax cuts and even more cuts in capital gains. Nothing new here from the Reagan economic playbook that gave us crushing debt for the past 30 years.

That is when John McCain talked somewhat seriously about economic policy, which has been rare at best. Instead, he has concocted boogeymen of various forms, false spectors of socialism, like some anachronistic McCarthyite. Worse yet, McCain knows these statements are ridiculous, but he will sow fear and doubt to win an election, however unhonorably.

Contrast Obama’s approach: he has spurned such slash and burn and divisive tactics to focus on bringing people together with a common purpose, at the same time reminding us of our own resppnsibilities. He always balances what we have to do – save more, be more attentive parents, be more energy efficient – at the same time he proposes how the Federal Government should work better for us.

McCain has run a campaign based on his own cult of personality and little else, while giving into his slime merchants of rovian political advisors to conduct a campaign more about tearing down Obama than any policy prescriptions for making America competitive again. Contrast this with Obama that has run an inclusive campaign on policy issues that has sought to build bridges rather than burn them. While Obama has reached out to find compromise on divisive issues like abortion and gun rights, McCain and his ill equipped running mate have flirted with McCarthyism with statements about where “real” America can be found.

In the end, I find myself deeply, irrevocably disappointed in John McCain, of whom I had voted for in 2000. He has shown himself the worse sort of political villian: the man who gives up his honor to attain the highest political prize, surely deluding himself that everything will be different once he has taken office.

In stark contrast, I find my initial faith in Barack Obama’s potential not only completely justified, but also surprisingly exceeded. In the face of withering attacks during both the Primary and General Election, he has remained steadfast, deflecting those jabs and hitting back with reason and inspiration. He has built an accomplished and effective campaign organization that reflects not only his inspirational and executive ability, but inventiveness in bringing 21st Century information technology tools to help fund, connect, and coordinate one of the greatest grassroots campaigns ever.

While the McCain candidacy has tried to destroy, from the beginning Obama’s has sought to create. I will always stand with the creators.

“Could you take a picture?
’cause I won’t remember…” 
– Filter, “Take a Picture” 

Taking a break from the all the political talk and stuff to welcome my buddy and great friend Blindeye Photo to the blogging world! He is a great photographer and I am glad he is now showing and blogging about his photos.

Head on over right now and check out his first post and great shots at http://blindeyephoto.wordpress.com/

[plus this will pressure him to keep going!]

“Something’s always coming you can hear it in the ground
It swells into the air
With the rising, rising sound
And never comes but shakes the boards and rattles all the doors
What are we waiting for?”
– The Bravery, “Believe”

So I planned a post about why I am supporting Obama for President. Then it got too long.  So I figured on making it a multi-part series (3 or 4 posts), but I think that was getting too long. So, I will start with the laundry list (incomplete as well) and focus on individual topics in subsequent posts.

Obama Gets The 21st Century. Look how he structured his highly successful campaign (that beat the heavily favored Hilary Clinton). It’s a textbook example of advanced Internet and social networking strategies.

• He has cut out the middle man and financed his campaign by going direct to the voters using the Internet. More on that below.
• He uses the Internet to give people tools to empower people to act and coordinate on their own. This isn’t an old-school command and control structure, but a highly distributed, highly adaptable system the can organize and coordinate millions of people. 

Imagine what the man could do to transform government using 21st Century tools and strategies? Oh yeah, check out the next point…

Obama Sees Government as a Value Proposition, Not as a Solution. Look at Obama’s plans for a more transparent and efficient government and you see that he views government as needing to provide value to taxpayers. This is a very business perspective and far more effective and realistic than the conservative fantasies of extremely curtailed government. As recent events have shown and any junior high economics textbook will tell you, government has to play a role in society, us taxpayers just demand competence and protecting the public trust. Obama gets that.

Economic Growth Plan Focused on People and Infrastructure. It’s not like we need more proof that conservative ideas on economic growth are bankrupt (and can’t be bailed out if I push the metaphor any more.) Obama’s economic plan looks to grow from the middle rather than the top. That will address the growing income disparity between rich and poor that has widened during the Bush Administration and threatens the very fabric of this society.

To grow into the future, America needs to grow and foster its most basic and important element: Its people. We need the institutions and infrastructure to create a workforce that is better educated, more creative, and more adaptable. Otherwise the workforce will just be outsourced, leaving two classes in America locked in bitter warfare: the educated and rich, and the uneducated and poor.

He created a system where he is not beholden to anyone but to the voters. Obama’s approach of going retail rather than wholesale with campaign fundraising means that 93% of it’s donors gave $200 or less. He designed it that way because and he doesn’t have to answer to anyone except those who voted for him.

He Owns The Bully Pulpit. What many call the real power of the Presidency, Obama certainly has the skills to lead and inspire a nation.  To wit: “Yes We Can”, DNC Acceptance Speech. Remember that speeches can move nations and more. The Gettysburg Address and FDR’s and JFK’s inaugural speeches; Reagan’s plea to “tear down that wall” all come to mind.   

Obama Believes in the Intelligence of the American People. The prize example is Obama’s “Toward a More Perfect Union” speech where Obama spoke with frankness and honesty about the very real problems in race relations in America. Even Jon Stewart remarked on the date, citing it as the time “when a politician finally spoke to the American people as adults.”

The man has a steady hand.  When McCain looked like he was trying to ignite a new cold war over the conflict between Georgia and Russia, Obama was trying to prevent one. As Obama consulted a crack economic team (Volcker, Rubin, and Summers) then came out with a thoughtful plan. Meanwhile, John McCain hastily called for the head of SEC Chairman and was roundly chastised for it. 

Forget Experience, the Man is Just Right, a lot.