Election 2012

Overall it was a bad day for the forces of darkness.

I’m happy that my pessimism about the presidential election was unfounded and it took Obama only an extra 45 minutes to clinch 2012 over 2008. Ohio provided the votes that put him over the top.

At last count the Electoral College total was Obama 303 and Romney 206 with Florida’s 29 votes still up in the air. The popular vote stood at Obama 59.6 million and Romney 57 million so the Right Wing numb nuts can’t claim minority president status. It’s not exactly an overwhelming mandate but it will have to do for now.

The House stays with the Republicans 231-191 with 3 seats still undecided. Unfortunately Michelle Bachmann managed to win a close race. Oh well, you can’t have everything. I’m also stuck with Scott Garrett for another two years but I can live with that.

The Senate will stay with the Democrats 51-45 with two independents and two seats still undecided. Democrats Menendez won in New Jersey 58-40 over Kyrillos, Murphy easily beat McMahon in Connecticut 55-43, Warren beat Brown in Massachusetts 54-46 and Gillibrand utterly destroyed Long in New York 72-27.

No longer can gay marriage opponents say gay marriage has never won a popular vote. It won in Maine 53-47 and in Maryland 52-48. In Minnesota they rejected an amendment to ban same sex marriage 51-48. In Washington the votes are still being tallied but approval of gay marriage leads 52-48 with 51% of the votes counted.

That’s at least 3 out of 4 and a very possible clear 4-0 sweep. The gay marriage dialogue now changes forever. Hopefully this will open the flood gates.

There were other disappointments though. California defeated a proposal to ban the death penalty by a vote of 53-47. Three states, Alabama, Montana and Wyoming, voted to limit the Health Care Law either by making it illegal to force people to buy insurance or preventing the setting up of insurance exchanges. Florida rejected a similar amendment. It should be interesting to see how this plays out as the Health Care Law rolls out.

Speaking of Florida rejecting amendments, the legislature in Florida loaded up the ballot with 11 lengthy and confusing amendments some of which were near and dear to a conservative’s heart including one which would eliminate the Blaine Amendment which makes it illegal to fund religious schools.

The voters in Florida rejected all but three and I agree with those three which provided property tax relief to veterans, poor senior citizens and the spouses of soldiers killed in the line of duty.

Amendments rejected included the previously mentioned attempt to allow funding of religious schools, an amendment which would have given the legislature more power over state courts, a ban on abortion funding and a state revenue cap.