Not pleased is an understatement.

But that’s the way the ball bounces I suppose. I’ll be interested to see how the precincts break out.

Of course, when McCain only wins 52.5% of the vote in a county that Bush and Ehrlich both carried with 60-plus percent that’s not a good sign.

And 56 percent for Kratovil? All I have to say is be careful what you wish for. Needless to say, plan on me keeping a REALLY sharp eye on how he votes, assuming he hangs on to his overall margin. You all got your precious Eastern Shore representation, but like the actual geography of Frank’s home location yards from the Bay Bridge, I suspect you’ll find his moderatism and independence are of the same ilk – just enough to say they are there, but not enough to really be meaningful. In fact, I think neither will be found by the end of the first half of the 111th Congress.

Then again, none of that may matter now since there’s going to be some fingers on the scale, so to speak, now that Question 1 has passed. It doesn’t surprise me that it did, but still it’s disappointing.

I almost feel more sorry for my friends in Delaware though because they’ve REALLY screwed the pooch in that state. To go from a 22-19 GOP majority in their House to a 26-15 Democrat one and to elect a Governor who reminds me of Martin O’Malley – I guess that is some good news for Maryland since Delaware will definitely lose a lot of its attractiveness.

Anyway, I suppose I have to rethink my educational approach a little bit because obviously the class didn’t learn its lessons as well as I thought they did. (I also have a few choice words for a number of my blogging cohorts, but that comes under separate cover.)

I didn’t get many pictures from the day, either. Definitely I was disappointed with the weather and for obvious reasons there wasn’t much to celebrate. But I’ll carry on nonetheless later today and probably spend most of the remainder of the week cleaning up the tangled wreckage of Election 2008 before moving on to other subjects I’ve neglected over the last few weeks.

Folks, I’ll be the first to admit that I’m a mixture of disappointed and angered over how this turned out. The votes were against us, but neither my cause nor my determination has been defeated. I just have to work twice as hard, that’s all, because in the end I still know I’m right.

Author: Michael

It's me from my laptop computer.

24 thoughts on “Not pleased is an understatement.”

  1. The closer the margin of a Kratovil win, the more it can and should be attributed to the tactics of Albero and Harrison, assisted by the local party apparatus. He blew off Harris by 5,000 votes in Wicomico County. In light of McCain’s margin over Obama, that’s astounding.

  2. PS.

    Why beat around the bush (no pun intended)?

    “(I also have a few choice words for a number of my blogging cohorts, but that comes under separate cover.)”

  3. Sir:

    Please post a county breakdown on the absentee ballots — unless there’s a huge percent from the Western Shore counties it “Shore” looks like it’s lights out for Dr. Andy.

  4. PPS-

    Just heard on TV there are about 4,000 absentee ballots in Wicomico County — not enough to change the outcome here for Harris, but McCain/Obama is in the zone.

  5. Michael,
    I’ve been on the losing side of these things before, and you have the right attitude (I think). Now is not the time to be bitter or angry, but if you genuinely think the country is going in the wrong direction, work your butt off to change it! That is what the Obama camp did (and I like to include myself in this). We worked hard, pounded the pavement, organized to a degree never seen before, and won. I want to urge everyone here to give Obama a chance–try to help heal the divisions in our country. On policies, we can vehemently disagree, but at the end of the day we are all Americans and need to celebrate the peaceful transition of government. What a great day to be an American!

  6. Don’t fret, we are all in this together so instead of this my cause/your cause partisanship, let’s move forward together as ONE community. It’s my feeling that it’s the partisanship that cost you guys in the first place. The Shore Repubs definitely gave it their all. You can be proud of that.

  7. I’ve heard that repeatedly doing the same thing yet expecting different results is a sure sign of insanity. I’ve been wondering for years (about 8, to be exact) if true conservatives will ever get together and form their own party and leave the republican party. Ronald Reagan said, “I didn’t leave the democrat party, it left me.” He went on to become one of the best presidents in U.S. history… as a republican.
    You’ve GOT to realize the republican party left conservatism a long time ago. Ask yourself, if there was an established three party system in America (Republican, Democrat and Conservative) which one would you join? You say you’re willing to work hard. I’ll believe it when I see conservatives work to form a Conservative party.

  8. Two Sentz:

    Totally disagree. As an independent I would support a moderate Republican (always voted for Gilchrest), but went for Kratovil (and the Lib. presidential guy) because the Wicomico Republican organization is dominated by right wingers. It needs to be cleaned out and revamped ASAP or the past will be prologue to repetition of history. The McCain victory here is easily explained (“no-brainer”) and is not a feather in their cap.

    The worst thing that could happen is for the absentee ballot to put Harris in the House, because that would freeze the local party apparatus “as is” when it really needs the change that is occurring everywhere else.

  9. While I congratulate President Elect Obama for his win, we conservatives still must continue to fight. Unfortunately Pres Elect Obama is not going to govern from the center. He has appointed Congressman Ramh Emmanuel (another Chicago machine Pol) as his chief of staff. This appointment really tells me that he is not interested in bi-partisanship. It was reported by Rush this afternoon, that when Emmanual was at a Clinton Celebratory dinner back in the day, he had a steak knife in his hand and started naming people who were ‘traitors’ to the cause. So folks don’t expect Obama’s administration will see help from the center. It ain’t going to happen. Emmanuel is a dangerous guy. So much for change. Obama is going to recycle Clinton folks. That’s what O’Malley had recycled Glendenning people when he became governor.

    Also, us Republicans need to evaluate what we need to do to win back the people. I respect John McCain, he is a great patriot and American but he waited too long to attack Obama. Sarah Palin should have permission from McCain’s campaign staff to venture out on her own. I hope she will consider to run in 2012. Some of the GOP establishment wasn’t behind her 100% which also posed a problem. I heard Joe the Plumber on a McCain radio ad yesterday and I said to myself he should have played that commerical weeks ago.

    McCain shouldn’t have pulled out in Michigan. Palin wanted to campaignn there but no! Well like the saying goes We get the government that we deserve. Let Obama supporters have their honeymoon for awhile and then they better watch themselves because we are going to fight for our rights and for the Constitution.

  10. Am I reading this wrong?
    http://www.aacounty.org/Elections/ElectionResultsGeneral2008.cfm

    U.S. CONGRESS 01
    Total
    Number of Precincts 44
    Precincts Reporting 44 100.0 %
    Vote For 1
    Times Counted 57094/76214 74.9 %
    Total Votes 55307
    Times Blank Voted 1787
    Number of Uncast Votes 0

    ——————————————————————————–

    Kratovil, Frank M. DEM 25523 46.15%
    Harris, Andy REP 28373 51.30%

  11. This is from a comment on POLITICKER MD:

    The absentees on hand on close of business yesterday suggest that if the trend continues, Kratovil will actually pick up votes.

    MD -1

    Total 25,539

    Dem 11,371
    Rep 10924
    Other 3244

    Eastern Shore Counties

    Total 15,961
    Dem 7445
    Rep 5363
    Other 3153

    Western Shore Counties (MD-1 Total minus ES)

    Total 9578
    Dem 3926
    Rep 5561
    Other 91

  12. Michael,
    I felt so proud to be an American last night watching the returns. Even my 6 year old has been active in this election; asking me about the different candidates ideals. I am just thankful our nation choose to fix what is broken (poor republcan leaderships and ideals) and elect a true Leader, President Elect Obama!

  13. All right, let’s begin at the top.

    You’re right ShoreThings, it ain’t over yet. It’s going to come down to how the independents split out since Harris picked up more D’s than Kratovil did R’s.

    TP, the separate cover comes if Harris doesn’t win. I was already running on fumes at the point I wrote this post and I did have to work this morning.

    Two Sentz, if there were no partisanship nothing would get done. I don’t plan on getting any less partisan because to do so would violate my principles. But to answer Phil, there’s no viable third party…if anyone should begin a third party it should be those in the middle who can leave the GOP to the conservatives who put it back on the map.

    As for Skeptic Stride, I think the point has been brought up before. Feel free to run for Central Committee in 2010 or join the Wicomico County Republican Club anytime.

    Maria – as you and I have discussed, probably the best thing John McCain did on his campaign was pick Sarah Palin (despite what the pundits would have you believe, since I think they polled their newsroom to get the disapproval ratings.)

    I’m suspect about the cited numbers with the tiny number of absentees who are independent. We’ll know by close of business tomorrow.

    Heather, what’s broken in this nation didn’t come from poor Republican leadership and ideals, it came from the lack of conservative leadership and ideals.

    As I said, I was less than pleased last night.

  14. You still cling to the idea that choosing Palin was a good idea? You lost virtually all of the Hillary voters who would seriously have considered voting for McCain. You lost virtually all of the independents who are more moderate. And you lost a significant percentage of moderate Republicans. I hope you all run Palin in 2012. You’ll discover (if you haven’t already) that the far right of the Republican party is incresingly tiny–especially with the young people of today. So go for it–all of the young people who voted for Obama in this election will do the same again if Palin is chosen. Palin fired up a faction of Republicans, but turned off even more and also fired up the Democratic base. You watch the poll numbers and you will see that I am right. Choosing Palin actually cost McCain the election.

  15. I think the people spoke by electing more democrats and what they said was they are tired of the stuanch, my way or the highway, type partisanship. They see government as gridlock in most cases instead of seeing progress. Republican candidates, while holding fast to their principles, came across as unwilling to work together with those they disagree with. You are still coming across as such to me. That was Andy Harris’ problem at the SU debate. He self-confidence translated as arrogance to those who didn’t know anything about him.

    So in short, Im not saying violate your principles or give up your beleifs. Im saying if Republicans want to do better in 2010 and 2012, they should try to listen a little more, show more understanding, and show they are willing to work together even with those they disagree with….characteristic that are neither right nor left but that Americans are yearning for from their elected officials.

  16. The fact that you and other Rep. spokespersons promote garbage such as the book “If Democrats Had Any Brains They’d Be Republicans” demonstrates why the GOP is in regression for members compared to the Democrat party.

    The leadership just does not get it and continues to become increasingly right wing-nut while entranced by daily doses of the likes of El Rushbo and the lovely Laura. That McCain had to cotton to the party faithful by running with sexy Sarah is the result.

    Did you hear that wake-up call a couple days ago?

  17. I don’t think the Left has eschewed the books picking on conservatives – seems to me Al Franken made a nice sum on a book critical of Rush Limbaugh.

    And the term “right wing-nut” adds so much to the discourse.

    Yes, I heard the wake-up call. It’s time for me and the others on my side to re-educate the public on the advantages of true conservatism, not the dimestore phony “compassionate” junk that’s been around for most of the last 8 years.

    Now that the Democrats won’t be able to run against George W. Bush anymore (they’ll have all the federal power now, just like they do here in Maryland – and we see how well THAT’s going), they’re not going to have any excuses are they?

  18. Hey Two Sentz, for the next two years you’ll have the liberal democrats in charge, both in Annapolis and the nation. If it doesn’t work out for the best, who are you going to blame? GWB is back in Crawford on January 20th next year, so the keys are yours.

    And I reserve the right given to me under the First Amendment to be critical of my elected officials, despite the fact I didn’t vote for a single one of them.

  19. Michael,
    For the next 2 years you’ll have the liberal democrats in charge, so if things are better 2 years from now than they are today, will you have the guts to come here and acknowledge that? Or will you do the typical republican thing–uhh . . the recession actually started under Clinton!! The terrorists started under Clinton!! And when it is better in 2 years, I predict you’ll say “the improvement started under Bush!” Please. Do you think Harris ran under the mantra of “compassionate conservative?” Nope, he ran under the “true” conservativism you espouse, and he was defeated.

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