Final - Or Not - Election Thoughts

I'm glad Obama's victory was by decisive numbers but I'd lie if I said it never crossed my mind that it would have been mischievously poetic if McCain won the popular vote, and Obama got the presidency by the electoral vote.

It was great seeing Obama's and Biden's families together on stage after Obama's acceptance. It also got me thinking there should have been one more debate during the campaign, a smackdown between Biden's mother and McCain's. Now THAT would have outdrawn Biden-Palin and, if publicized the right way, probably the Superbowl too.

I know I'm not alone in hearing McCain's gracious and respectful concession and thinking, "Now THAT'S the John McCain I've admired and respected for so long." Who was that guy who looked like McCain who, for the past several months, has been traveling the country saying un-McCain -like things? Mac, at last, really is back, and I truly believe we're better for it.

In analyzing the election results, nearly every commentator I've heard has mentioned how the McCain campaign's death slide was greased by his party affiliation with, and I'm quoting here, an "unpopular president."

Unpopular? Sorry, folks. A 45% approval rating would make for an "unpopular" president. A 24% approval rating qualifies as a "lousy" president. And there's no spinning this as a partisan issue. When 76% of the country disapproves of your administration, there are a lot of members of your own party who think you suck.

The same commentators are suggesting that Sarah Palin will be a serious contender for president in 2012. This journalism-by-speculation ignores a couple of realities:

1. Four years is the equivalent of several lifetimes in the world of national politics. We just had an election between two people, neither of whom in 2004 were considered likely to be their party's respective nominee in 2008.
2. Sarah Palin may have excited the 24% of people who took time out from stockpiling canned goods and ammunition to say they think George Bush has been a good president. The rest of the population - including many leading Republicans - has recognized that she was a significant contributor to McCain's presidential demise and, as such, has political herpes serious enough to discourage all but the most desperate vote-seeker from letting their electoral ambition get too intimate with hers. She may have a working knowledge of current events in Alaska, but if she thinks anyone is going to elect a president - or a vice-president - who'll sit across a table from Vladimir Putin and say, "Hmmm...let me get back to ya on that!" she's out of her mind. Does she think he's sitting in the Kremlin thinking about how he can see Alaska from some parts of Russia?