Rachel Maddow Rocks

If you don't have 16 minutes to watch this whole clip, just go to the last 3 minutes.  The rest is a recap of what the pollsters predicted, what the Republicans ignored, and that while Obama won by less of a majority in 2008 and with less electoral votes, he is still the only Democrat since FDR to win the majority of the vote--50.8% this time, 54% last time.  Oh, and he is African American.  Emphasis on both heritages.  The end of this clip is why it is important to move forward from here.  We have real problems to solve.

Ms. Maddow says that the reason a two party system in a democracy works is because you have two parties working on the solutions to the very real problems that we face as a country, and by working together, real and creative solutions can be reached.  That is how success is achieved.  Success is not possible when one side refuses to enter the arena.  A message to all those Congressmen who were waiting for Obama to leave, guess what?  He isn't just yet, and while you need to get elected next time around, he does not.  So I really hope that Congress comes back ready to work.

There were some really hopeful things that occurred last Tuesday beyond the President getting re-elected.  The GOP agenda was largely rejected as well.  Women, who were under attack throughout 2012, increased their presence in the Senate, to a number larger than ever before.  One woman is Asian American and one is openly gay--those are also firsts.  Both senators who voiced opposition to abortion in the case of rape--one because he doesn't understand biology and one because he is imposing his God on all women--were both defeated.  One of them handsomely.  Take comfort, in their eyes this is all part of God's plan.

The other big step forward was that same sex marriage was put to a popular vote and won--first time for that, and in the case of Maine, it was soon after it had been rejected.  Civil rights are moving slowly forward.  Lots more under-represented minorities besides women voted--the African American vote and the Hispanic vote were both up from 2008, and that is very good news indeed.  We need everyone's voice to be heard.  And lastly, it appears that there is a point at which money doesn't talk--I am not sure where that point is, because lots of money was spent on both sides, but it did not buy elections.  The election also offered one of the few ways that we get very rich people to spend lots of their money--so there was that injection of cash into the economy as well.

Finally, it was a good day for people who do math.  Nate Silver in particular.  He is now a demi-god, but really, he paid attention to not just polls, but how the polls gathered data--folks like Gallup just called land lines, and it turns out that is not a very good way to reach the 1/3 of the population who just have a cell phone.  Silver looked at on-line polling, and polls that used broader resources to come up with his magical mixture that accurately predicted the way it would all turn out.  Congress should take note--the solution to the debt and how we should share that burden really needs to be blessed by the guys who do the math.