Obama-McCain: some facts and figures

Actually Gore lost in the Electoral College, not the Court.  The Court merely terminated the wrangling.  But as the old Los Angeles saying goes that was then, this is now.   52% of the voters went for Obama, 46% went for McCain.  The Electoral College magnified that into more of a majority than it was thereby working for the Demos this time.   Good enough. With the choice of Palin, and the campaign turn that signaled, John won the right wing base of the party but lost his own centrist base — guys like me.   Evidently he did not just lose us — we did not stay home, we went out and voted for his opponent.That is the clue about America, we are resolutely centrist.  To win a US election a politician must be able to occupy the center and force his opponent the right, or left.   We dislike the idea of revolutionary change and are suspicious of its advocates.  Obama is well apprised of this fact.  His initial moves have been quite cautious.   His tactics are very Reaganesque.  He has put his White House staff building first, long before the Cabinet.  His Chief of Staff is a well known Washington SOB, a hard man.  With his staff nailed down and brought under control, he is now concentrating in co-opting his rivals.   Hillary Clinton for Sec. of State — interesting concept.  Explicitly reminiscent of Lincoln’s choice of Seward.   Warm publicity over a tete-a-tete with McCain.  Could this be filibuster insurance in the Senate?  So far, excellent grades.   Watch him Brian, this lad is really cute — warm, folksy, superbly organized and pragmatic, and calculating as hell. 

Brian writes: Thanks once again for this illuminating comment, Carl. As to whether Gore lost in the electoral college or the Supreme Court in 2000, my recollection is that the main issue decided by the Court was whether to order certain votes in Florida that had been disallowed to be declared valid and counted, or possibly whether there should be a second round of voting in some predominantly black areas of Florida where large numbers of would-be voters had allegedly been prevented from voting: in other words, whether the apparent result in the electoral college should be re-opened. It seems to me an accurate summary of that situation to say that Gore lost the Presidency in the Supreme Court, although I accept that there can be no certainty that even if he had won in the Supreme Court and the contest in parts of Florida had been put to the vote again by one means or another, Gore would necessarily have won. As I recall, the US media and others conducted various polls and even counted the disallowed votes to see what would have happened had the Court gone the other way, but the results were necessarily inconclusive, some arguing that Bush would still have won and others that Gore would probably have squeaked home — and moved into the White House. I suppose we shall never know.

Incidentally, I’m intrigued by your description of Obama as ‘folksy’. I thought it had been generally felt during the campaign, by Americans anyway, that McCain was the folksy one and that Obama struck many as aloof, intellectual, “élitist” — the opposite of folksy, in fact. It’s the folksiness of some American politicians that often jars on us prim Europeans, and it was the seeming lack of it in Obama that had us all drooling over the prospect of having in the White House a President who appeared to think before he spoke, used long words, had not only read books but actually written two extremely good ones himself, and seemed in some way to occupy his own space, even when patting small children on the head. (Of course Clinton was, and is, the supreme example, wouldn’t you agree?, of an ability to combine a manifestly first-rate intellect with no end of folksiness — when necessary.)

I would only note that two courts were involved.  The Florida Supreme Court with Democrat appointed majority and the US with a Republican appointed one.  That point is usually omitted in remembering the event.   But as I said, that was then, this is now, and now is Barak Obama.