In my previous post, I said and now, we boldly go into a new future for America, Americans, and the World. I want to throw lots of stats out to show you what the world things. I have mentioned before that I subscribe to The Economist, a decidedly stodgy old conservative British publication. They opened a poll for their readers around the planet to vote on who they would vote for IF they could. The poll is here. Go look at the map. The entire planet except four countries* is blue (among those casting enough votes to count). 9115 to 213 were the electoral college votes assigned from 53,000 votes. In 56 countries, Mr. Obama’s margin of victory was at least 90% of the vote.
I want to go over some statistics (7 pages from CNN) about this election here in the USA as well. These aren’t hypothetical. These are factual from our election. The racial divide is obvious, so I’ll just skip that. Blacks were overwhelmingly for Obama. Whites were close to split. Gender was a bigger spread with Women evenly split and Men leaning slightly towards McCain. (We’ll get to the brainpower behind them later). What many found interesting was that Hispanics were overwhelmingly in the Obama camp. I define overwhelming as 60% or more. In terms of age groups, they start at the youngest as heavily Obama and as it moved towards the older, it became more towards Obama but only the over 65 set was fully in support of McCain. Older people are more change adverse, more closed minded, and more influenced by stereotypes. This is to be expected, though certainly not applauded.
What was surprising to everyone was the vote by income. The poor clearly went democratic and that was a surprise to nobody. The middle class was evenly split. What shocked everyone is the very wealthiest — those making over $200,000 a year — the ones who should never vote democratic in order to preserve their wealth — voted Obama by a solid margin. That proves that the uber-rich actually voted not in their self-interest, but with those of the country.
Not surprising is the race/education split. Those who are white and are not educated were very strongly in the McCain camp whilst those who are educated were in the Obama camp. This says a great deal about the Quality of his voters. Draw your own conclusions. Liberals and Moderates voted overwhelmingly for Obama. But Only 78% of conservatives voted for McCain proving he wasn’t the right candidate.
The Republicans have to learn to stop pandering to the Right-Wing Zealots. Those embarrassing excuses for humans are not enough to win/lose an election. If McCain would have been himself and ignored them, he’d have fared NO WORSE in the election. Maybe he’d have done better if he wasn’t like a flag in the wind: always changing direction. Voter feelings were an issue too. If McCain were elected 53% of the country was concerned or scared. You can’t even be elected with that number.
The religious vote was pretty cool. Only protestants voted for McCain. All other religions were predominantly in the Obama camp including Catholics. And if you break it down by actual church attendance instead of simple identification the results are almost laughable. Even the Evangelical vote wasn’t good for McCain. He lost 24% of that, too. Yeah, Evangelicals for Obama. Really.
The marital status divide wasn’t significant so I’m going to skip that. However gun owners where overwhelmingly for McCain. That’s not a surprise but at least he did solidly win one category. I’m not sure he should be proud of that. While military members were for McCain, 54% is not a huge margin. And if you are so concerned about Obama being a “star” the polls also show that Clinton would have beat McCain too. He wasn’t going to win this election. The numbers are convincing. I was amused at the fact that nearly a quarter of gay voters were in the McCain camp. Why would you vote for someone who hates you?
In terms of region Urban voters were for Obama, Suburban also for Obama but less convincingly, and only rural voters were for McCain. (So to keep track so far: we have uneducated, racist, evangelical hicks for McCain. I’m kidding, it’s not quite like that but it amuses me greatly.)
In the vice-presidential sweepstakes 66% of the people thought Biden was qualified to be President if necessary. Palin? 38%. That had to hurt McCain. Palin was offensive to many people. It cost him votes, hurt his credibility. She’s so far right it makes Bush look liberal. I also think she’s a moldy (insert word that rhymes with punt), but that’s my opinion.
Where Obama was hurt was experience. He needs to address that by surrounding himself with the best and brightest. Confidence in his experience level was split almost 50/50 and that can’t be good. McCain clobbered him in this area, and rightfully so I will admit. And as to whether the candidates were “in touch with people like you” — Obama won that by mind-altering proportions. Though I don’t believe any politician is in touch with someone like me. Seriously.
Those negative TV ads really did a number on McCain too. Only 49% of the people thought Obama’s ads were unfair but 64% of people though McCain’s were unfair. That’s nothing to be proud of. And, as Bill Clinton reminded us, and the voters clearly remember: it’s the economy, stupid. The numbers are huge. And that’s probably what did it. I think many people who normally wouldn’t vote for a Democrat, a Black, a Liberal finally said “I’m mad as Hell, and am not going to take it anymore”** and collectively sent a big “fuck you” to the Republican party. The bailout, for the record, is overwhelmingly opposed by the entire country. The war in Iraq is overwhelmingly disliked. And 75% of our population thinks the country is on the wrong track and that is a repudiation of the Bush administration, and a well-deserved one too. Sadly 9% of the people voting admitted that “race was a factor” — how many people didn’t admit it. Yet Obama won in spite of that.
The vote wasn’t close — a 7 million vote spread in the popular vote tells you, it is time for a change. Everyone has figured it out, and many of the McCain supporters are gracious about it, much like he was. But not everyone. Over at my message boards, there is at least one person who just doesn’t get it. And he’s the sort of person that has put America in the straits it is in. Some people continue to vote for self-interest over interest of the country as a whole. The president is by the people and for the people. The president is not for YOU. The president is for US. These are the people who claim to be patriots, but they are the worst our country has to offer. I don’t really want to pick on this person, but besides the few people still posting I’ve received a few notes from my Republican friends asking, “what is wrong with him” and I just can’t answer. Myopic tunnel-vision, I suppose.
Life will go on. America is a new country. A shining beacon for the world, once again. The president of France has announced an initiative to change his country because they thought what we did was amazing. And people around the world danced in the streets over OUR election. That ought tell you something. When was the last time that happened? Oh, right. Never.
You experienced history in the making.
*Iraq, Cuba, Congo, and Algeria went with McCain. I would assume the first two are because of a high us military presence with Internet access. But even those four the margin was NOT substantial.
** Howard Beale (Network, Peter Finch, a classic)