Enjablog

I really liked President-elect Obama’s victory speech. And Senator McCain did a stand up job with his speech too (and hearing similar reactions as with Senator Clinton at the Democratic Convention — if he had given speeches like this during the campaign, this probably would’ve been a much tighter race).

But am I the only one who listened to the victory speech and thought of this scene from the Goonies?

America, we have come so far. We have seen so much. But there is so much more to do. So tonight, let us ask ourselves - if our children should live to see the next century; if my daughters should be so lucky to live as long as Ann Nixon Cooper, what change will they see? What progress will we have made?

This is our chance to answer that call. This is our moment.

This is our time, to put our people back to work and open doors of opportunity for our kids; to restore prosperity and promote the cause of peace; to reclaim the American dream and reaffirm that fundamental truth, that, out of many, we are one; that while we breathe, we hope. And where we are met with cynicism and doubts and those who tell us that we can’t, we will respond with that timeless creed that sums up the spirit of a people: Yes, we can.

And after re-watching that, I can even see corollaries with our current political scene. The parental Republicans see us as childish, naive Democrats. They are faced with a financial crisis. There is one who stands among us ready to lead, to instill hope and confidence to reach for dreams we never thought possible. And if all goes as the Goonies went, by turning our backs on Troy’s bucket, Mikey will save us from financial ruin. Or something.

So, I thought Election Day 2008 ending would leave me with more free time. It probably will… but until everything gets tallied, it looks like I’m just going to keep obsessing. Still watching as results continue to come in for Washington, Oregon, North Carolina, Missouri, and Georgia. Keeping a closer eye on the Senate races that still haven’t been called yet (Alaska — you continue to surprise me. And not so much in the good way.). Finding all kind of exit poll stats to pore over. And, of course, keeping up with the ballot measures for each state.

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Dear California,

What’s up with you? I thought you were supposed to be the future of this country. I thought you set the example that the rest of us eventually caught up to.

But, really? You’re going to join Arizona and Florida and write discrimination into your constitution? I can understand them doing that. I wasn’t even surprised when they passed overwhelmingly.

I really thought you’d make it ok. And, in a way, you have. Well, you will.

Good job to all my friends out in California and the many, many volunteers who tried to reject Prop. 8. Thanks to the 61% of the youth vote who voted No on picking a new scapegoat.

CNN’s holographic technology brought us ever closer to the future. And as I’ve been saying more and more often recently: The future is awesome. So, just wait. It’ll be the future soon.

Still Disappointed,
Enjanerd

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Dear Colorado and South Dakota,

Thank you.

Hugs and sparkles,
Enjanerd

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Dear Michigan,

You are such a goofball. I hope marijuana gets legalized soon so we can tax the bejeezus out of it. But until then, just be responsible. The medical profession has enough issues without more people trying to scam drugs out of it.

Best of luck,
Enjanerd

Last night’s debate, in my opinion, had an obvious winner: CNN.

Their technology is far superior to what the other networks demonstrated. Their HD broadcast had 6 analysts who were scoring the debate real-time, as well as independents in Ohio with dials who could react throughout the debate.

I love watching independents react. Last week’s debate, they reacted positively every time someone spoke. Last night, they were divided on the graph as men and women. At one point, the men went back in time and reacted very negatively. The women reacted positively as stereotypically expected — personal stories, things that would cause empathy or other strong emotions, etc.

And then the analysts! Last week, Begala was asleep for the first half hour, but totally came back and had a score close to the rest of the analysts.

Rosen and Rollins were the token extremists. Their scoring was clearly partisan, sometimes giving their candidate more points than the other analysts combined. Last night, Rosen was keeping up and was pretty even with Rollins… until about 10 o’clock. At which point, Rollins fell asleep on the plus button for Palin and gave her 10 points all at once, even though she had stopped talking. This was obviously a mistake, because soon after that, he reduced that to only a 9-point increase.

By the end of the night, Rollins definitely had the win for the most total points on his scorecard, awarding Palin 4 times as many points as other analysts and twice what he awarded Biden.

QOTD: “Did Rollins just have a thumbgasm?”