We thought about adding John McCain to the Winners list, as his loss on Tuesday assured that he won’t have the unenviable task of fixing the colossal clusterf@&% left behind by the Bush administration. But then we’d have to add Barack Obama to the Losers list (congratulations bub, it’s your problem now), and that just doesn’t seem right, because if anyone deserves to be at the top of the Winners list, it’s……:

Barack Obama

MT: Whatever Barack Obama has for breakfast, that’s what you should be ordering. Because whatever it is, it tastes like WIN. Who got the right position on Iraq – don’t go –from the very start, without which there is no room for a Democrat to run and beat Hillary Clinton? WIN. Who intuitively knew what message Americans were looking for and had the intellectual and charismatic talents to deliver it? WIN. Who showed his critics what community organizer can do with a few million passionate campaign workers? WIN. Who made a series of one smart decision after another in a campaign that will be studied for years to come? WIN. Who overcame racial and ideological barriers to chart a career that almost looks like a 90* angle? Barack Hussein Obama, that’s who. And what did he do when his opponents said “Obama cannot win?” WIN.

JW: Few people, if any, in the world have ever made so many billions of people happy. It’s that simple. This is the kind of feat that has traditionally been reserved for people like the Dali Lama, Pele or Oprah. But now the person who should have the popular support of the world will: the president of the United States. Obama has also appeared to have weathered one of the most brutal campaign cycles of all time. His family is still intact, his daughters aren’t knocked up and he still talks to Joe Biden. Barack Obama may have been the best presidential candidate in my lifetime, but the McCain camp certainly did set a low bar.

MT: Adding:

The World

JW: This is what the world looked like upon hearing that Barack Obama would be the next president of the United States of America, the streets of the world looked something like a combination of The World Cup (in which every country has won) and New Years Eve (if it occurred only once in a lifetime), except that it actually mattered. Barack Obama’s personal background is the most international of any president of the United States. His ability to break down racial, cultural and political barriers make him not only a citizen of the United States, but also of the world.

MT: Relax, world. Like the man said, he’s got this. “Americans can always be relied upon to do the right thing”, said Winston Churchill, “but only after they have exhausted every other alternative.” Maybe so, but just when the global community thinks we’ve lost our mojo, when our critics and friends alike think we’re incapable of achieving the seemingly impossible, when the limit of our potential appears to have been reached, we find something more. Yes we can.

Democrats

MT: By the mid-90’s, complacency and a lost sense of purpose had relegated the once dominant Democratic Party to a congressional minority. Why should voters go for Republican Lite when they could have the real thing? Democrats responded to Republican bait, and talked about issues in Republican frames. They worried more that Republicans would call them names than how best to serve the country. More than anything, they forgot they were Democrats. And while it took the unmitigated failure of the Bush administration to remind them, they found their voice and realized a clear contrast with Republicans based on big-D Democratic principles was a winner with voters. The call for “more and better Democrats” was answered. And people responded. Allow me to demonstrate:

With the exception of Appalachia, Arkansas, Oklahoma and some scattered areas of the deep South, America is voting more Democratic. So congratulations, Donks. Don’t forget how you got here.

JW: Well, Dems, you finally pulled it together. You got technology, many Republicans the world on your side, and harnessed these special ingredients for a well-deserved win. While the Republican Primary stand-off became a choice between the lesser of the evils, your lot of choices—at least two of them—were top-notch. While the Republican National Convention looked and sounded like a hood-less KKK board meeting inside a small-town bank, your convention made the light show at Disneyland look anti-climactic. You won over people from the Republic Party the Independent Party and the Green Party. If you were on a high school football team, you would get the award for the “Most Improved Player.”

Howard Dean

MT: When Gov. Howard Dean was in the middle of the 2004 campaign rant that would forever be known as the “Dean Scream,” he was describing what would later be termed the “50-state strategy.” Just prior to the “Yeeeeaaarrrrghhh!!!”, he was running down a list of traditionally red states that he thought Democrats should be competitive in, and that would be the key to putting a Dem in the White House. People laughed, “Oh, that nutty Howard Dean! Spreading out money in resources where Republicans are stronger and more likely to say mean things to us. Hahahahaha! That’ll never work!” Dean didn’t secure the 2004 nomination, but his 50-state strategy and mastery of new online fundraising and organizing tools was the blueprint that Barack Obama followed, and it paid off big time. He who screams first, laughs last.

JW: If any single person paved the way for Obama’s win on Tuesday, it was Howard Dean. His grassroots organizing, appeal to the youth and ability to energize the base was unprecedented in the early days of the DNC primary campaign season. Obama ceased on this unfulfilled potential, which had grown after nearly four more years of Bush. Dean also has demonstrated strong leadership as the DNC Chair and has helped lead the party to where it is today.

Obama Supporters

MT: Speaking of what Obama has for breakfast, these people were hungry. From the phone banking to the fundraising, from spreading the message on message boards and blogs to knocking on doors in an unprecedented ground game, those people who got out and hustled to make Tuesday happen deserve a clap on the back. The last few years have been bleak, with America’s moral and financial credibility on the brink of the abyss. It’s easy in this culture to be uninvolved, distracted, and before you know it, we’re over the edge. More than just those who voted, the people who put Barack Obama on their collective backs and dragged him to the dance in the first place did us all a great favor. Cheers, mates.

JW: Never before had I personally known so many people who were so active in this campaign. To support the presidential candidate in the case of Obama had gone from something passive to an active way of life. “Supporting” went from meaning “voting for” or “putting a yard sign in front of my house” to “phone banking, driving to swing states, canvassing, donating my much-needed and hard-earned dollars to the campaign,” “throwing fundraisers,’ “Facebooking,” and “declaring far and wide that Obama was the best choice.” As a reward, not only do Obama supporters get to see their choice in the White House come January, but they have the satisfaction of knowing they personally and directly help put him there.

America

MT: Aside from the relief of having an adult in charge that doesn’t look at actual governing like the continuation of one long political campaign, America can now start to heal itself from eight years of mis-rule. The importance of having an actual Constitutional scholar in charge of defending the Constitution cannot be understated. The effect of Obama’s election will have a profound impact on the American psyche, all of it good. America can take pride in showing to the world, once again, what it’s like to truly lead. It’s cool to be an American again.

JW: The American people have finally taken steps to reclaiming their country with the election of Obama. Of course there were several set-backs in this election, including the ban of gay marriage in three states, but overall, America has come out of the 2008 as a champion. With a high voter turnout, more people now have their say in the policies and people who lead this country, and more people can sleep better at night knowing that the president-to-be represent more of them.

Dogs

JW: As if the Obama girls’ choice of a puppy over a kitten didn’t generate enough publicity for dogs after Obama’s speech, the media worldwide has been going nuts with turning Obama’s puppy statement into a story [news.google.com].

MT: I always had a soft spot for Barney, ever since President Klutz dropped him on the tarmac after getting off Air Force One once, but biting a Reuters reporter covering his daily walk for a fluff story? [wonkette.com] That’s just awesome. I’ll bet Bush wishes he could do that.

Nate Silver

JW: This guy. His projections were more accurate than any single pollster’s in the election. His path to successful political forecasting began as a baseball statistician working for a think tank in Chicago. He began applying the same strategies to the political polls on his website, fivethirtyeight.com [fivethirtyeight.com] and ended up predicting the final breakdown of electoral and popular votes one-tenth of a point off from what actually occurred.

MT: Seriously, this guy is scary accurate. What he did was the polling equivalent of hitting a three point shot from a passing airplane. John Zogby is eating his dust right now. 538 is now going to be the go-to source for the next few election cycles. Congrats.

Katie Couric

JW: Despite Sarah Palin’s $150,000 plus clothing budget, CBS Evening News anchor, Katie Couric showed the world that the empress, indeed, has no clothes. In her series of interviews [www.cbsnews.com] she let Palin speak for herself and expose her true ineptness and ignorance in a way that no strategist, aid or national presidential campaign could cover up. Even when it came time for the variety shows to parody these interviews, they drew directly from the Couric/Palin script [www.huffingtonpost.com].

MT: If there’s a “Showed Most Improvement” award for the national media, Katie Couric won it hands down. I’ve never been much of a fan of Katie’s brand of Journalism Lite, but, perhaps awareness of her reputation as a media lightweight and sense that she wasn’t going to out-perk Sarah Palin, Katie stepped up her game and actually took it to the Thrilla from Wasilla. Watching her press Palin to name McCain’s reform accomplishments until she essentially cried “uncle!” was a classic campaign moment and a feather in Couric’s cap.

Hawaii

JW: The union’s 50th state will never again be thought of merely for its exotic vacation destinations and production of sugar. We now will think of it as home to many, including white people from Kansas! Hawaii also showed us where its heart is by giving the highest share of its votes [www.cqpolitics.com] to Obama. Just don’t expect Obama to exploit grass skirts and leis the way Connecticut native George W. Bush popularized cowboy boots and belt buckles, Obama is the real deal.

MT: Hawaii. Not just for elitists anymore [www.huffingtonpost.com] Shaka bra.

Jamie Wong and Michael Turner

To our readers and those who have followed BACK TALK this last month or so, the pleasure was all ours. Thanks for your comments, thank you for voting and thanks for being so damned good-looking. You know you are. And thanks to the Sundance Channel for giving us the opportunity to riff on this special moment in American history. It was fun. Be sure to check out the fine programming on the Sundance Channel now that you’re not glued to the nightly news for campaign updates. And if you don’t have the Sundance Channel, call your local cable carrier. You’ll be glad you did. [/shameless plug]

Peace out.

– Jamie Wong & Michael Turner

As the political season comes to a close and we turn our attentions back to our neglected jobs, friends, spouses and significant others, we thought we’d take the time to look back at some of the winners and losers of the 2008 election. So without further ado, and because we don’t want to keep them from their pressing appointments with the dustbin of history, here are the Losers:

John McCain

JW: Senator John McCain may appear the most obvious loser in the 2008 Election, but don’t expect this guy to stay at home crying! According to campaign manager Rick Davis, “He didn’t even spend 24 hours lamenting the loss.” [latimesblogs.latimes.com] Instead he plans to cook up some ribs [www.swamppolitics.com] for the family.

MT: And don’t forget the press. McCain will be inviting them back as well, hoping some mouthwatering BBQ will make them overlook how he flip-flopped on everything that made him an appealing politician eight years ago because he thought it would win him a political contest. Maybe the sweet aroma of tangy sauce will cause them to forget he ran the most erratic, rudderless and negative campaigns of the 20 years. Enjoy the ribs, John. Hope they don’t taste bitter.

Sarah Palin

MT: Sarah Palin is not on this list because she is breathtakingly unqualified for the office of Vice President, lacking any apparent understanding of national and global issues or even how our government works. She’s not a loser because she was a horribly dangerous choice, the ACME Rocket Sled to McCain’s Wile E. Coyote. Sarah Palin gets the big L because she lied. She knew she was lying, it was proved she was lying, and she continued to lie. She lied about her record, she lied about her investigations and she lied about her own qualifications – no one’s that un-self aware. She lied about Obama, and in doing so she approached the careful fire of cultural division the GOP had been nursing like a pyromaniac with a gas can. All in the name of a shot at the White House and a really nice wardrobe. Lo. Ser.

JW: Not only did Sarah Palin lose the vice presidency, she has also become the scapegoat [www.politico.com] for many republicans, particularly many of those on McCain’s campaign staff. Staff confessed (under the condition of anonymity) that she did not know that Africa was a country, that she refused briefing before her interview with Katie Couric, and that she greeted staffers in her hotel room wearing only a bathrobe. Not only is she a loser, but her reputation is very tainted, and it will be an uphill battle to 2012.

FOX / Sean Hannity

JW: If these guys had any credibility going into the election, they certainly don’t have any now. Sean Hannity has repeatedly proven himself not only stupid, but also wrong [www.youtube.com]. Don’t be surprised to find Fox News soon downgradig themselves from a twenty-four-hour presidential infomercial to the newest publicist for Sarah Palin (2012!).

MT: I give Fox about 2 months before, without a hint of irony, they start talking about how Barack Obama is abusing his power and shredding the Constitution. I remember two years ago, on the eve of the 2006 mid-terms, Sean Hannity actually went on the air and urged Democratic voters to stay home, for the good of the country. Eat. Me.

Republicans

MT: They had it all. The White House, senate, congress, an edge on SCOTUS; Republicans had the bully pulpit and the complicity of the national media. They set the agenda, took the wheel and told everyone else to shut up, they were driving. Right off a cliff, as it turned out. On foreign and domestic policy, from the economy to the Middle East, Americans have rejected the Republican Party and conservatism. The “Party of Ideas” hasn’t had many for a while now, and the ones they have are bad. Or, to quote Karl Rove, “That doesn’t make them unpatriotic, not at all. But it does make them wrong – deeply and profoundly and consistently wrong.” [www.realclearpolitics.com] Welcome to the wilderness. They set their course for the fringe of the party and got lost along the way, and as long as they let the lunatics run the asylum, they’ll stay lost.

JW: They’re broken. The GOP, as Gore Vidal famously put it [www.youtube.com], “The Republican party is not a party like your parties in England. It is a mind set. They love war. They love money. They want to hang on to all the connections they have.”

Alaska

JW: Sorry, Alaska, the 2008 Presidential Election provided you with a huge opportunity to prove to the lower 48 that you are made up of more than small-town hockey players and snow-machine drivers who are insulated from the rest of the world. Unfortunately, the message never really made its way to us. In fact, it was only reinforced by the nomination, and subsequent loss of your state’s poster girl, former Miss Wasilla [wonkette.com] and current Governor, Sarah Palin.

MT: Seriously, Alaska, WTF? You just re-elected a convicted felon, Ted Stevens, and possibly another in Don Young. Despite Sarah Palin’s own self-appointed board clearing her of all misdeeds in the Troopergate scandal, she still broke your own ethics laws, and now there’s talk of sending her to the U.S. Senate (y’know, to replace that convicted felon you just re-elected)? What do you have to do to get rejected by Alaskan voters? Boil kittens on live TV? What?

Joe Lieberman

MT: Man, talk about betting on the wrong horse. It had already been a messy divorce between the Democratic Party and Sen. Joe Lieberman (Lieberman-CT) since the 2006 mid-term election, but Joe agreed to caucus with the Democrats so they could claim the majority, and Joe could keep his plum committee chairmanships. But when he announced his endorsement for John McCain, Lieberman laid down the gauntlet; he saw his future in the senate on shaky ground and put all his chips on a Republican in the White House. Putting on his best “this hurts me more than it hurts you” Droopy Dog face, Lieberman accused Obama of not putting “country first,” thought it was a good question if Obama was a Marxist, and suggested he didn’t support American troops. In other words, Joe was being Joe. For the last dozen years or so, that sharp pain Democrats have felt in their right side has been a shiv in the ribs with Joe Lieberman’s name on it. Now he’s all, “Let’s not bicker about who said what and endorsed whom. Let’s forget all that and move on.” Fat chance, Joe. Say goodbye to your chairmanships. Good luck with your new friends.

JW: Joe Lieberman is one of many Joe’s who have lost out this election. Everyone is looking at him like a fair-weather idiot. In 2000 he ran as vice president for the Democratic Party, and lost. In 2008 he didn’t make the cut for the coveted vice-presidential spot on the GOP ticket. And not only did he not get the post, but he lost it to Sarah Palin.

George W. Bush

MT: W would be on this list no matter who won the election. His EPIC FAIL administration is not going to be judged kindly by history under any circumstances. But Bush’s one chance to salvage some plausible denial that he was not, in fact, the Worst President Ever hinged on McCain winning the election. Now, instead of the continued cover-up and mitigation of all the bad stuff we don’t even know about yet (and you know it’s there), the White House will get a proper fumigation and Bush’s legacy will get its trousers yanked down and bent over the fence by history and given the proper rogering it deserves. Have I mentioned EPIC FAIL? That’s important.

JW: For anyone angry that a the president-elect has been working in Washington for only two years, or is black or did not grow up in the continental United States or served on the board with William Ayers, or is loved internationally, you have George W. Bush to thank. We need only look at history to know that the political and cultural pendulum of the country swings constantly. But in Bush’s case, it ripped off from its axis and destroyed itself.

Gay Marriage

JW: Just six months after the California State Supreme Court decided that banning gay marriage was unconstitutional, California voters passed Proposition 8, which amends the state constitution to make gay marriage illegal [www.sfgate.com].

MT: This is just sad. In an election where one major barrier was torn down, another is erected. Hopefully the California courts will decide again, rightfully, that you cannot legislate taking rights away from a minority. In the meantime, keep up the fight [www.nbclosangeles.com].

Joe the Plumber

MT: To be fair, Joe really shouldn’t be on here all by his lonesome. Joe Wurzelbacher should share this prestigious space with all the yahoos at the Palin rallies; all the rightwing bloggers who parroted every insane conspiracy theory that came down the pike, even ones that contradicted other ones. Joe the Plumber should share this dishonor with the listeners of Rush Limbaugh and the readers of National Review Online. But since they declared “We are all Joe the Plumber!”, then Joe it is. And really, Joe is the perfect embodiment of all those people; totally misinformed , under the delusion they are society’s real victims, and shamelessly self-interested. They are all Joe the Plumber, and if any last one of them could parlay a set-up “gotcha” moment with wingnut talking points into an agent, a book deal, recording contract and possible political career, they would in heartbeat. Of course, with the historic whuppin’ McCain just received, some of those deals may sort of dry up. Loser(s).

JW: The only thing that plumbers gained from this election was a new vault of plumber jokes and puns. Other than that, if people didn’t already make a joke of their, albeit very important, job, they do now. Joe the Plumber became a national symbol fabricated by the McCain campaign, making his campaign rally no-shows and disastrous media appearances [www.youtube.com] even more devastating for McCain.

Cats

JW: Face it felines, you’re sooo last term! Move over with Ernie and India Bush, the country has spoken and dogs are the news cats come 2009. In Barack Obama’s victory speech [edition.cnn.com] in Grant Park, Chicago on Tuesday, he said that his daughters, Malia, 10, and Sasha, 7, have “earned the new puppy that’s coming with us to the White House.”

MT: While I have nothing personal against feline-Americans, they really shouldn’t have let the ostensibly pro-Hillary/anti-Obama/pro-McCain nutjobs who called themselves PUMAs (for Party Unity My Ass) [pumaparty.com] sully their species like that. Isn’t there a Feline Anti-Defamation League or something?

– Jamie Wong & Michael Turner

WASHINGTON, DC, November 5, 2008 (ENS) – In a landslide, Americans Tuesday elected Barack Obama as the first African-American president in the nation’s history. The Democratic senator from Illinois won 338 electoral college votes – far beyond the 270 needed to win election to the White House.

With 81% of all precincts nationwide reporting, votes for Obama stand at 54,996,099 (52%), while 50,320,092(47%) voters chose Republican Senator John McCain of Arizona.

President-elect Barack Obama
(Photo by David Katz courtesy
Obama for America)

Before 70,000 people packed into Chicago’s Grant Park, Obama addressed the world for the first time as president-elect, saying, “Change has come to America.”

“Above all,” he told the cheering crowd, “I will never forget who this victory truly belongs to – it belongs to you.”

Obama indicated that environmental concerns are at the forefront of his mind as he prepares for his presidency.

He quieted the crowd with sober recognition of “the enormity of the task that lies ahead.”

“For even as we celebrate tonight,” he said, “we know the challenges that tomorrow will bring are the greatest of our lifetime – two wars, a planet in peril, the worst financial crisis in a century.”

“This is our moment,” said Obama. “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 doubt, 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.”

McCain admitted defeat late Tuesday, saying, “The American people have spoken, and they have spoken clearly.”

McCain called Obama to offer his congratulations just after the polls closed on the West Coast, giving Obama the electoral college votes that catapulted him to victory.

“Senator Obama has achieved a great thing for himself and his country,” said McCain.

Democrats increased their majority in both the Senate and the House of Representatives.

With four Senate seats still undecided, the balance of power in the Senate stands at 56 seats occupied by Democrats and 40 by Republicans.

In the House, Democrats captured 247 seats to the Republicans 166.

The environment was a winner in Congressional races as at least seven of the “Dirty Dozen” lawmakers as named by the League of Conservation Voters, lost their seats.

On October 24, the LCV announced its trademark Dirty Dozen candidates for Congress. These are legislators – regardless of party affiliation – who consistently vote against clean energy and conservation and are running in races in which an LCV campaign against them has a substantial chance to affect the outcome.

“The Dirty Dozen represent the biggest roadblocks in Congress on the road to America’s clean energy future,” said LCV President Gene Karpinski. “Siding with the oil industry at every turn, they have consistently voted against policies that would create jobs, ensure our national security, and guarantee a sustainable future for our country.”

“Members of Congress who have consistently sided with the oil industry and against the interests of those they are elected to represent need to go,” said Karpinski. “LCV is proud of its record of defeating members of the Dirty Dozen and we expect to build on that record in 2008.”

The election results for the 2008 League of Conservation Voters’ Dirty Dozen List show at least seven of them were defeated. The assessments of their legislative performance are those of the LCV.

* OUT – Elizabeth Dole, North Carolina Republican Senator – Dole’s lifetime LCV score is 12%. She is one of Big Oil’s biggest Congressional allies, and has consistently voted to extend tax breaks and subsidies to the industry, weaken automobile fuel efficency standards, and eliminate any increase in renewable energy production. She has accepted $312,606 from the oil and gas industry.

Dole was defeated by state senator Democrat Kay Hagen.
* OUT – Dean Andal, California Republican Congressman – Andal received a 9% lifetime score from the California League of Conservation Voters. During his time as a state senator, he voted against banning offshore drilling and routinely opposed legislation promoting fuel efficiency and cutting petroleum use, measures that would save consumers hundreds of dollars each year.

Andal was defeated by incumbent Congressman Jerry McNerney, a renewable energy engineer.
* OUT – Joe Knollenberg, Michigan Republican Congressman – Knollenberg has repeatedly voted for corporate polluters and against environmental protections, earning him a lifetime LCV score of only 9%. An opponent of fuel efficiency and renewable energy, he has taken $642,388 in contributions from polluting energy interests since 2001.

Knollenberg was defeated by former state senator and lottery commissioner Gary Peters, the first Democrat to represent the district in 75 years.
* OUT – Anne Northup, former Kentucky Republican Congresswoman, Louisville – Northup has a lifetime LCV score of only 7% and voted against every major piece of environmental legislation in the 109th Congress. She has accepted $334,877 from oil and gas interests during her career.

Northup was defeated by incumbent Congressman John Yarmuth, who defeated her to win the seat two years ago.
* OUT – Steve Pearce, New Mexico Republican Congressman who ran for a U.S. Senate seat – Pearce earned a pathetic 3% lifetime LCV score and has earned three 0% scores in his tenure. Since his election, there have been 93 key conservation votes in Congress and, in all but three, Pearce has voted against clean air, clean energy, and protecting our natural heritage. He has accepted more from the oil and gas industry, $706,324, than from any other economic sector. Pearce, who owned a small oil services company, says he supports clean coal technology.

Pearce was defeated by Tom Udall, the son of former Interior Secretary Stewart Udall and nephew of former Arizona Congressman Mo Udall, who has pledged to carry on a family tradition of conservation. He earned a 92% on the latest LCV scorecard.
* OUT – Bob Schaffer, Colorado Republican businessman running for a seat in the Senate – A career politician-turned-oil executive, Schaffer has a 5% LCV lifetime. He was a major proponent of the Bush/Cheney energy plan, which doled out $33 billion in tax breaks for the energy industry. Now, as an energy executive, he has made oil deals in Iraq and his company has sided with the dirty energy of the past instead of the clean, renewable energy of the future. He has accepted $242,826 from oil and gas interests.

Schaffer was defeated by another member of the Udall family, Democrat Mark Udall who gave up his seat in the House of Representatives to run for the Senate seat. Mark Udall also earned a 92% on the latest LCV scorecard.
* OUT – Tim Walberg, Michigan Republican Congressman – Walberg was one of the most anti-environment members of the 2006 Congressional class, has an abysmal 3% LCV lifetime score, and, in 2008, voted against every major piece of clean energy and energy efficiency legislation.

In a close race, Walberg was defeated by state senator Mark Schauer.

Four of the LCV’s Dirty Dozen lawmakers were re-elected.

* IN – Jim Inhofe, Republican Senator from Oklahoma, former chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, a position California Senator Barbara Boxer now holds. Inhofe has a lifetime LCV score of 4%, one of the lowest in Congress. He refuses to acknowledge the existence of global warming and consistently has voted on the side of polluters while taking more than $1.1 million in campaign contributions from oil and gas interests.

* IN – Mitch McConnell, Republican Senator from Kentucky, who has served as Senate Minority Leader since 2006 – McConnell has a measly 7% lifetime LCV score, has earned an annual score of 0% an astounding 12 times, and has cast only three pro-conservation votes in the last 14 years. He has accepted $713,961 from oil and gas interests. McConnell was overwhelmingly chosen as the 2008 candidate who has committed the most egregious environmental offenses in an online vote by over 25,000 concerned citizens.

* IN – Sam Graves, Missouri Republican Congressman – Grave’s lifetime LCV score is a feeble 4%. Since elected, he has consistently voted in line with the failed Bush/Cheney energy policies. He voted against efforts to increase the use of clean energy technologies, against maintaining the standards of the Clean Water Act, and against taking away royalties and tax incentives for Big Oil.

* IN – Mary Landrieu, Louisiana Democratic Senator – Landrieu has the worst LCV Lifetime score of any Democrat in the Senate currently running for re-election and is the only Democrat on the 2008 Dirty Dozen List. She has accepted more than $666,994 from the oil and gas industries and in 2003, 2005, and 2007 voted to give billions in tax breaks and subsidies to oil companies while voting against fuel efficiency 11 times since 1999.

The last two of the Dirty Dozen races have yet to be decided because they are both in Alaska, but at posting time it appears as if Senator Ted Stevens, 84, will be re-elected to his eighth term in the Senate.

* IN – Ted Stevens, Alaska Republican Senator – Since 1977, Stevens has voted for billions of dollars in tax breaks for oil companies. His lifetime LCV score is a mere 13% and he was found guilty by an Alaska jury of taking illegal gifts from oil industry executives. He has accepted nearly half a million dollars in legal donations from oil and gas interests as well. He supports construction of a natural gas pipeline and opening the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil and gas exploration.

* TO BE DETERMINED – Don Young, Alaska Republican Congressman – Young has served in Congress over 30 years, has a lifetime LCV score of just 9%, and has scored 0% a staggering 13 times on LCV’s National Scorecard. Time and time again he has voted against repealing subsides for Big Oil. He has accepted more that $963,763 from the oil and gas industry since taking office.

Since the Dirty Dozen was launched in 1996, the League of Conservation Voters has defeated more than half of the candidates named to the Dirty Dozen List.

View This Story On Eco–mmunity Map.

The problem with historic moments such as this is that they are so awe-inspiring, so humbling, that it’s easy to be confused by the jubilation that should come with such events. Any outburst of elation or feelings of personal satisfaction that the contest went your side’s way feel almost out of place. Showboating in the end zone or hanging on the rim after a gorilla slam dunk is fine for pro sports, but choosing our leaders, whose decisions will touch all of our lives, should be a more solemn process. Shouldn’t it? In his concession speech last night, John McCain was gracious in defeat, finally displaying a sense of honor and unity that would have served his campaign well. In Chicago’s Grant Park, a sober-faced President-elect Obama was magnanimous in victory and sought to downplay the divisions between Democrats and Republicans. He acknowledged that we need each other and called for all Americans to abandon the petty partisanship that keeps us from unifying behind a common purpose.

He’s right, of course. Now is not the time to gloat over exit polls and popular vote numbers. Focusing on Republican losses in down-ticket contests would be unseemly. Pointing out how badly some people got this election wrong and itotally bet on the wrong horse? Right out. It would be immature to let out a Ric Flair “WOOOOOOOOO!!!!” while moonwalking over a room-sized electoral map.

And yet………

……oh, #@&% it, who am I kidding?

Barack Obama smoked John McCain like a Marlboro Red. Speaking of which; Virginia, Ohio, Indiana, Iowa, Colorado, New Mexico and Nevada all went from red to blue, and we may see North Carolina go as well. As good as Obama ran his campaign, McCain ran his into the ground. Sarah Palin, while far from the only thing that cost McCain the election, was the clincher for many people. Independents and moderates, for example, favored Obama over McCain. Obama won among men, women, and people under 65. He won Hispanic voters, Asian voters, African-American voters (in record numbers) and did better with white voters than any Democrat in 30 years. More people voted for Obama than any candidate in history, beating out George W. Bush’s 2004 performance by a million or so. Was there voter suppression? Probably, but here’s the thing about getting record turnout in an election – if it’s not close, they can’t steal it. And it wasn’t close. Democrats increased their margins in both houses of congress. Kicking Liddy Dole out of the Senate and making Joe Lieberman completely irrelevant was just icing on the cake.

Hey Karl, how’s that “permanent Republican majority” workin’ out for ya’? Maybe not so good? Maybe you got that one wrong? Maybe you and W and Cheney and McCain and Palin and the rest of your self-marginalized party should’ve thought about the long term effects of not just your election tactics, but your governing policies too. Maybe 50%+1 isn’t such a good idea after all. Welcome to irrelevancy, population: You.

There. I feel better now that I’ve gotten that out of my system. Now we can move on towards unifying this country and…..

….hang on, one more…

……bring an end to this partisan bickering. For the good of America.

– Michael Turner

Polls just closed in Virginia, but this is not the end to what we’ll be hearing about this state. The get-out-the-vote slogan here should have been “Rock the Vote (but not too much!)” Polls were not prepared for high voter turnout in the state this election. Voting machines broke down in northern Virginia (but that’s okay, ‘cause it’s not real Virginia. [ap.google.com] anyway), forcing people to use back-up paper ballots and wait out in the rain for hours. Some were waiting for five to seven hours [www.cbsnews.com], and even when the lines calmed down, they were still two hours long.

To prolong voting further, John McCain filed a lawsuit [thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com] yesterday to ask the state to count military ballots from overseas until November 14.

As of now, if Virginia goes to Barack Obama, the election is over. But all the delays caused by the election chaos in the state could also delay a win.

–Jamie Wong

This is where the rubber meets the road. After the dizzying drama of the last 12 months – John McCain’s campaign left for dead in the early primaries before pulling off the comeback; the epic struggle between the two historic candidacies of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama – we are hours away from the thrilling conclusion. The first fusillade of early voting complete, the two armies are now fully engaged. The Republican party’s formidable 72-hour Get Out the Vote program, perfected by Karl Rove, meets Barack Obama’s highly touted ground game, set in place during that grueling primary fight, following mad scientist Howard Dean’s 50-state strategy. It’s irresistible force meets immovable object. Partisan emotions are at a fever pitch as everyone’s efforts over the last several months, if not years, come to fruition.

Oh, it’s on.

I don’t know for sure how McCain supporters are feeling today, but I hope they’re feeling good. I want them to feel good. More than that, I want them to bring it. I want to know Republicans brought their best game at this key moment in American history. I understand John McCain is not the best candidate the Republican party has ever fielded, nor is his campaign the most competent they’ve ever run. But you go to Election Day with the candidate and campaign you have, not the ones you wish you had. And it’s not like McCain and the GOP haven’t been given heavy, if repulsive, ammunition for this particular battle and been afraid to use it. An inexperienced black man with the middle name “Hussein,” palling around with terrorists, forcing people to have abortions and gay marriages, robbing from the rich to give to those shifty poor people, laughing with their elite friends at “real” Americans. And that’s fine. That’s good. Bring it. And bring the usual Election Day voter suppression too. Bring the fixed ballots, the robocalls, the racist flyers from “unknown” sources. Bring the cultural divisions, the racial mistrust and the fear of real change.

Just. Bring. It.

Because Obama supporters will. Democrats have found a once in a generation leader, a mix of intelligence, judgment and charisma that has the opportunity to not just take this country in a different direction, but change the very nature of our culture for the better. Barack Obama’s story could not be written in any other country, and there’s no small amount of pride his supporters have for that. There will be record turnout for him, like nothing anyone has seen. Because he’s Shane riding in to clean up the town. He’s the Natural. He’s Bruce frickin’ Lee. And after eight years of watching Republicans systematically lay to waste everything they touched, Democrats are as primed as they’ll ever be to take back the reins and keep us from going over the cliff. And if he loses? We can all enjoy the view on the way down. I hear it’s nice.

But regardless of the outcome, I need to know that Republicans brought their best and we brought ours. I need to know if we truly have a fatal flaw that will forever keep us from moving forward. I need to know the measure of this country, if enough people will answer the better angels of their nature. I’m going now to answer mine. If you haven’t already, what are you waiting for?

Bring it.

– Michael Turner

As we enter the final 24 hours before finding out who will inherit the cataclysmic mess they left behind, let us pause to reflect on the two men that have so significantly shaped the electorate and, indeed, the country as a whole: George W. Bush and Dick Cheney.

First, we must find George W. Bush and Dick Cheney, no easy task given the habitual reclusiveness of the latter and the more recent shyness of the former. President Bush, an intuitive campaigner if nothing else – and his record suggests nothing else – has been a practical no-show on the campaign trail this year [www.nytimes.com], for which John McCain must be eternally grateful. Having previously beat out Richard Nixon, the latest poll from CBS shows George W. Bush usurping the once-untouchable Harry S. Truman to become least popular president in American history [www.cbsnews.com]. A more self-reflective individual might put two and two together and consider the possibility that his public stature was at least tangentially related to his policies, decisions and personality. Not W. In his mind he is a victim of history, the right man in the wrong place at a bad time who did his best and is certain history will vindicate him. Despite his fingerprints decorating the economic crisis, America’s diminished standing in the world and the unfolding clusterf@#& in the Middle East, he sees the tarnished image of his party and the obstacles to John McCain’s succession as somehow unfair, instead of being directly responsible for them. The increasingly likely possibility of an Obama presidency – and decreasingly likelihood of any sort of legacy-saving events in his final hundred days – is cause for “sadness,” [www.washingtonpost.com] as he might mourn the accidental death of a friend, regardless of the smoking shotgun in his hands.

Which brings us to Dick Cheney. If it’s possible for anyone to be even more reviled than George W. Bush, it’s “Fourth Branch.” From his cartoon-super-villain governing style to his Billy Idolesque whiplash smile, Dick Cheney’s disregard for facts, public opinion and the U.S. Constitution make him toxic to any Republican running for any office. But you don’t get approval ratings as rock-bottom bad as W and Dick by making good decisions. And so Dick Cheney offered John McCain and Sarah Palin his ringing endorsement this weekend [www.huffingtonpost.com]. With his sub-.200 average in public approval [www.pollingreport.com] even worse than Bush’s, it’s safe to say that even some of the hardcore Republicans that make up the McCain/Palin base don’t like him. Naturally, the Obama campaign couldn’t be happier with Cheney’s endorsement, and why not? Given Cheney’s track record of being wrong, they couldn’t have asked for better news in the closing hours of this election.

– Michael Turner

Aarrgggghhh! Murphy’s Law has struck again. Here we are in the home stretch of this historic election, four days from the finish line when every narrative of the last 10 months is reaching a high-pitched whine, and my most crucial research tool is on the fritz. This is seriously vexing.

I’m talking, of course, about my Wingnut 3000 Craze-O-Matic. Really an indispensable device for someone like myself who keeps track of the various nutty rumors and memes that clog the intertubes. I imagine it shorted out from overuse, as this election cycle has brought epic levels of crazy from all corners of the blogosphere. I normally leave it active on my desk, hooked up to my computer. With the exception of the brief periods where John McCain was leading in the polls, it’s been running hot non-stop since Jeremiah Wright. It’s usually quite accurate, better than Google’s blog search, Technorati or even Memorandum for tracking down all the latest bits of rightwing insanity. But this morning I awoke to the faint smell of burning copper, only to find my Wingnut 3000 acting all funny. It was definitely on to something, something BIG, but whatever it was, the stupid was too highly concentrated and overloaded the device. All I can get from the readout is “Obama” and “family.” Bear with me, then, as I do this the old fashioned way.

“Obama” and “family,” huh? Let’s start with what we know. There’s wife Michelle and two daughters, Malia and Natasha. While there’s nothing even remotely controversial about the two little girls, other than they may exceed some states’ legal levels of cuteness, perhaps there’s some bit of new malarkey about Michelle? Alas, a quick search reveals that the long-rumored “whitey” tape [www.noquarterusa.net] continues to not materialize, as does the supposed audio recording of her personally calling some 4th rate “African news” blog based out of Norway and making incendiary comments in broken English, as the transcript clearly shows [africanpress.wordpress.com]. While I highly recommend any Republican readers to literally hold their breath in anticipation of what will surely be the imminent release of these election-shattering tapes, these are old-crazy. Nothing new here. Moving on.

Maybe the Wingnut 3000 is referring to extended family? I recall the story of Obama’s half-brother George [www.telegraph.co.uk], who was supposedly poverty-stricken and living on a dollar a day in some Kenyan shantytown. Why did Obama refuse to help his own flesh and blood? Conservative bloggers trumpeted this revelation as evidence Obama didn’t really really care about the poor if he was unwilling to throw a few scraps to poor brother George. Sadly, George Obama was not nearly as destitute as they’d hoped and the reports of his supposed poverty angered him. The younger Obama was learning to be a mechanic and working with youth groups in his community and did not want any help from his American brother, of whom he was proud [www.cnn.com]. Not exactly earth-shattering stuff. Perhaps disappointed that brother George did not derail Barack’s candidacy, the Citizen Journalist Brigade then hunted down Obama’s aunt, Zeituni Onyango, living modestly and working as a health advocate in the South Boston public housing complex where she lived. Again, Obama’s refusal to give away his own wealth to the rest of his family who neither wanted nor needed it was somehow an indictment of his character, despite the fact that the family members in question seemed insulted by the suggestion that Obama, not particularly wealthy and newly so at that, should provide for them. Aunt Zeituni even made a few small donations to Obama’s campaign. Color me skeptical, but I just don’t get the feeling these are the leads the Wingnut 3000 is trying to point me towards.

But if it’s not his wife, his half-brother or his aunt, what’s left of any relevance? His father? Barack Obama Sr. died years ago and, while perhaps not a model father figure, is hardly in a position to………

Oh……Oh my……Sweet fancy Moses, what have we here? [atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com]

” Obama Jr. has never produced records of his supposed parent’s marriage or divorce most likely because they don’t exist……”

“HIS FATHER WOULD BE PROUD”

Ho-lee crap. In an approximately 850,000-word diatribe, John Bolton’s biggest fan and one of America’s Ten Dumbest People, Pam “Atlas Shrugs” Geller, plumbs the depths of her and her readers imaginations to craft a web of intrigue involving every African radical she can think of, throwing in Bill Ayers to boot and comes to the stunning conclusion that Malcolm X is Barack Obama’s father.

No wonder my Wingnut 3000 went kerflooie! I just don’t think it was designed to handle something like that. Oh well. Guess I’m stuck with the regular methods of search, discover and weep for our collective sanity during these last remaining days. These Craze-O-Matics cost a pretty penny to have fixed, so I may just buy the new model. The Wingnut 4000 says it not only finds all the latest crazed rightwing conspiracy theories, but even predicts what the next ones will be.

I gotta get me one of those.

– Michael Turner

It was 34 years ago today that Muhammad Ali met World Heavyweight Champion George Foreman in the classic “Rumble in the Jungle.” In the suffocating Zaire heat, Ali had a plan for his bigger, harder-punching opponent – get hit. Repeatedly. While not generally considered a sound strategy in boxing, Ali lay against the ropes, covered his face and let Foreman pound away. Ali would taunt Foreman during energy-sapping clinches, telling him to punch harder, and Foreman obliged. Fans of the challenger in the audience would be forgiven for getting anxious watching him absorb all those blows, but Ali had a plan. By the sixth round, Foreman was sucking hot wind and his shots were getting wild. In between occasional quick jabs, Ali continued to lean back until, finally, in the eighth round he sprang from the ropes and landed an explosive combination that sent an exhausted Foreman into a slow pirouette to the mat. Knock-Out.

Ali dubbed it the “rope-a-dope” strategy, and it’s what Barack Obama has been doing to John McCain.

Since abandoning his “happy warrior” strategy almost immediately in favor of going after Obama with the heavy lumber of cultural attacks and guilt-by-association, McCain has spent his campaign flailing away at Obama, making him the main focus rather than what a McCain presidency would do for America. And with each shot to the gut – Wright, “bitter,” Ayers, “Socialist,” Khalidi – many Democrats were chewing on their fingers, fretting about when Obama would punch back, frustrated that he didn’t seem aggressive enough (“Ali Boma Ye!”) [www.salon.com] But Obama remained calm. He had a plan. You can’t run on a campaign of offering a different kind of politics if you don’t, y’know, practice a different kind of politics. McCain’s non-stop mud-throwing drove up his own negatives and caused moderates and independents to flee in droves while Obama remained relatively unscathed, if not stronger. Now, in the eighth round, McCain’s credibility is exhausted. His campaign has been flailing for some time, having thrown everything in Steve Schmidt’s Rovian bag of tricks without success. Off-message and distracted by internal strife, they are ripe for the picking.

And here comes Obama off the ropes. His “closing argument” speech [www.demconwatchblog.com] delivered Monday in Ohio was as tight and succinct a summation of his message – and of the big-D Democratic ideal – as I’ve ever heard. The importance of helping the middle class, boosting the economy through alternative energy, common sense foreign policy and, of course, tying the Bush albatross around John McCain’s neck – it was all there. His latest campaign ad – “His Choice” [www.youtube.com] – uses McCain’s own words admitting he doesn’t know much ‘bout the economy and might have to rely on his vice-president to provide economic “expertise.” The ad’s title is revealed to be the image of a winking Sarah Palin; a heavy roundhouse right in the kisser. Then there was last night’s 30-minute infomercial, a prime time address laying out a host of specific proposals to seal the deal with as many viewers as possible. And finally, the next five days of the results of Obama’s unprecedented ground game, working mad scientist Howard Dean’s 50-state strategy for all its worth, with GOTV plans in red states McCain can’t afford to defend.

Muhammad Ali was strong and fast and had the gift of the gab, but what made him the Greatest of All Time was he was a master tactician. Like Ali, Obama has been a patient fighter, focused not on winning an individual round or news cycle, but on winning the fight. Obama has timed his most powerful shots for maximum effect on a punched-out opponent. McCain may yet drag himself off the canvas, but the ref is counting to ten. And it’s hot.

– Michael Turner

WASHINGTON, DC, October 29, 2008 (ENS) – In an open letter to the American people released Tuesday, 76 American Nobel Laureates in science endorsed Democratic Senator Barack Obama of Illinois for president of the United States. This is the largest number of Nobel prize winners ever to endorse a candidate for office.

Presidential candidate
Senator Barack Obama,
Harbor Park, Virginia,
October 28, 2008
(Photo by Jason
Pavear)

]

“This year’s presidential election is among the most significant in our nation’s history,” the Nobel Laureates wrote. “The country urgently needs a visionary leader who can ensure the future of our traditional strengths in science and technology and who can harness those strengths to address many of our greatest problems: energy, disease, climate change, security, and economic competitiveness.”

“We are convinced that Senator Barack Obama is such a leader, and we urge you to join us in supporting him.”

The scientists warned that an administration headed by Obama’s opponent Republican Senator John McCain of Arizona would not be good for future U.S. scientific endeavors that over the past eight years “have been damaged by stagnant or declining federal support.”

“John McCain’s promise to freeze funding increases for science next year threatens to continue this dangerous trend,” wrote the Nobel Laureates in chemistry, medicine and physics.

Presidential candidate
Senator John
McCain, October
28, 2008 (Photo
credit unknown)

“In addition, the reckless statements he and Governor [Sarah] Palin [of Alaska] have made on specific science programs including studies aimed at protecting the grizzly bear population, funding for a planetarium and research on fruit flies that have the potential to decimate crops brings to doubt their ability to manage the nation’s science programs,” the scientists wrote.

The Nobel Laureates were critical of President George W. Bush. Their letter warns, “The government’s scientific advisory process has been distorted by political considerations,” the scientists wrote. “As a result, our once dominant position in the scientific world has been shaken and our prosperity has been placed at risk.”

“We have lost time critical for the development of new ways to provide energy, treat disease, reverse climate change, strengthen our security, and improve our economy,” they wrote.

The Nobel Laureates praised Obama’s plan for managing and growing the nation’s scientific endeavor. “We especially applaud his emphasis during the campaign on the power of science and technology to enhance our nation’s competitiveness,” the scientists wrote.

Dr. Martin Calfie in his chemistry lab
at Columbia University (Photo by
Angela Radelescu)

“In particular, we support the measures he plans to take – through new initiatives in education and training, expanded research funding, an unbiased process for obtaining scientific advice, and an appropriate balance of basic and applied research – to meet the nation’s and the world’s most urgent needs.”

The list of 76 scientists includes three of the four American Nobel Laureates in science for 2008 – Martin Chalfie of Columbia University and Roger Tsien of the University of California at San Diego who shared the prize in Chemistry, and Yoichiro Nambu, of the University of Chicago who won the prize in Physics.

Chalfie was the first of the three to make his intentions known. One of the first actions he took after learning he won the prestigious prize was to contact a friend about signing on to the Obama endorsement letter.

“I understand there’s a list of Nobel Prize winners supporting Barack Obama, and I want to get my name on the list,” Chalfie said.

Chalfie also recorded a YouTube video explaining his endorsement to the public, saying, “The United States is the leader in scientific discovery and its application, but other countries are working hard to take away this lead. Barack Obama’s administration will continue to keep us the envy of the world.”

View This Story On Eco–mmunity Map.

After Nov. 4, whether John McCain wins or loses, the Republican party is going to go into the next room, close the door and give itself a good talking to [www.politico.com]. Party apparatchiks, conservative leaders, activists and think-tank know-it-alls alike will gather and determine “whither conservatism?” and “who gets to drive?” George W. Bush slinks off into ignominy having left the Republican brand a shambles, with no obvious heir to the reins of the party save McCain, who the base is determined to keep on a leash. Moderate Republicans will attempt to argue for sanity and a broader outreach to new voters instead of scaring them, but if the Rush Limbaugh wing of the party has anything to say about it, moderation will get drowned in a bucket and they will choose the next leader of the Republican National Committee [www.latimes.com]. The lesson learned by many conservative leaders in the Democrats’ 2006 mid-term rout was that the GOP wasn’t rightwing enough, that if only Republicans had run on more staunchly social and fiscal conservative platforms – despite the unpopularity of one and the utter failure of the other – Americans would see the light and jump on board. Conservatism can never fail, it can only be failed by politicians being insufficiently conservative [www.salon.com].

Into this breach in the Grand Ol’ Party steps Sarah Palin, Conservative Dream Girl. Should McCain win, expect Palin to be an active behind-the-scenes advocate for the megaphone minority on immigration, abortion, torture, teh gays and Islamofascism; a wingnut Lady MacBeth to McCain’s manipulated, power-blind ruler. More than whispers are saying Palin’s excessive maverickiness on the campaign trail and the friction between her supporters and McCain’s are a sign she’s anticipating a loss next Tuesday and paving the way for a 2012 presidential run [www.nytimes.com]. She has undoubtedly captured the ardor of the base, her understanding of the issues and concepts of government notwithstanding. Palin’s complaint that the McCain campaign hasn’t gone negative enough on Obama is just what they want to hear. A Palin ’12 campaign would enjoy a good deal of financial support from both grassroots groups and established players, and she’d have three whole years to become more familiar with things like foreign policy, the constitution and basic math [www.factcheck.org].

There are, however, a few speed bumps on the road to installing a tanning bed in the Oval Office. Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani come to mind. Mike Huckabee and Fred Thompson too, if someone wakes him up from his nap. Mitt in particular wants a return on his initial investment and won’t lie down quietly for Sarah Six-Pack to waltz off with his nomination. A full Republican primary schedule after a period of Democratic rule at both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue would be a brutal gauntlet for Palin, as her opposition would have three whole years to dig up every hidden scandal, comb through every questionable association and capitalize on every breathtakingly stupid thing she’s ever said. The last two months would be a good place to start.

But that won’t stop Sarah Palin, Conservative Dream Girl. She doesn’t need to acknowledge difficulty, or even be aware of it. She has her adoring fans; she understands them, and they understand her. And to prove that, when Sarah Palin rides that ultra-conservative war pony all the way to the Republican nomination in 2012, she’ll choose as her Vice President someone who literally is one of them. Someone whose lack of qualifications and even less knowledge of the issues than Palin has is seen as an advantage. Someone the base can relate to.

Palin & the Plumber 2012

You gotta believe.

– Michael Turner