Election Wrap Up

 

Hey There:

So I wrote a lot of this last Saturday. I didn't post for a few reasons, but the main reason was sort of an internal personal battle between my wanting to celebrate Joe Biden's victory against my not wanting to raise the temperature as it were. 

Some of the wacky conspiracy theories I saw, some of the things written on social media that was just plain incorrect, made me want to get on here and gloat, the way I know many of the Trump supporters I know would have done had he won the election. 

On the other hand, I said it 4 years ago, and it hasn't changed.. no election is worth losing friends over. I've had some knockdown, drag out screaming matches over politics back in my younger days that now I just thank God that I didn't burn bridges permanently over them. Presidents come and go, friends can last forever, provided that you don't f-ck it up by claiming moral or intellectual superiority. 

So I'm going to attempt to give my recap of the events of what became election week and hopefully not offend anyone. Here goes...

       4 years ago, I watched CNN as the results were coming in. I remember posting on FB at 11 PM that night, "8 years ago, at 10:59 and 50 seconds, I remember Charles Gibson of ABC News saying in 10 seconds it will be 11 PM in the east. He stared at the camera for 10 seconds, then declared Barack Obama the next President of the United States. I could tell by the commotion in the apartments around me that other networks did the same thing. I thought the same thing would happen tonight and we'd be hearing about the first female President. It still might, but clearly not at 11 PM."

A couple people replied that it wasn't going to be announced at all. Most of the other networks were saying that Trump had an insurmountable lead. They were right.

So this year, I set it up so I wouldn't get caught with my proverbial pants down again. I put my gal Norah O'Donnell and CBS on the TV, CNN on the laptop and MSNBC on the iPad. After a couple hours, I went from Norah to the great Neil Cavuto on Fox Business Channel. The broadcast networks were slow in calling states, the cable networks were a bit faster. 

Former Vice President Joe Biden had pretty substantial leads in Florida, Ohio and even Texas in the first couple of hours. President Trump had a huge leads in Pennsylvania Georgia and Michigan, and a slight lead in Wisconsin.  Since Florida is Trump's new home, I figured they would turn red and they did. Texas too. Ohio I thought might hold on for Biden, but ended up in the Trump column.  

I had made a promise that I wouldn't stay up past midnight. I stayed up till 2 AM in 2016, and driving into work the next day was not pleasant, as much because of lack of sleep as because of the result. I had Jack Buck's voice going through my head, his famous call of Kirk Gibson's walk off homer in Game 1 of the 1988 World Series. "I can't believe what I just saw!" 

But as I was texting with (Razor) Ray McGarvey around 12:15 or so, I saw that Joe Biden was going to address the nation at 12:30. So I stayed up and watched that. 

Right before I went to bed, James Carville was on MSNBC and he was like "Don't panic" Well, I was panicking, but I have to admit, I felt a bit better after hearing Carville. To me, he is still the gold standard for running a Presidential Campaign. Those of us old enough to remember 1992 know that Bill Clinton at one point was a distant third in both the Democratic Primary season (behind Paul Tsongas and Jerry Brown) and then in the race for the White House (behind George HW Bush and Ross Perot) and ended up winning both races.  

Still needless to say, getting up Wednesday morning was no picnic, especially since when I went to bed, Trump was still leading bigly in PA and Michigan. But when I woke up, Biden had taken the lead in Wisconsin and was catching up in Michigan. Biden also had a big lead in Arizona, with the AP and Fox going so far as to call it for Biden. Around 2 PM on Wednesday, they called Wisconsin for Biden. Two hours later, they called Michigan for him too. Two of the three big upsets Trump had pulled off in 2016 had gone back to the Democrats. The third state was Pennsylvania.

I turned in early Wednesday night. Even if I wanted to, I couldn't stay up late. 

Thursday not much happened, except the numbers in Georgia and Pennsylvania were trending towards Biden, while Trump's numbers in Arizona were improving. 

Now I felt like Thursday night we were going to have some news, but it ended up being a big nothing burger. I stayed up till almost midnight with nothing to show for it.

But the first thing I saw Friday was that Biden was leading in Georgia, a state I figured he had no shot of winning. He took the lead in Pennsylvania shortly thereafter. 

Had my WM staff call Friday night. 

Of course I was out doing stuff with Tara and Timmy on Saturday morning when the news came over that Pennsylvania had been called and that we now had a new President-elect. You know what they say about a watched pot never boiling. 

Obviously I was elated. 

Joe Biden will be America's first Catholic President since JFK, and only the second in history. Kamala Harris becomes the first female Vice President and the first person of color to hold the office. He's the first person to lose Ohio and win the Presidency since 1960. For my Trump friends, your guy has received the 2nd most votes in the US election history. Even more than Hillary got in 2016. That's something you can hang your MAGA hats on. 

Like I said in last week's post, my record in Presidential elections is about the same as my record with football picks. I've been there. I went for Gore in 2000, Kerry in 2004, McCain in 2008 and Evan McMillan in 2016. I voted for Bill Clinton enthusiastically in 1992, a little less so in 1996, and if not for Super Storm Sandy, I may have voted for Mitt Romney in 2012. I voted for Obama that time, and I'm happy I did. Biden's win gets me to the .500 mark. Somewhere between Bill Belichick and Richie Kotite. 

When I worked at OTB, I'd watch the bettors as they watched the races on TV, if the horse the people were betting on was in the lead at the first turn, they'd all shout "Stop the race!". They were being facetious, the President was being serious. "Stop counting the votes!" in the states where he was winning, "Every vote should count" in the states he was losing. Got it?

For the record...

I know people said "Not My President" when Trump took over. I never did. I always acknowledged him as the President, as our President. 

I also never said that he wasn't duly elected. Go back through my blogposts. I acknowledged his victory.

I never questioned the results, never accused anyone of rigging anything. I detested a lot of the things he said, but he ran a hell of a campaign. 

Did I say that the Russians interfered? Sure I did. You know who else did? Trump's intelligence people. The evidence was overwhelming. How much Trump knew about it at the time is up for debate, but what's not debatable is that it happened. 

Hillary Clinton conceded the election the next morning.  President Obama invited the President-elect to the White House two days later. Jill Stein, the Green Party candidate was the one who asked for the recounts. This idea that Democrats held up the transfer of power 4 years is just more right wing fantasy. 

While I didn't have the guts to make a prediction, I did fill out a map on RealClearPolitics.com, it's kind of like March Madness, you have to give it a shot right? I took a picture on my phone to capture the date and time, lest you think I was pulling a Mike Francesca. 

I got Georgia and Arizona completely wrong, and I gave all of Nebraska to Trump and all of Maine to Biden. (Maine and Nebraska split their votes by Congressional District) Otherwise, not bad. 

And one final thing....You guys wanna say that this election was stolen, rigged, whatever, go ahead and prove it. I'm sure it wasn't, but hey, if you think so have at it. Maybe by some miracle Trump will get it to the Supreme Court and have his stooges overturn the election for him. I wouldn't hold my breath.

But for those of you saying that "Oh, no more COVID now that Biden won,"  Please don't go there. You all know my stance on the "COVID is a Hoax" people.  I'll repost my COVID special from last June if you need a reminder. 

Now full disclosure here.. I did walk through Times Square last Saturday, and yeah it was crowded. I did stop and shoot a video of a Trump balloon flying away. I had my mask on, I didn't touch anything, or anybody, and I got the hell out of there quickly. I probably should have avoided it all together and walked up 6th Avenue. As soon as I got to the office, I washed my hands and went nuts on the sanitizer. 

COVID's not over folks. Not by a longshot. The numbers are going back up. I don't care who you voted for. Wear a mask, and stay safe. This virus has already cost us all way too much. 

Please let's all of us at least agree on that.

Weekly Mail returns tomorrow night.