Attending the 2009 Presidential Inauguration

“Please don’t blame Ralph Nader.”

Gore vs G.W. Bush vs Nader
Voted: Gore
My Conscience: Nader
My Conscience in the Democratic Primary: Bill Bradley

Impressions Heading into Election Day
Gore: Could a person run a safer but weirder campaign? (question answered in 4 years by John Kerry)
G.W. Bush: Jesus Christ! How, why, what, etc., and more and more etc., etc. I mentioned psychology earlier in reference to Nixon and Reagan, but wow!!!!!! There’s always some fool around to keep Freud relevant.
Nader: Loved how this muther wouldn’t bend or bend over for you or anyone else. He was an unforgiving remedy cut in stone—post Slick Willie.

Gore: 48.38% with 266 electoral
G.W. Bush: 47.87% with 271 electoral
Ralph Nader: 3% with 0 electoral

Looking Back: This electoral tragedy (marked by the unexplainable freezing of the Florida recount) initiated a spiraling series of global tragedies that have culminated into America’s current condition. But please don’t blame Ralph Nader. Typically when people vote for a candidate, they don’t care if any of the others lose.

But the spectacle of this election and recount is not nearly as amazing to me as the simple fact that George W. Bush could ever procure more than 3% of American’s votes (what Nader got). Put these two guys (Ralph and George) in a room together and listen to them talk, then tell me afterwards that you were impressed by and want to vote for Bush. I mean, common.

Also, Buchanan ran Perot’s Reform Party into the ground, but not before professional wrestler “Jesse the Body” serves an actual Reform Party term as Governor of Minnesota.

Election Map: Democrats experienced a “global warming” in the previous Clinton victory map. It looked the same in the North and West, but it melted in the South, including in Gore’s home state of Tennessee.

“Washington presidential politics was looking a lot like a Harlem Globetrotters vs Washington Generals game.”

Reagan vs Mondale
If Old Enough to Vote: um…Mondale (motivated by severe Reagan angst)
My Conscience: Nobody
My Conscience in the Democratic Primary: John Glenn, then Gary Hart

Impressions Heading into Election Day
Reagan: His world was more of a circus than I imagined it would be, though I respected him for coming out of the shooting as strongly as he did (but the incident unfortunately gave him great political leeway during his increasing mental decline).
Mondale: Reminded me of a library administrator you really don’t want to know anything about, and I knew that politically he was nothing more than a roadkill offering to landslide #2.

Reagan: 59% and 525 electoral
Mondale: 41% and 13 electoral

Looking Back: Mondale didn’t do a single thing to stop or slow the growing Republican machine and the momentum of their political philosophy now sweeping the populace. If anything, this limp candidacy offered up by the Democrats gave a “Bad News Bears” loser vibe to the party. Washington presidential politics was looking a lot like a Harlem Globetrotters vs Washington Generals game.

Election Map: Reagan’s election map was everything except Minnesota. I remember thinking that Mondale should be allowed to be president of Minnesota. Wouldn’t really affect the rest of the country much; winning just one state should make such an arrangement easy logistically.