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Looking Back, Moving Forward
Author: BobR    Date: 11/23/2012 14:14:18

With the presidential election 17 days behind us, there is still a lot of analysis about "what happened" and why. Some moderate Republicans are beginning to understand that the crazies and extremists and idiots in their party that get all the media attention are hurting them. The prognosticators are also doing a bit of their own naval gazing. And now that much of America has heaved a huge sigh of relief, we all wonder: what now?

One of the most talked about areas of the race prior to the election was the polls. Some showed Obama up; some showed Romney up... who to trust? Were some biased?

As all of the exact vote totals get tallied and crunched and massaged in various number-crunching formulae, the simple bottom line is: they didn't get it right. It seems that most polls skewed in favor of Romney:
It’s fairly clear that no matter what method is utilized, the national polls were too favorable towards Romney. Only eight out of 113 polls (or 7.1%) during the final month had Obama’s lead at above 3pt. Three of the eight were from the Rand Corporation, two were from Google, and the rest were scattered between Democracy Corps, IBD/TIPP, and the United Technologies/National Journal survey.

During the final week, only three out of 30 polls (or 10%) conducted had Obama’s lead above 3pt. They belonged to Democracy Corps, Google, and Rand. If Obama’s lead climbs to 3.5pt, then, even with rounding, the vast majority of national polls were off in the final week. (Note: usually one would consider a poll giving Obama’s victory margin as 3pt to be right if the final result were between 2.50 and 3.49pt.)

Only two pollsters with at least two surveys post-first debate out of about 30 (less than 10%) had Obama’s average lead at 3.5pt or above. Again, it was Democracy Corps (Obama +3.5) and Rand (Obama +4.0).

It also seems apparent that God Himself lied to numerous people (we've already pointed out Bachmann, et al) about who He wanted to be president. It's rare that people get called on that, but Pat Robertson did:
Today, responding to a question from a viewer who wondered why her business is struggling since she thought God told her it would be successful, Robertson admitted that he sometimes misses God’s message. “So many of us miss God, I won’t get into great detail about elections but I sure did miss it, I thought I heard from God, I thought I had heard clearly from God, what happened?” Robertson replied, “You ask God, how did I miss it? Well, we all do and I have a lot of practice.”

To quote Rick Perry: "Oops."

So now that it seems God has decided President Obama needed to be reelected, what now? As Americans, it is our duty to pressure him to do the right thing, and thank (and support) him when he does. Film maker Michael Moore has a list of things he'd like to see done. While I agree with most of them (excepting the Bradley Manning pardon suggestion), a lot of the bigger items require "an act of Congress". That requires putting pressure on lawmakers as well.

Back in 2007-2008 when he was Senator Obama running for president the first time, my biggest concern with him was that he was a bit too moderate, and not strong on the environment. He has a mixed record on environmental issues, and talks a good game about getting off "old energy technologies" (i.e.: coal and petrol), but talking and doing are two different things. Michael Moore didn't include anything about the environment in his letter, but for me and many others, it is of vital importance. That's why I will be anxious to see what comes of an upcoming global summit. This is one where I plan on sending him an email asking him to do the right thing.

Despite what the polls said, or what God supposedly said, or what anyone's concerns were (including my own back in 2008), he is our president for the next 4 years and needs to hear from us. Democracy only works when people get involved, and that doesn't stop at the counting of the ballots.
 

27 comments (Latest Comment: 11/24/2012 03:12:37 by livingonli)
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