The people have spoken…
Those words are usually uttered by the losers, and were heard many times today. It was a mixed bag, from our perspective. Democrats did nicely at the national level, but not so well locally. We suspected such would be the case. Our state’s people spoke up and indicated that they wanted to retain Mark Sanford, named one of the three worst governors in the nation by Time Magazine, for another four years. Oh joy. The only local bright spot is still contested. Jim Rex has claimed victory over Karen Floyd for Superintedent of Education, but only by a margin of 218 votes. Absentee ballots are still to be counted.
The possible outcomes would be ranked as follows, from worst to best. Of course, the last two are now not possible.
- A Sanford-Floyd (Sanfloyd?) team would be the worst thing for public education in the state.
- A Sanford-Rex combination would be better.
- Moore-Floyd team would be the better than Sanford-Rex since the governor’s office holds more sway over policy.
- A Moore-Rex team would have been the ideal. Alas.
At the national level, apart from those that lost their jobs through the election process, the first head to roll was that of Donald Rumsfeld. That happened about four years too late, in my opinion. At dinner, the speculation was that if Rumsfeld had been canned two weeks ago, Republicans might have retained control of the house. I guess the Shrub needs a good whack upside the head to make him do the right thing, or, as he put it, a "good thumpin’." Contrition is not one of his strong suits, but he managed to pull it off in his press conference this afternoon.
So now the Democrats are back in charge, at least for the time being. My Republican friends are already prophesying everything from higher gas prices to emboldened terrorists. I think the best thing they (the Dems) can do is put the brakes on a runaway train that has destroyed the United State’s stature in the world and threatened the very freedoms that were supposedly being upheld.