2012 Election Observations

I just finished watching the election coverage with my friends and sadly I don't have anything very dramatic or stirring to say. What I do have are some observations that will likely have repercussions both short term and long term:

1. Status Quo- Clearly, this election has not been a repeat of 2008 in terms of "Red states" and "Blue states" and it's my observation that the Red State/Blue State equation has returned to the status quo of before the 2008 election in which many traditionally "red" states went "blue". North Carolina and Indiana are prime examples of this.

2. Too Close to Call- Many political "insiders", such as Karl Rove are disputing the news media calling of Ohio for President Obama with so small a gap between them. As of right now (10:24pm MT), President Obama has a lead of only ~10,000 votes over Mitt Romney with 82% counted. Florida is in a very similar situation with just ~50,000 votes separating the two candidates, which is quite close to the 0.5% margin for an automatic recount.

3. Blame Game- Before the night is up, prepare to see Conservatives blame the Romney campaign for either being too lazy in the final days before the election, for being too soft on the President, being too moderate or any combination of those.

4. Voter Fraud- Just as the blame game with start, so too will claims of voter fraud (especially in Ohio). There were already reports of this during the day before the polling stations closed on the East coast. How true any of these claims are is a mystery to me. Personally, it's likely as with most things, there is likely a grain of truth to these claims and then bloated to incredible proportions.

5. Speeches- I would be a little shocked if either candidate gives a speech tonight. At last check, the Romney campaign is not ready to concede Ohio and as such is not giving up just yet. So we might be in for an all-nighter or multi-day affair.

That's all for now. I want to thank all those who exercised their Right to Vote for this election. It may seem like a small thing but there are so many in America that don't exercise this right and just shrug it off for any number of reasons: their votes won't count, nothing will change, etc. The sad thing is, as long as so many Americans think that, the more likely it is that their attitudes will prove true. I've said it once and I'll say it again, the low voter turnout in America is THE greatest threat to our vital democracy..

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