The Hardest Part Begins

Like many of you, I'm relieved the election is finally over. Two years of constant campaigning is too much. I wish that the election cycle could be shortened to six weeks, but realistically, those who benefit from lengthy and expensive campaigns will never let that happen.

Congratulations and best wishes to Barack Obama on his historic victory. His election demonstrates that the American dream is not myth, but reality. This is a very good thing for the country. He was not my choice, but I pray that he will deliver on the promise in his acceptance speech to reach out to those who did not vote for him.

"Change" and "hope" were the catch-phrases for this election for both candidates. Now that the election is over, let us put it in perspective.

Presidents are limited in what they can achieve by many things over which they have no control: the powers of the Congress and Supreme Court, history, competing interests of powerful lobby groups, the expectations of their party and supporters, the opposition of those who do not agree with their policy proposals, the actions of foreign countries, the strengths and weaknesses of their advisors and Cabinet secretaries, and their own human shortcomings. Campaigning is very diffcult, but governing is even harder.

Psalm 146 reminds us not to have unrealistic expectations for our leaders:

3 Do not put your trust in princes,
in mortal men, who cannot save.

4 When their spirit departs, they return to the ground;
on that very day their plans come to nothing.

5 Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob,
whose hope is in the LORD his God,

6 the Maker of heaven and earth,
the sea, and everything in them—
the LORD, who remains faithful forever.

7 He upholds the cause of the oppressed
and gives food to the hungry.
The LORD sets prisoners free,

8 the LORD gives sight to the blind,
the LORD lifts up those who are bowed down,
the LORD loves the righteous.

9 The LORD watches over the alien
and sustains the fatherless and the widow,
but he frustrates the ways of the wicked.

10 The LORD reigns forever,
your God, O Zion, for all generations.
Praise the LORD.

President-Elect Obama needs our prayers for God's guidance and wisdom as he begins the process of choosing members of his new administration, and continuing after he takes office. May the Lord be with him and with this country!

All's Quiet On the Election Front

St. Betty just called to report that all is relatively quiet at our local precinct. It seems that 58% of the registered voters in the precinct voted early! So although there is a steady stream of folks coming in, there are plenty of machines and no waiting.

Evidently we ALL heart early voting.

Our precinct (and our county) normally vote strongly Republican. We'll see if the high turnout signals a change in that pattern--or not.

QG's Traveling Lunch Wagon

For the first time in several election cycles, I'm not serving as an election official in my precinct.

The turnout is likely to be very heavy (based on the fact that we've had more than 40% of all registered voters in the county vote early). That means that the officials will be sitting for hours and hours at a time. In my case, that means bad bad news for my gimpy knee.

So I've volunteered to serve as the lunch wagon for the election workers. I'll bring lunch to them -- just after the noon rush because I know from experience that you can't stop to eat from about 11:30 to 1 pm.

In some ways I'm sad not to be working a presidential election. My knee, however, is very happy to be fetching lunch instead.

The Wizards of Washington

I Heart Early Voting

It's the second day of early voting in the great state of Texas, where the deer and the antelope play, and we're considered too red for the presidential candidates to fight much over. Thank God.

Yesterday was by far the highest turnout ever seen here for the first day of early voting. There were about 20 people this afternoon voting when I stopped by, but there were plenty of machines and no lines.

Early voting is a wonderful thing. In Texas, you can vote at any of the early voting locations in your county and voting hours are scheduled at nights and on weekends, too. Officials expect about one third of all votes to be cast early.

It is so much easier and more convenient to vote early than to fight the crowds on November 4, that I don't know why everyone doesn't vote early. This is particularly true in our precinct where intrepid voters have to traverse the local high school's student parking lot in order to vote in the auditorium. A word to the wise: don't try to vote between 7:15 and 7:30 am or between 2:30 and 2:45 pm.

Now that I've voted early, I'm not listening to any of the candidates anymore.

~fingers in ears~

"La, La, La. I can't HEAR you!"

Random Thoughts While Watching the RNC

There's a lot of talk about "mavericks" at the convention. The term comes from the Texas pioneer family that refused to brand their cattle. Neighbors would call the unbranded cattle were "the Maverick's." Maury Maverick, Sr., was a long-time mayor of my home town, San Antonio.

I remember his son, MM Jr., with great fondness. He was a colorful plaintiff's attorney and erstwhile liberal Democratic politician with a big heart and a compelling turn of phrase. I got to know him when I first practiced law there. He used to call me "the kid" and was a friend of my father's. Now you know who the real Mavericks were!

Someone mentioned that Gerald Ford considered putting Anne Armstrong, then the Texas Republican Party committeewoman, on his ticket back in 1976. Anne was the matriarch of the Texas Republican party and died just a couple of months ago, aged 80. Back in the 1950's and 60's, she ran the Republican primaries in our precinct out of the garage apartment in her home. She would have been tickled to see a woman on the GOP ticket.

Thinking of Anne Armstrong made me think about my grandmother a staunch Republican from the Midwest. She remembered when women got the right to vote and always preached to me "if you don't vote, you can't complain." So we both voted and we both complained!

John McCain's P.O.W. story brought reflections of the legacy of the Vietnam era veterans like El Jefe's cousins, one of whom continues to suffer the effects of his wounds. The difference in attitude at both the party conventions towards our service men and women, despite disagreements about foreign policy, must be gratifying to Vietnam vets. At El Jefe's last high school reunion, the class staged a touching tribute to those who served in Viet Nam. I remember when they were shamefully treated by their fellow countrymen upon their return from service. This is indeed a change for the better.

Babs came home for dinner last night. She and her boyfriend, Portia and DK all watched Sarah Palin's speech together last night and they are very excited about her nomination. If she comes to Houston, they will so be there. If my grandmother was still with us, she'd hitch a ride with them! But Texas isn't one of the battleground states so I doubt we'll see either ticket campaigning down here.

Now the campaign begins in earnest. It would be nice if the candidates and their surrogates and supporters stuck to debating issues and policies. But history and an understanding of human nature tell us that hasn't happened and it won't happen. Vicious personal attacks and slanders have been a staple of national elections since the early days of the republic. All sides have been, are, and will be guilty. It's the ugly underbelly of democracy and the constitutional guarantee of free speech. But it's still the best system for the government of a free people devised by the mind of man.

Let Election 2008 begin!

Hear, Hear!

I'm saddened, too.

Thank you, Rev. Kim. Very well said.

I couldn't agree more.

Me and St. Paul at the Polls

It was a v-e-r-r-y slow day at the polls, despite the fact that we were conducting the run-offs for 3 precincts instead of one. It was so slow in fact that I was able to read several days worth of Bible in 90 Days assignments while there. Since we're in the midst of the Pauline epistles, you could say that St. Paul was very much my companion at my post. This led to some discussions of my BIND Bible and what it was and why I was reading it with my fellow election clerks.

Nothing really exciting happened after the machines failed to work when the polls opened at 7 and we had to call for assistance. Once rebooted, they worked fine. Here's a brief summary of 12 long hours:

• No Democrats showed up to preside over their runoff.
• Since the Democratic party in effect was paying for our time, we debated the best use of our remunerations. Party at the wine bar? Donation to the Republican PAC? Wine bar won.
• About 200 people voted today in the Republican run-off and 6 voted in the Democratic party run-off.
• Only 3 people tried to vote in the Republican run-off who had voted in the Democratic primary election--a lot fewer than we expected. When informed they could only vote in the Democratic run-off, they left without voting.
• Our take-out lunches didn't include eating utensils, but we managed to finagle them from the high school cafeteria (our polling place is in the high school auditorium).
• There was only 1 election placard for a candidate, instead of the usual dozens that we see.
• I almost finished reading all of the Pauline epistles!
  

What's it all mean? I don't know, I've given up political prognosticating because my record of accuracy isn't very good. Don't you wish all those political pundits and talking heads would do the same?

Run-Off Let-Down

Tomorrow we're having the Texas primary run-off elections. Bet you haven't heard nearly as much about that as you did about the primary itself!

I'll be on duty along with neighbors St. Betty, Mrs. America, the Defender and Roaming Widow at our local precinct by the dawn's early light until night's first gloaming. There are only a couple of races in the Republican primary that require a run-off, but one is for the congressional representative from District 22 (Tom Delay's old seat). I've already had several calls from celebrity politicos about that one at home today.

Apparently there is some run-off in the Democratic party as well. For what I don't know. At this point it looks like we will be running both run-offs because no Democrat has signed up to do it. Oh, well it won't be the first time, as my gentle readers know. I wish my new pal Ruby were registered to vote in Texas instead of little blue state because then she could come down and be the official Democrat and the day would be much more entertaining! We always repair to a nearby wine bar after delivering the vote to the county election officials for some much-needed adult refreshment.

We're expecting a relatively light turnout and a high percentage of cross-over voters who will be muy sad when we tell them they can't vote in the Republican run-off because they voted in the Democratic primary. Ha!

If anything of interest happens, I'll let you know.

St. Betty's Texas Primary Election Report

Since the flu kept me from my usual post at my precinct yesterday, I phoned St. Betty this morning to get a report "on the ground" from her about the day's events at the Texas primary.

First of all, she reported that 20% of our county and precinct voted early, which helped keep the crowd manageable yesterday. At the last minute they were able to recruit a Democrat to help her and her daughter (The Defender) run the Democratic primary while the remainder of the Republican election crew ran the Republican primary. The voters on both sides were in good humor and excited and on the whole the process went quite smoothly. My friend Dorothy's son, a high school senior who is registered to vote, came in mid-afternoon to assist with crowd control at the end of election day and did a great job.

There were 300 voters in the Republican primary and 289 in the Democratic primary. St. Betty reported there were lots of first time voters: young voters and new citizens who needed instruction in how to use the machines and how to vote. There were lots of questions about the implications of cross-over voting in the Democratic primary (not surprising in this heavily Republican precinct): do you have to stamp my card "democrat"? how long does it last? what does it mean? Also, St. Betty said that a significant number of voters made it clear that they were only interested in voting in the presidential race in this primary and were not interested in any other races, so voting on this side went very quickly.

In Texas, all it means is that if you vote in the Democratic primary you cannot vote in the Republican primary run-off election, if there is one. And there is a hot race for Congress in District 22 (the old Tom Delay seat), so some potential cross-overs were concerned about not being able to vote in the Republican primary run-0ff.

The turnout for the Democratic caucus was huge, as has been reported everywhere. In the past I've seen 3 or 4 people show up. This year St. Betty said 250 to 300 folks appeared. She said the local Democratic party wasn't prepared for this kind of turnout which caused them some problems. The election workers had some logistical problems taking down the machines and completing their work after the polls closed due to the crush of people in the room at the high school where the election was held.

St. Betty anticipates problems in the Republican primary run-off election when there will certainly be a number of cross-over voters trying to "come home" who won't be permitted to vote in that run-off.

So there you have it, friends. My conclusion is that there was a significant Republican cross-over vote in our precinct, and doubtless throughout our area. We can only speculate as to which candidate benefited more from that.

NYC, Flu, and the Texas Primary

Friday, SIL and I flew to NYC to attend the big wedding shower for her future-daughter-in-law, who also is Portia's best friend from college. Faithful readers will recall that Queenie (because she is from Queens) and Doc (SIL's son the naval surgeon) met at Portia's wedding. It was an wonderful opportunity to learn about the Croatian community where she grew up.

I seriously do not understand how these people keep their slim figures amidst the astounding amount of delicious food that is on offer. And offer. And offer. For example, the wedding shower was at a restaurant with a five course sit-down meal for all the guests. Mangia, mangia, was a constant cry--you don't eat very much, they'd say to us. And we kept eating so as not to offend them. I thought we'd have to call our husbands to come with a forklift to get us off the plane.

Unfortunately I came down with a stomach flu right after the shower and --ahem--let's just say that the forklift wasn't necessary. With the help of immodium, I made it home on the plane and am finally feeling better.

BUT, I wasn't well enough to help St. Betty and Mrs. America run the primary election today. DANG. This would have been great blog fodder, too. Because the county clerk couldn't find any Democratic election volunteers, St. Betty and I were going to be assigned to the Democratic party side of the election. Although this has happened before, I'm surprised it happened in this primary election, what with all the excitement about the Obama/Clinton matchup. What is up with that? Where are the Democrats in our precinct? I'll have to get a report from St. Betty tonight.

Meanwhile it's me, Beatrice, dry toast and tea and the cable news coverage. Sigh.

Babs Reports from the Hustings

QG interrupts her regular blogging schedule to bring you this special news report by Babs, from the campaign trail with former President Bill Clinton in Houston:

Ok, so when I arrived at work today about 7:30 am, I realized that there is a Hillary rally at the Fiesta* (I kid you not) parking lot across the street. My co-workers and I trotted over and were then entertained by a mariachi band and free tacos from the taco stand. There were about 20 people at this rally, if this is any indication about how well Hills will do in Texas. I did get a free "Hillary 2008" sign and I was about ten feet away from Bill Clinton, who was the main attraction. He seemed very worked up and a wee ornery.

I did enjoy the taco.

More later, Babs

*Fiesta is a Houston area grocery chain that caters primarily to Hispanics, but also has foods from all over the world and so is popular with the large immigrant population of the area.


UPDATE: Babs filed these photos to go with her report, showing President Clinton, and Babs and her friend Sharlie at the rally. Maybe she has a future as a photo-journalist?

Early Voting

The QG family voted early today in the Texas primary election.

I was surprised to see that there were NO campaign signs for any of the presidential candidates--in either party--at the polling place, although there were lots of signs for candidates in local races. There weren't any poll workers, either.

But when I got home, there was a message from John McCain on my voicemail. El Jefe voted later this afternoon and while he was out Michelle Obama called. I'm expecting Hillary to call Babs this evening! Guess we haven't been forgotten after all....

The Campaign Comes to Houston

Babs has taken a big interest in the presidential primaries, so last night she persuaded me to sit down with her to watch the Wisconsin returns and Obama's speech from the Toyota Center in Houston just a few miles up the road.

Aside: there were about 20,000 people in the Toyota Center. Admission was by ticket only in order to control the crowd. Tickets were free, but the campaign ran out of them and started issuing "stand-by" passes a couple of days before the event. Momentum, anyone? In contrast Bill Clinton spoke to a mucho-dollares-a-plate fundraising dinner just a few blocks away at Swanky Hotel. I don't know whether that event sold out.

The speech was received with the kind of enthusiasm usually reserved for rock stars. Since I believe that the first priority of the federal government is national defense, Obama will not get my vote, though I concede he is an attractive, talented candidate, albeit with little experience or record of political accomplishment.

I expect both he, Hillary and Bill will be back in town again before March 4. And by the way, fellow TexasBloggers, early voting has begun so vote early and avoid the crowds on election day!

Anyone besides me and Babs getting a bit creeped out by the cult of personality developing around Obama's campaign?

It's ON in Texas

Last night while Babs and I were watching the "Potomac Primaries" returns, we saw our first campaign ad for Hillary Clinton. First one we've ever seen down here. The polls in Maryland hadn't closed yet because time was extended by court order due to bad weather.

No, we haven't seen an Obama ad yet.

It's ON in Texas, friends. And just when I thought our primary was too late (March 4) to be important for either party. Dang, it will be all Hillary all the time as long as her funds hold up.

Babs and I predict Obama and McCain will win handily here. Fellow TexasBloggers, what's your call?

Serve With Lots of Sugar...

Hat Tip: Brother W.

Fun With Pollsters

So last night I got a call from a political pollster up in Syracuse, NY. I had some time, so I couldn't resist having some fun with him.

His questions centered on the March Texas primary and focused on the local congressional race, not the presidential race, and like all poll questions are what we lawyers called "leading questions" designed to elicit the response the pollster's employer wants. Nuance is not a virtue aspired to by these folks either. I had to argue with him about the premise of many of his questions.

So I gave him the most contradictory answers I could think up. I professed to be a moderate, evangelical born-again Christian who didn't care about illegal immigration, gun control or federal constitutional amendments making English the official national language or making marriage only between a man and a woman. When he went through a litany of Texas Republican office-holders, I told him I had an unfavorable opinion of half of them. (Some of that is actually true.)

Wondering why the polls in Iowa, New Hampshire, Michigan and Nevada didn't predict the results very well? There must be a lot of other people joining me in having fun with the pollsters!