Obama Win Causes Obsessive Supporters To Realize How Empty Their Lives Are

That video literally forced tears of laughter to roll down my cheeks.

The Onion was really on point this year and especially down the stretch. Comedic genius.

Check out some of their other hilarious stories:

• Black Guy Asks Nation for Change
• Nation Finally Shitty Enough To Make Social Progress
• Bush: ‘Can I Stop Being President Now?’
• Black Man Given Nation’s Worst Job

It’s funny because it’s true.

President Elect Barack Obama

Photo credit to insunlight.

Congratulations to President-elect Barack Obama!

Though I voted for Nader-Gonzalez and encouraged others to do the same, I am not disappointed by Barack Obama winning the United States Presidency. Rather I think he’s a huge upgrade over Bush, purely by being intelligent, eloquent and charismatic. He ran an impressive campaign and frankly deserved to win. America’s place in the world will be much improved via an Obama presidency. I favor Nader’s stances on the actual political issues, but politics aside Obama seems to be a capable person, heck I even endorsed him on Monday.

Riding my bike through the streets of Boston after Obama won, there were people cheering and dancing and yelling and honking their horns in celebration. There were even a group of people splashing jubilantly in a fountain. There wasn’t a mass of people like after the Sox, Celtics, or Patriots victories, but nevertheless there was a lot more people out and about past midnight on a Tuesday night in November than usual. Needless to say, the vast majority of the college students and young people of Boston voted for Barack Obama and last night and early this morning they celebrated with President Barack Obama.

Rajon Rando of the Celtics celebrated twice last night, winning a basketball game and seeing Obama win the presidency as he returned to the locker room. Overall, I’m proud of this country for making a historic vote and for participating in our democracy in historic numbers. Check out the Obama celebration scene outside the White House, where even the Secret Service were surprised and impressed by the outpouring of support. Say what you want about Obama or his politics but that’s a pretty cool scene there and one Americans can be proud of.

Congratulations to President-elect Barack Obama.

Massachusetts Absentee Ballot

Photo credit to Andrew Teman.

Basically, Instant Runoff Voting [IRV] is a system of voting where candidates are ranked in order of preference by the voter. Depending on the particular IRV system you can either rank as many or as few candidates as you wish or you must rank all candidates. In either case, once all ballots are cast, the candidate in the #1 spot on the ballot is awarded one vote. After all the ballots are analyzed and added up, if any one candidate has a majority of the votes (e.g. more than half), then he/she is declared the winner.

However, if not candidate receives a majority of votes then the lowest ranked candidate on each ballot is eliminated and the votes are redistributed to the remaining candidates. This process continues until one candidate has a majority of the votes cast. Like any system, IRV is not perfect, but I believe it would be an upgrade over the electoral college system and allow more candidates a realistic chance at winning, and thus increase competition which helps everyone.

My Instant Runoff Voting Ballot

If we had an Instant Runoff Voting system in place in the United States today, here is how my ballot would likely look:

1. Ralph Nader & Matt Gonzalez
2. Chuck Baldwin & Darrell Castle
3. Barack Obama & Joe Biden
4. Cynthia McKinney & Rosa Clemente
5. Bob Barr & Wayne Allen Root
6. John McCain & Sarah Palin

So let’s run through my thought process. First, all candidates were ranked to ensure that my ballot counted through each round. If my ballot only ranked two parties, let’s say Nader-Gonzalez first and Baldwin-Castle second, then if more than two rounds of run-offs were needed to get a majority winner my ballot would become exhausted and no longer add support for either Gonzalez nor Castle.

In terms of actual candidates, McCain-Palin were ranked last because they are my least preferred presidency. Next, Barr-Root are ranked second to last because frankly, I find them to be highly disingenuous and highly suspect they are Republicans masquerading as libertarians. Bob Barr ran a poor campaign and alienated those who were most likely to support him while WAR (Wayne Allen Root) comes across as someone who does not do any research and instead blindly lambasts the government for everything. If WAR is so against government he should not be running for a government job. Next up are McKinney and Clemente, who would be my number two choice but neither seem qualified to lead. McKinney, as noted in my review of her, is brash, abrasive and arrogant, which are not the traits of a good leader.

Next I place Obama-Biden. Biden scares me, but the one aspect of Barack Obama we all must admit is that he runs one hell of a tightly organized campaign. I do not agree with many of his stances, and believe he is too closely aligned with corporate interests, but Obama does have the ability to motivate a large group of people and get his message across efficiently. He might not be my first choice for president, but I’m glad he’s an American citizen and not running for president of some other country. Next up I ranked Baldwin-Castle, purely because they come across as genuine and seem willing to compromise and co-operate. I also consider myself somewhat of a fiscal conservative which aligns closely with Baldwin’s fiscal plans. Finally, I ranked Nader-Gonzalez as my top choice for president because I agree with nearly all of his stances, especially his socially liberal and progressive platform. Check out my top ten reasons I’m voting for Ralph Nader and Matt Gonzalez post for more details about the choice.

So there you have it, what would your Instant Runoff Voting ballot look like?

No word yet on whether C-SPAN will cover tonight’s debate (my guess is they’ll end up covering it at the last minute) but there will be a free live video stream at They Will Be Heard at 9 PM (Eastern), so make sure you check it out! Proletariat Power will also live-blog the debate, much like they did with the presidential debate on October 23rd. It’s nice to see that the third part candidates have begun setting up their own debates, perhaps next time they can do so before the major parties and get a head start on getting their message heard.

There was also a presidential debate this past Thursday, October 30th between Constitution candidate Chuck Baldwin, Indepedent candidate Ralph Nader, and Libertarian candidate Bob Barr at the City Club in Cleveland Ohio. You can check out the full one hour video of the debate at We Demand Videos!

Vote third party!

So far Ralph Nader, Chuck Baldwin and Cynthia McKinney have confirmed their attendance. Bob Barr is stating he has a scheduling conflict, though the even organizers are stating he wants to only debate Ralph Nader. In either case, Barr is running a very odd campaign, first ditching uber-popular Ron Paul and now refusing to participate in a debate with his fellow third party candidates.

Right now there are actually two debates scheduled, on being an online debate this Sunday from 7pm to 9pm while the other is a physical debate starting at 8pm. Seeing as how the physical debate is being televised by CSPAN and moderated by Democracy Now! host Amy Goodman it seems the online only debate organized by Trevor Lyman will fall to the wayside, especially seeing as how only Cynthia McKinney has confirmed she’d participate.

In either case, three of the four candidates will be at the physical debate, hosted by The Free and Equal Elections Coalition and the Columbia Political Union. So confused yet by the varying debates and times and places? Well so are the candidates who are now waffling about whether they will or will not attend, even though three of them confirmed their attendance a few days ago. In either case, the debate is scheduled and set up and now it’s up to the candidates to show up. For the sake of progress for our democracy, let’s hope they do show up. Send e-mails to your candidates encouraging them to show up! Even Barack Obama and John McCain are invited, let’s have one debate between all six candidates!