Blogworthies XXXIX

Because The Blog from the Core simply can't cover everything.

Noteworthy entries @ I love Jet Noise, Belmont Club, The Backseat Philosopher, Southern Appeal, Baseball Crank, The Corner, Regions of Mind, No Left Turns, Instapundit.com, iowahawk, Dust in the Light, selfindulgenceonline, Instapundit.com (again), The Horserace Blog, BlackFive, The Curt Jester, GetReligion.

Let The Healing Begin @ I love Jet Noise:

I remember what it felt like to lose an election.

The shock. The disbelief. The sense that life had handed you an unfair break....

The Red and the Blue @ Belmont Club:

This article from Jane Smiley in Slate argues that the majority of the American electorate consists of fools who have made the wrong choice. Smiley's article is part of a series of election postmortems at Slate, which "asked a number of wise liberals to take up the question of why Americans won't vote for the Democrats." She says: ....

The liberal elites really do hate the rest of us @ ProfessorBainbridge.com:

Long time readers know that I am a great aficionado of Christopher Lasch's magnum opus, The Revolt of the Elites. In particular, I find myself constantly coming back to two passages that have stuck with me over the years: ....

To My Fellow Democrats @ The Backseat Philosopher:

We Democrats are supposedly the party of the therapists, the teachers, and the 'relationship experts.' If anybody would be proud of the title, 'active listener', it would be a Democrat. We're the soft ones who understand where the other side is coming from and negotiate.

Many Democrats think that our patience and understanding are our weakness. "We don't know how to fight like the Republicans," we all told ourselves after Florida 2000. "We have to be more like them: tougher, meaner." "We have to energize our base more."

Actually, no. Our error is that we Democrats are far less understanding than we think we are....

Something I Sent Friends Yesterday @ Southern Appeal:

I debated whether or not to post this. I think this is a little wishy washy, and I thought so when I wrote it, but the more I read it the more I think I have the right idea here. I really think we need to take this decisive victory, take the high ground, and invite all Americans — including the loyal opposition — to join the debate of the issues while leaving some of the past two years' baggage behind....

Marginal Votes For Bush @ Baseball Crank:

Here's something I think is really, really interesting, as long as you understand that the methodology isn't so much science as a rough way of measuring the impact of something that might be more accurately measured if you had accurate exit polls. Turnout was up across the country, such that Bush got more votes everywhere than he did in 2000, and Kerry got more votes everywhere than Gore did in 2000 (except California in each case, as far as I can tell, although there may be a bunch of absentee ballots yet to count)....

The Issues That Affect People in Their Daily Lives @ The Corner:

This is the standard trope, cliche or talking point used by Democrats and liberals to explain the sorts of issues they think their party is better at dealing with. If you ever watch West Wing, paid attention to Bill Clinton's eight year rule, listen to Hillary Clinton, read liberal magazines or blogs or care about politics at all than you've heard some variant of this 8 hundred katrillion times. I understand what they mean: Maternity leave, health care etc.

Fine. Good. Nice.

But here's the thing I'm missing....

The election: fool's gold and evangelicals @ Regions of Mind:

.... I was quite surprised that Bush won. I had assumed that the voter-registration and GOTV efforts by Kerry supporters, bolstered by the general anger on the left against Bush, would carry the Democratic ticket to victory. I underestimated the effectiveness that the Republicans under Karl Rove would have in matching and exceeding the Dems' turnout efforts....

The meaning of the election @ No Left Turns:

I’m still too busy for my own good, so I’ll just outline my quick opinion on the election: ....

Well, a lot of conventional wisdom... @ Instapundit.com:

... has tumbled: the incumbent rule, the "taller person wins" rule (to my great personal sadness), the predictive validity of the final Redskins game before the election, the exit polls, and all the other "infallible" indicators which showed Kerry going by a landslide.

What can we take out of this?...

Let the Healing Begin @ iowahawk:

I guess I'm pleased by the outcome of the election, but it comes with some mixed feelings. Frankly, it's hard to celebrate knowing so many other ordinary Americans — like the posters at Daily Kos, Democratic Underground, BartCop, SmirkingChimp, IndyMedia, and CruSHruBusHitleRethuglicaNazis — are suffering another bad case of the 'Wednesdays.' Today should not be about gloating and victory laps, it should be about about good sportsmanship and moving the country forward. So if you're on the other size of the political aisle, I'd like extend my congratulations for a hard-fought battle, and offer a few tips to help you get through the next four years....

Well into the Next Day @ Dust in the Light:

Okay, so maybe in the wee hours of the night/morning, I didn't give adequate consideration to the extent to which the nation continues its rightward swing. I just thought it wouldn't have been so close; look at the opposition candidate.

I think the sheer numbers are by far the most significant aspect. The proponents of slinking "progress" have pushed too hard for too much ground — and perhaps they've reached people's limits no matter the pace. They fight bans on infanticide (to the clear-minded); they seek to bypass the legislature through the judiciary; they believe it's censorship or religious oppression when people of faith speak out and act in their capacity as private citizens, but they call it "civil disobedience" to use the structures of the civil sphere to disobey the law....

Apparently It's Not Yet Time To Move On @ selfindulgenceonline:

I've been online all morning. Productivity — never high — is at an all-time low. I rationalize that I can't be the only one. I've been enjoying the left-wing blogs. The squealing has reached ear-splitting levels. The knives are coming out. Terry Mcauliffe sucks; replace him with Howard Dean. John Kerry conceded too quickly; count every vote. Vote-fraud mutterings. Specific allegations are sketchy. Standard operating procedure for Dems since 2000, like dressing the candidate in macho fatigues at some point during the campaign. Look at the exit polls: they all tilted Kerry. Everybody hates Dubya. How could they not?...

Left-Wing Blogosphere Reactions @ Instapundit.com:

John Kerry’s side of the blogosphere offers a diverse range of views of Bush’s victory....

This is disgusting... @ The Horserace Blog (ellipsis and emphasis in original):

...what the MSM is doing.

Here is what is up. You have CNN, CBS, ABC and the AP calling Nevada for Bush, but not calling Ohio for Bush.

Meanwhile, you have NBC and Fox calling Ohio for Bush, but not calling Nevada for Bush.

All of this amounts to a cheap ploy by all parties to keep the race from being called. Why? Because Kedwards refuses to concede... this is unprecedented. The networks are bowing to a campaign....

Blackfive's Vote Is Disenfranchised @ BlackFive:

Here in Chicago (at 521 N. McClurg Court) where I had to vote today, I noticed two things: ....

Always Our Mistresses @ The Curt Jester:

I have watched with interest our culture developing over the last thirty years as one cultural taboo after another fell to our modern society. Much progress has been made yet there is still one behavior that is still stigmatized. Those of us who suffer from Multiple Partner Attraction are still mocked and ridiculed and while we are partially accepted we are still the scorn of many. I wish to come out hiding from the bedroom closet and announce myself as a proud adulterous american. I take this brave step knowing that I will be attacked, but I do it so that future generations of adulterers can proudly take to the streets and bedrooms of our country without being branded with the scarlet A as if it was morally wrong....

Ghost in the ghost story: Gannett has no doubts @ GetReligion:

Longtime readers of GetReligion may remember the defining image used in the very first post on this blog. It has shown up in headlines several times since then....

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Sat. 11/06/04 08:36:49 AM
Categorized as Blogworthies.