Well, you can exhale. By the time this newspaper hits the streets, it will all be over. You’ll get your mailbox back. You won’t be inundated with robocalls. Most of the election results will be in, and strangely enough, the world will feel about the same and you’ll have a hard time remembering what all the shouting was about.
It’s 3 p.m. on Election Day, so no returns are in yet. Soon we’ll know whether the Democrats have lost the U.S. Senate to the Republicans or not. There was a time that may have meant a great deal. Today, it means Mitch McConnell — assuming he survives the Democratic attack — will have to spend the next two years dealing with Ted Cruz and the rest of the Republican wacko contingent. About the only place McConnell can expect to get any peace, quiet and sympathy is if he goes out for a drink with Harry Reid.
We Americans have gotten progressively stranger about our politics. People who are on government aid, like Medicare, Medi-Cal, Social Security, Obamacare or living in states that are largely dependent on the federal government, appeared to be those most opposed to government programs. With some exceptions, the reddest states are typically the poorest states and the most dependent states. It’s difficult to fathom.
At 8 p.m., when the polls close on the East Coast, North Carolina and Georgia will probably tell us which way the U.S. Senate is headed. The country is in a very grumpy mood and the anger is very diffused. For the first time that I can remember, people are really mad at their own representatives and senators, which is highly unusual and doesn’t bode well for incumbents. Unfortunately for the Democrats, they have more Senate seats on the line in this election, so they have the most to lose. In 2016, I understand that’s going to change and a lot more Republicans are going to be up for reelection in the Senate, so it’s possible the Senate could flip now and then flip again in two years.
As I look at the national races, I can’t help but feel the Obama White House is just not very good or smart about politics. Politics is not about reality. Politics is about how you are perceived — something the Obama White House never seemed to grasp. For some very bright people, they made some very amateurish mistakes. For example, every President needs his own SOB. The job of the SOB is to take flack for the president and come back swinging. The SOB can say things the president never can or should say. Cheney was a great SOB. He was a guy you just loved to hate. Who is Obama’s SOB? There really isn’t one, so that anger goes directly to him. Every administration also needs a Communication Director with national stature. They don’t have one. There also should be several people who can speak with authority for the administration. There is really no one who speaks for the administration but the President, so he takes every hit personally.
Well, I guess after six years of a presidency, there is always a degree of fatigue. We have a short attention span and we all start looking for the next team. Maybe Obama’s fatigue is just par for the course.
Locally, Measure R — which has turned out to be the most contentious and hard-fought political battle of our short 23-year city history — will get voted up or down, and what happens after that is anybody’s guess. If there is one thing we can all agree on, it’s some very smart, experienced people totally disagree with each other about the impact of Measure R if it passes. Whichever way the vote goes, the battle is far from over — probably something we will be dealing with for a number of years.
The only other race that’s going to significantly affect us is the contest to replace Zev Yaroslavsky. We’ve been very fortunate with Zev and, whether it’s Sheila Kuehl or Bobby Shriver, those are going to be very big shoes to fill.