They Called Ohio (UPDATED)

With Ohio being called for Obama, we can pretty much conclude that this thing is over. I can't remember seeing a single scenario that had McCain losing Ohio, but winning the election.

Keep an eye on the Senate. Republicans need to maintain the filibuster in order to stonewall radical liberal change in this country. Some of the worst kind would be single-payer, so called "universal" or government administered health care and "card check" unionization. These things are bad and only a Republican filibuster can keep us from them.

One other thing to keep an eye on is the popular vote. I still don't believe this is a "sea change" election in which the political orientation of this country has changed. A relatively close popular vote would confirm that.

I'm going to keep banging this drum until people get it into their heads: The Amazing thing about this election is how well John McCain has done despite the many things stacked against him: Bush, general dislike of Republicans for past corruption issues (see 2006), credit crisis/economic issues, Iraq (though diminished), Democrat GOTV & new voter registration, did I mention Bush?, voter identification--on all these things, Republicans have been at a disadvantage. Despite it all, McCain has done well.

Look, folks, you want to talk about a party without ideas? How about this: The policies we have heard about most from Obama are conservative issues. Tax cuts for 95% of Americans. Yeah, that idea is straight out of the conservative playbook. And it has gotten more play than almost anything else. Obama has also run as fiscally responsible, with promises to balance the budget. Yup, that one too is also a conservative policy. He even had the audacity to attack John McCains economically sound health care plan by calling it a net increase in taxes. Does that sound conservative or liberal to you?

Where are all these "new ideas" that have propelled Obama to victory? Anyone? Anyone? He has even adopted a hawkish position in support of Israel and on Afghanistan and Pakistan. On Pakistan, in particular, he out-hawked John McCain.

Now, I'm not saying that I believe that he actually believes or will hold to these positions, but they are the ones on which he has campaigned and which brought him this win.

Going forward, it is important that conservatives and Republicans draw the right conclusions and learn the right lessons from this loss. A wrong conclusion would be to say that Sarah Palin was the cause. This will be the clarion call of liberals and "moderate" Republicans. Because they don't like her. Don't believe them. She's part of the reason it's as close as it is. Without her, no one would be GOTV'ing.

UPDATE 4:14am BST: One bit of good news, it looks like Republicans will maintain their Senate filibuster. Assuming Democrats don't blow up long-standing Senate rules, this should keep them from adopting radical things like card-check unionization and government health care.

A simple thing like the filibuster means we don't have to rely on President Obama to moderate Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi--a scary proposition, indeed.


If you have tips, questions, comments or suggestions, email me at lybberty@gmail.com.

Barack Obama's Militant Community Organizers

(apologies if you already read this at Drudge)

Even the oldsters are getting into the act. Can any of you see your grandparents doing something like this?

Poll workers from opposing sides in the presidential race apparently clashed in a physical altercation Friday at a Cuyahoga Falls nursing home when one accused the other of improperly marking a ballot.

George Manos, the 75-year-old Republican, told police that Edith Walker, the 73-year-old Democrat, jumped on his back and struck him in the head three to four times with her fists. Manos said two other elections workers had to pull Walker off his back, according to a report filed with Cuyahoga Falls police.

Manos said it happened after he accused Walker of ballot tampering, and he wants to prosecute.

[...]

The alleged assault piqued the interest of Sen. John McCain's presidential campaign — as the voter in question reportedly wanted to vote for McCain but her ballot was initially marked for Sen. Barack Obama.

[...]

The voter was able to cast a new, correct ballot with her desired choices, according to elections board officials.

[...]

Walker said in her statement that Manos tried to grab the ballot in question out of her hand. She said he accused her of marking the ballot wrong and she ''apologized to him if I did do it, but he was very mean to me.''

Manos' written statement is similar to what he told police. He also said Walker initially refused to show him the ballot, then marked it a second time.

Richard Bader, a Republican poll worker at the nursing home, wrote that he forced his way between Walker and Manos and ''she tried to strong-arm me out of the way, but I held my ground.'' Bader said the incident drew a crowd of six to 10 people.

Robert Dengle, a Democratic poll worker who witnessed the incident, wrote that Manos grabbed the ballot out of Walker's hand and she went after him to get it back. When they ultimately reviewed the ballot, he said, it was marked both for Obama and McCain.

It's pretty clear what happened here. Walker was marking a ballot for another lady, purposely mis-marked it for Barack Obama, Manos noticed it, presumably told her to correct it, she wouldn't, but finally marked it a second time--this time for John McCain, as she knew she should have in the first place--at which point Manos took the ballot from her and she attacked him, and then attacked the other worker who tried to intervene.

No big deal, right? Unless you see this as early, anecdotal evidence, of how Obama's "in their face, arguing" tactics will play out across the country as election day nears. That's how I see it. Democrats don't care about the threat of voter fraud.

They'd let everybody vote: fake people, dead people, illegal immigrants, etc.

It's why they have felons voting in Seattle and 200,000 shady voter registrations in Ohio alone. Of course, the latter is the work of ACORN. No surprise there. And no one pauses to consider why it is the Obama camp thinks felons will vote for their guy.

The same thing is happening across the country.

By hook or crook. That's how they have always done it in Chicago. And Obama learned it well as a community organizer working for ACORN. Now the strategy has been exported to his "campaign workers" (read: militant, discontented hipsters) across the country.

Remember how Democrats screamed about the "stolen" election in Florida in 2000? Watch as they try to "community organize" their way to a win over the next 19 or so days.


If you have tips, questions, comments or suggestions, email me at lybberty@gmail.com.