National Opt Out Day

There are some people trying to start a protest of the body scanners that are being introduced in all of the airports. The protest calls for people traveling on November 24th, the day before Thanksgiving and also the busiest travel day of the year, to opt out of the body scanners. That means the TSA has to give those people invasive pat downs that take a lot longer than a scan.

I think this protest is stupid. It would make me very mad as a traveler if I was made late for my flight because of long lines created by protesters. I am not necessarily in support of the scanners, because I do think the images are invasive, but I understand the need for security. I hope Thanksgiving travelers do not listen to the organizers of this protest. If they want to protest, then fine, but don't do it that day and ruin many people's holidays.

Alaska's New Old Senator

Lisa Murkowski won the election for her Senate seat, making her the second person ever to win as a write in candidate. Over 100,000 Alaskans voted for her, to give her a 10,000 vote lead over Joe Miller. Miller claimed that many of her votes were invalid, because of misspellings or other errors. He claimed that a write-in candidate's name must be spelled exactly right to count. The Lt. Governor Craig Campbell disagreed, saying as long as the voter's intent was known, the vote counts. Even if all of the disputed voted were thrown out, Murkowski would still have a 2,000 vote lead over Miller.

Murkowski herself gave partial credit of her win to the fact that over half of the Alaskan electorate is not aligned with any party, giving them more freedom to vote for the candidate, instead of the party.

Republicans Back On Top

Senate Map by New York Times

I think everbody kind of expected that Congress was going to be completely different after this year's elections, and they were right. 58 formerly democratic seats in the House of Representatives are now held by Republicans. Not only did congress change drastically, but the majority of governers are now Rebulicans also. Interestingly, this year's midterm campaigns were the most expensive midterm campaigns ever seen by this country.

Tim Kaine, the chairman of the Democratic National Committee, said, "Voters sent a message that change has not happened fast enough.” I thought that was interesting that a leader of the democratic party would make that comment, when the Obama campaign two years ago was all about "change". I agree with the majority of Americans in this case, that change is not happening fast enough. And I will go further to say that the changes that have been made so far, like the health care reform, are not changes I support.

President Obama made a comment about hoping that he can cooperate with all the republicans in congress now. It sound like he is expecting to have to make a lot of compromises in the next two years, with the majority of congress working towards different goals. He did not get the support he was hoping for from his home, the seat he used to occupy in the Senate is now held by a republican.

All in all, this was a historic election, and I hope things in this country will start looking up now.

Meek Not Backing Off

There are a few candidates in this year that are being urged to back down for the party by Washington bigwigs like Bill Clinton and Sarah Palin. There have been failed efforts from the Democrats in Pennsylvania and Colorado. On the other side of the fence, Republicans have tried unsuccessfully in California, Nevada, and Delaware. The most surprising of all of these is the race for the Florida seat in the House of Representatives. Surprising because of how close to the election it is happening.

Incumbent Kendrick Meek is the democratic nominee, against Marco Rubio the republican, and Charlie Crist, the independent nominee. Clinton is trying to persuade a last minute drop out from Meek. He and other democrats are hoping Meek will drop out and leave the democratic voters to Crist, who has made it clear he will vote with the democrats if elected. (Interesting, since Crist dropped out of the Republican primary to run as the Independent because he was trailing Rubio. Was he planning on voting Democratic if he had been elected Republican?) Meek refused to drop out of the running, especially with only a week left until the election. More than a million voters turned in early ballots, and many of those could be votes for Mr. Meek.

How Should We Judge Politicians' Early Mistakes?

Gail Collins of the New York Times wrote a great column this week (here) that talks about how far back in a candidate's personal history voters should look when choosing who to vote for. She talks about Christine O'Donnell in particular, who is the Republican candidate for the Senate in Delaware. O'Donnell's infamous witchcraft statement came from a 1999 taping of the TV show "Politically Incorrect," where she said she dabbled in witchcraft in high school. When this statement resurfaced during this year's campaign, she made light of her comments and said at a GOP picnic, "How many of you didn't hang out with questionable folks in high school?" She has a point, most people in government today did not plan their careers as far back as grade school. So where do we draw the line? Should a candidate's actions in high school affect whether or not you vote for them 20 years later?

I think major wrong choices, like felonies, should impact our decisions. But I also think that people mature as they get older, and we should not judge political candidates more harshly than ourselves. Most bad choices or mistakes politicians make in their teenage years and early 20's should be forgiven, because that is the time in life when people are exploring life, and taking chances. I am in that stage of my life now, and I hope I will not be judged 20 or 30 years from now for the things I have done in the last few years.

Record Spending This Election

I read an article on the New York Times Political blog today that makes me sick. This year's midterm elections, candidates are on track to spend over $3 billion dollars on TV ads alone. According to the Times, as of today $223 million has been spent, and the trend is always to spend most of the money in the last 30 days, so we know there is more to come. I know politicians need to get their messages heard. I would even guess that a better candidate with a better platform could be squashed by someone with more money to advertise, so then it is a necessary to their success. But I wish that money could be spent on something that would improve lives immediately, like feeding and clothing the poor, or cleaning up cities.

The Senate Race in Alaska

Scott McAdams, Lisa Murkowski, and Joe Miller. Photo via cbsnews.com

Lisa Murkowski, the incumbent Alaskan Senator, was originally in the running to be the republican nominee for the Senate. Joe Miller won the republican primary, some think because he was endorsed by former Alaskan governor Sarah Palin.

A little bit of history here: Lisa's father, Frank Murkowski, was the governor right before Sarah Palin. Palin defeated Frank Murkowski to become the governor. Before Frank Murkowski left office, he appointed his daughter Lisa to a vacant Senate seat.

Everyone expected that with Palin's endorsement, Miller would win the primary and then have an easy win against the democratic nominee because of Alaska's republican history. But a couple of weeks ago, Lisa Murkowski decided not to stop at losing the primary, and she became a write-in candidate for the Senate seat that she had now holds. Many republicans are not happy that Murkowski was still going to run, including Sarah Palin. They expect she might divide the republican voters and leave an opening for the democratic nominee, Scott McAdams.

One big challenge Murkowski faces is getting everyone to spell her name right. It is a fairly well known name in Alaska, since her dad was governor and she has been in the Senate a few years already. The only other time a person won a major office as a write in candidate was in 1954, when Strom Thurmond won a Senate seat for South Carolina. And Strom Thurmond is an unusual name too, right?