Well...that could have gone better....

Clearly there is a hidden "swing vote" in what hertofore were rock solid industrial midwestern democratic bastions. From what I can read, Trump simply extracted more votes from precincts that Romney took comfortably in 2012.
And likely, certainly cohorts underperformed for the democrats, that much seems certain.
There were also "atmospheric problems", I think the Comey letter took the campaign off its stride for a couple of vital days last week and may have critically obscured emerging problems in Wisconsin, Michigan & Pennsylvania.
I won't rule out a heavy whiff of electoral sexism as well.
The polling seems to be the critical failure this year, smartphone tech saturating the culture I wonder if the traditional models are now irremedially compromised and if they are, then what will replace them?
Maybe they cannot be replaced.
I've mentioned before four critical myths that buttress movement conservatism (The Myth of Christian Politics, The Myth of Rugged Individualism, The Myth of Small Government and the Myth of Grievance)....this was definitely a "Myth of Grievance" election wherein a lot of aging white people opted for Revenge at All Costs.
And they got it, and I wish them all the Joy of It.
Given that its a divided nation with little hope of "unity" over the short term or the sort of unity that Christ Matthews or Andy Hiller constantly preach.
The punchline is, Clinton won the popular vote by a 200K margin....this is the second time this has happened in sixteen years and it isn't a good basis for establishing legitimacy at all.
As for Trump he led a divided party to power by a thin margin....The GOP's looming chaos would be amusing to watch but alas they've won and their troubles will soon be All of Ours.

Election Day....

and we are faced with a far too stark a choice between falangism and sanity.  Whatever else happens today I know I will spend a considerable amount of time going forward studying this particular race in detail....it has been a singular and largely disturbing phenomenon.

Thats assuming that Trump loses and I don't end up in a labor camp sited in the Northeast Kingdom.
We've come to an election where our lives depend on the outcome...All I can do is place myself in the Ranks of the Immortal Spartans (those Indominable Democrats of Menotomy) and Do My Duty Unto the Last.

I urge you to vote, and I bluntly urge you to vote for Hillary Clinton for President, Our Rights, Fortunes and Sacred Honor depend on her clearing the board tonight!

I am A No Vote on Question Two

Why we need numberless new charter schools over which the localities have no control is a mystery to me. The Commonwealth already ranks near the top of the USA in overall student performance, granted there are shortfalls in various communities but the answer isn't something advantageous to only 5% of the captioned students.
If the Legislature is hell bent on creating a unaccountable two track European Style education system let them do it in full view of the electorate and let them finance this boondoggle out of general revenues and not create yet another unfunded educational mandate to burden the municipalities.
Even if all this was no so, I'd still oppose Question Two the damn thing reeks of educational utopianism a classic one size fits all supersolution thats bound to have nasty unintended consequences down the road.
I say....Vote No on Question Two.

Hrummpp!

Colin Van Ostern

probably looks too young to be NH's Next Governor, nonetheless he has some intriguing ideals as we head into election day
Foremost among them a Manchester to Boston rail link this is a won-der-ful idea in all respects, The Queen City is down to two main industries the New Hampshire Primary and waiting for the New Hampshire Primary...a rail link would spur some development and arrest the municipality's population outflow.
I'm not saying this is an across the board answer, new jobs new industries and some hardheaded reinvention are in order, Manchester has yet to escape it's rep as a perpetually dying Mill Town, but its a practical first step in every way.
The other thing I like about Colin Van Ostern, is that while he was a Boy Scout, he clearly did not make Eagle, nonetheless he still runs pictures of himself in uniform and seems content with whatever benefit he extracted from the experience.
Normally with politicians you only hear about it if they were a scoutmaster or if they cracked Eagle....this indicates a becoming modesty on Van Ostern's part.

Those two factors alone recommend him to me even if he wasn't a yoghurt company executive in his day job....(I'm fifty four I eat a lot of yoghurt so Sue Me!)

:)

Soon Enough There Will Be Nothing Left But Duty....

Duty is easy and a boastful thing when we have the Wind At Our Backs though....it is a frightening and disheartening burden when matters are in doubt.
I need not repair to any site or blog on the internet to know our cause is sore beset, my instinct tells me this most clearly.
Future generations though are counting on us, not to recriminate or lose faith or break ranks they depend on us even as they do not even know it yet.
It is at the end of the day glorious and fit to even Have A Duty to Execute in Trying Circumstances, the world is full of people who wish long after the fact that they'd done more when great issues were in play.
My Spirits are Light, Let the Sonsabitches Come!
And so, at a time like this let us warm our spirits with a dose of "medicine" from Winston Churchill,
" But if we fail, then the whole world, including the United States, including all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new Dark Age made more sinister, and perhaps more protracted, by the lights of perverted science. Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves that, if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say, "This was their finest hour."

Time For All of You To Find Your Finest Hour.

Well lets be frank...

The Polls are Tight.

But the antidote to that is simple if somewhat hard to take, boost GOTV and stay calm....the campaigns themselves will be fully engaged and loud past endurance right up to next Tuesday over that we have No Control.
But....turnout that is something we can all commit too that is "the key deliverable" as they say in business and if turnout wasn't key, why are Trump and the GOP so relentlessly committed to suppressing it?
One of the things that should not have surprised me (but it did all the same) is the willingness of highly marginalized GOP cohorts to "come home" to the GOP despite their sheer revulsion for their own nominee.
The bitter proxy fight over turnout has two axes for th GOP its definitely via it's deafening cacophony to remind the base that Hillary is the Dark One even as it supposedly drives down democratic turnout.  So as such we must stay focussed on running our numbers up....that is best guarantor in a volatile close fought election. Everyone to the polls!

Thought for the Day

The United States Constitution is not a toy subject to an excess of manhandling. It can however be broken with enough effort, and if it is, then I assure you there is no Daddy around to fix it or a Mommy who'll take pity and buy you A New One.
Think about that as we segue towards election day.....