Yay! It’s a sweet feeling to have voted for a president who won the election. I’ve heard a few call-in shows in which callers have expressed their fears, their disappointment, their depression of Bush’s defeat. To them I say, join the club; now you know how we’ve felt for 12 years.
Many states (14, I think) voted in favor of term limitations for legislators. Yet only 12 incumbents lost! Over 100 new people will go to Congress, however, because many other incumbents retired or got redistricted out. Term limitations is just a gimmick. It sounds like an easy solution to a problem. All people have to do to limit terms is to vote for a challenger! … Turnout in Connecticut was 82% – phenomenal!
Two new senators from California: Jewish women! New senator from Illinois: black woman!
Though I hated what Arlen Spector (Senator from PA) did to Anita Hill, I’m glad he defeated Lynn Yeakal, the Democratic woman running against him. She belongs to a Presbyterian Church, is on its board of directors, whose ministers and lay presidents are hostile to Israel. During the campaign, she never repudiated the things they said or the programs they sponsored that were negative to Israel. Spector, except for the Anita Hill event, has an excellent record on women’s issues and on Israel.
Right now the only thing about Clinton and Gore that bothers me is that they speechify too much. But I loved it when they hugged each other after Clinton’s victory speech (too long!) Wednesday morning at 1 a.m.
It turned out to be a very interesting and exciting campaign and election, thanks mostly to Ross Perot. He got nearly 20% of the vote, unprecedented for a 3rd party since WW 1. Dad thinks Clinton should give Perot a special and particular job, like turning the US Postal Service into a profitable and efficient operation, or getting rid of, for a profit, the billions of dollars worth of property that has been taken over by the federal government from failed savings and loans banks. Perot is a wily fox, a world-class media manipulator, a stand-up comedian and probably paranoid.