The final tally, shows Obama winning the popular vote, 61 million and change to Romney's 58 million and change. The electoral vote count, with Florida's 29 in the Blue column, stands at 332 - 206.
In his concession speech on Tuesday, Mitt Romney offered the following:
The nation, as you know, is at a critical point. At a time like this we can't risk partisan bickering and political posturing. Our leaders have to reach across the aisle to do the people's work, and we citizens also have to rise to occasion.Pundits and historians are trying to figure out why, when as Romney indicates we need leaders to reach across the aisle, we chose to maintain the status quo in Washington -- Republicans entrenched in the House, Democrats in the Senate, and Obama in the White House. I think it's really pretty easy to understand -- just ask Tip O'Neill: All politics is local.
When we vote for our representatives and senators, we're voting to have them do good things for us back home, to bring money back in return for the taxes we pay. For the most part, we have a very narrow focus on our own backyards first, then the larger issues of state government and finally Washington, in ever-expanding circles around us.
And when we're asked if we have a positive or negative view of those we have elected, we like to think that 'our' representative is doing a good job, but it's the rest of them - particularly the leadership -that are horrible. To me this is obvious; we saw it in the ads in the race for the NY-24. Ads run in support of Ann Marie Buerkle mentioned Nancy Pelosi, as if any one in this district gives a hoot about her. Ads in support of Dan Maffei, who won, sometimes showed John Boehner and others in the House leadership. Regardless of which side it was, when mentioning any of these names, it was obligatory to sneer.
Rather than worrying about why we did what we did, why people voted the way they did, we would be better serviced if we focused on something else Mitt Romney said in his farewell:
We look to job-creators of all kinds. We're counting on you to invest, to hire, to step forward, and we look to Democrats and Republicans in government at all levels to put the people before the politics.Hear, hear. We need people to get with the program, as Americans defined it on Tuesday, and put people before politics. I have never agreed with Mitt Romney more.
Interesting to see that Romney even understands that the current state of politics is devisive by design and that he acknowledges now that the election is determined that we need to focus back on what we need as a people and that party affiliations no longer matter...
ReplyDeleteI agree; I was impressed with his call for job creators to get back to work doing what they do best (and what we need most), particularly in light of his comments back in the summar where he encouraged business leaders to make it clear to their employees what would happen if the Republicans lost. If only as many who heeded that advice do so again now...
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