More on my election night travails... I mean, travels

Went first to a restaurant in downtown Oakland; had some snacks with friends who are reporters and politicial organizers. One of them is Jessica Tully, who works on marrying musicians with political causes. We rolled to Barbara Boxer's election-night party just in time to see her declared the winner in her Senate re-election race.

Then ended up at a loft with a beautiful view of the bay bridge, where I basically got the news that Kerry lost.

Ended up in a conversation about hijacking the Democratic Party... yes, the party that couldn't bother to win even facing a President who botched the economy, national security, and the separation of church and state.

Speaking as a journalist--viva four more years. This will be one big friggin' rollercoaster. Hear the giant sucking sound as no-bid contracts fatten Halliburton's wallet. Just watch the Supreme Court abolish abortion rights (Rehnquist is already ill; there will be a slew of new appointees) and there be hospital ships in international waters, women helicoptered from shore.... and, as my friend Ben said, thoughts like, "We've had this experiment of black people voting in America for sixty years.... and we've had just about enough of that."

The 2008 election starts tomorrow. And it's really about values. I wrote an article on PopandPolitics called "It's the God. Stupid?" about the fact that most Americans saw values as the center of their decisions. The Democratic Party has ceded the language of values to the Republicans, and it cannot continue to exist and leave that void.

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By the way, here's the current electoral college map.