We get to stay!

The 2008 general election for US President brings good news for us. We get to stay. Let me explain. Had the other US Senator, John McCain, won, then we would have been getting into moving mode. My wife, not in the photo above, said, "If McCain becomes US President, I moving to New Zealand."

Something in the way he moves, just makes her want to flee. Out of sight, out of mind, I guess.

Well, we're staying. I told her all along that we'd not need to depart as there was no way that McCain was going to win the election. So, we were not worried too much.

Sure, Obama and his team ran a wonderful race. They had a good story. He kept his cool. They did get a bit nasty, oh well. And, they burned through a lot of money. It helps if you have money and spend it before election day arrives, unlike John Kerry who didn't deploy all his cash as he should have.

But for as good as Obama was, McCain was worse. Tom L, a "R," and a Running Mate here with this blog, was right when he said he'd have to hold his nose and vote for McCain. McCain wasn't McCain throughout the months of the campaign. He was not a puppet. But, looking hard, some might have seen the strings had it not been for his winkles of old age.

A McCain folly to remind Rs of was the snub of Ron Paul in the time of the GOP Convention. But generally, Obama's success was due in large part to the urgent desire to send the Neo-Cons and the Bush legacy packing.

Far worse than the McCain fumble of Ron Paul's message was the fumble from Bob Barr, Libertarian, former GOPer and Congressman from Georgia.

Ouch.

Bob Barr tried, some. He did. But he didn't do well at all. He was iced by the mainstream media. He could have made some fine remarks within the discussion. The general voter is poorer to have been filtered of his insights. Yet, talk of bad campaigns needs to begin and end with Bob Barr's efforts and results.

Within the city, I'm not sure who had more votes, Bob Barr or Tony Oliva. I'll have to look it up.

Good to see some other statewide candidates from the Libertarian Party get 3% of the vote. Barr was a point oh three percent. That's .03 percent. That's one-third of one percent. Ouch squared.

Barr lost my vote when he wouldn't do a phone interview with KQV. Go figure.

In the end, I voted for self-interest. I voted to stay. You know what they say about a house divided. Plus, I voted for all the other Libertarians.