There were some major advances on social issues on election night.

It looks like all three referenda in favor of same-sex marriage passed in Maryland (~53-48%), Maine (~53-47%), and Washington (~52-48%) with the constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage losing in Minnesota (~51-48). After 32 straight ballot defeats, this was the first time any ballot initiative approving of same-sex marriage has passed in any state and such a clean sweep in all four states represents a huge advance for equal rights for gays. Furthermore, Tammy Baldwin was elected US senator in Wisconsin making her the first openly gay person to serve in that body. [Read more…]

President Barack Obama easily won re-election, as was expected by the members of the reality-based community of statisticians based on the poll averages. His final electoral vote total will be either 303 or 332 depending on Florida. All those pundits who sneered at the statisticians and listened to their ‘gut’ which told them that Mitt Romney was going to win would do well to remember Carl Sagan’s response when he was asked what his gut feeling was about an issue for which there was no convincing evidence either way. He replied, “I try not to think with my gut.” If you want an exhaustive list of pundit predictions for the election, see here. Of course, one of the benefits of being a modern pundit is that there is no price to be paid whatsoever for not just being totally wrong but for being stupidly wrong by ignoring data. [Read more…]

I have to leave for home soon and since I still do not have the landline and internet access at home, I will be reduced on election night to watching the returns the old-fashioned way, on TV. [Read more…]

As is my custom, I voted before coming in to work. There was quite a crowd but the polling place was well organized and efficient. The ballot was long, what with judges and referenda that had to be decided. Our precinct uses optical scanning machines so the ballot has those bubbles that have to be filled in to indicate your vote. Since I am the kind of person who likes to fill in the little ovals very neatly, staying carefully within the lines, that took some time but I was still out in about 20 minutes. [Read more…]

David Frum, former speechwriter for George W. Bush, is supposed to be one of the ‘sane Republicans’, a breed that is on the verge of extinction. Kevin Drum points to his strange argument as to why it is better for Mitt Romney to win.

Frum says:

The congressional Republicans have shown themselves a destructive and irrational force in American politics. But we won’t reform the congressional GOP by re-electing President Obama. If anything, an Obama re-election will not only aggravate the extremism of the congressional GOP, but also empower them: an Obama re-election raises the odds in favor of big sixth-year sweep for the congressional GOP – and very possibly a seventh-year impeachment. A Romney election will at least discourage the congressional GOP from deliberately pushing the US into recession in 2013. Added bonus: a Romney presidency likely means that the congressional GOP will lose seats in 2014, as they deserve.

Basically he is saying that although the Republican congress is nuts, if Obama is re-elected, they will go even more nuts and completely blow up the country. So vote Republican!

Yes, even the sane Republicans have gone nuts.