While I have some time before the money-paying job, a few fast thoughts on the late great 2008 election:
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While listening to this morning’s Morning Edition, they had a talk with John Lewis of Atlanta, a congressman who ran for re-election unopposed. Lewis was an activist in the Civil Rights Movement, is one of the still-living heroes of that time, and can recall the days of the march to Montgomery, and Bloody Sunday in Selma as they tried to cross the Edmund Pettis Bridge on their road. And it occurs to me, with a small smile, to wonder what they are thinking in that small city this morning — what the people who unleashed the dogs and swung the billy clubs are thinking, wherever they are, on the current state of affairs. They, and the ones that gave the orders to them, were hell-bent on keeping the African American in second-class status; now, not only are they living in a country with wealthy, educated professional blacks all about them and in positions of power, but they have one in the Seat of Power.
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As of 7:30 a.m. here, the Washington Post shows the popular vote numbers as 52%-46% Obama; this is working out to 62,443,218 votes for Mr. Obama to 55,386,310 for Mr. McCain, or some 7 million votes difference, 6% of the popular vote. And I remember the calls in 2004 that President Bush’s triumph in the popular vote gave him a mandate from the voters. I was one of those who, in the early days of this blog, insisted that a 3% difference was hardly a mandate. (See my 11/10/2004 and 1/16/2005 articles.) Is 6% any better? Looking at it from that purely mathematical viewpoint, no. What I hope will give Mr. Obama the mandate is his willingness to reach across the aisle, as well as his ability to unite almost every imaginable demographic except those 65 and over. He obviously didn’t get everybody; there was competition, after all. But, if the other side is willing to listen to him, especially the far right, then this country may have hope after all.
What may signal that Obama has a mandate is the breakdown across the states. Formerly “red” states went “blue”; and the number of voters has grown as a result of this campaign. His coattails were long and wide, cementing the power split in favor of the Democrats in the Senate (though not the “magic majority” of 60 or over), and improved it in the House of Representatives. The next key here, if the Democrats and Obama do have this mysterious “mandate,” is that they do not abuse it, but use it to improve the country and the world.
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NPR just confirmed what I saw in the audience at Grant Park last night. Both Oprah Winfrey and Jesse Jackson were in the crowd. Jackson, another old hand of the Civil Rights days, was weeping. And he had justification. This has to be one of the proudest days imaginable for those old men and women who risked — sometimes laid down — their lives to get respect for the African American. I salute them in my heart and with my voice.
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Peace be to you.
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