Post Election Thoughts

It looks like Republican gains in the House will be even larger than expected, and good for them. Since races for the House are more likely to be fought as battles of the yard sign rather than as grand theoretical battles, I think it shows something that I posited previously on this blog: This election had more to do with turning the bums out than it did with ideology. And all the folks who won last night will have exactly two years to show that they understand that the People are in charge and not them, or else they will get chucked out just like the current bunch. Nobody got a mandate; they got a two-year probationary period.

In other news, I would like to congratulate the people of the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations for electing Lincoln Chafee as Governor and for preserving the state's name. They also seem to have voted intelligently and with foresight on a number of bond issues. Well done.

Finally, I would like to take a moment to discuss my true feelings about the the race for governor here in Georgia, which was won by the Republican, Nathan Deal. Throughout this race, in which Deal was challenged by former Democratic Governor Roy Barnes, I kept thinking of a story about Samuel Johnson.

Johnson had been, in conversation, rather pedantically defending the writings of a minor poet named Herrick when one of the participants in the discussion asked him, "Who do you think the better poet, Herrick or Smart?"

To which the great man replied, "Sir, there is no setting a precedence between a louse and a flea."

That, in my mind, was the choice we were faced with in Georgia. I truly wish that a woman named Karen Handle had outpointed Deal in the Republican runoff, but she did not. Although I do not agree with her on several issues, her positions were reasonable and thoughtful enough that I would have gladly voted for her yesterday.

Instead, I was stuck with the choice between a louse and a flea.