Flashback: Dem Convention photos

Had to display these photos, which I just received from fellow Dem and Wyoming state legislator Lori Millin. They say a lot about the enthusiasm of the convention in Denver which spilled over into the presidential campaign. That didn't translate into an Obama win in Wyoming -- not this time, anyway.

Looking back, wish I would have worn my cowboy outfit.

Barack Obama, the writer, headed to D.C.

I haven't yet read Barack Obama's two books. Maybe I should have, since he wrote them and not some ghost-writer. But political biographies, especially those written and released during a campaign, are usually bland and self-serving. They're written to get the candidate elected. At its core, the book is no different from a stump speech at a gym in Paducah. On the other hand, those memoirs written after a stint of public service tend to be a lot more interesting. I have a whole shelf of those, inherited from my father the accountant. My prize is an 1885 edition of Personal Memoirs of U.S. Grant which goes into incredible detail about an incredible life.

Toni Morrison likes Obama's writing. And, according to an AP story by Hillel Italie, Obama is a Morrison fan. Last winter, he called up the literary Nobel laureate to ask for her support in his race against Sen. Hillary Clinton. But politics was not first on the agenda. Obama said that Morrison's Song of Solomon had "meant of lot to him." Here's Morrison's post-election take on the conversation:

"And I had read his first book (Dreams from My Father). I was astonished at his ability to write, to think, to reflect, to learn and turn a good phrase. I was very impressed. This was not a normal political biography."

That's high praise coming from Morrison. Song of Solomon is one of my favorite books. Lyrical and strange, a great story with a surprise ending. Some may call it magical-realist but we'll leave that long discussion for another time.

Italie ends the article with a comment that "the vast majority of writers usually vote for Democrats anyway." Maybe that's true in NYC but not in Wyoming. But I know what Italie means. In the summer of 2003, I was at an outdoor concert in Cheyenne. I was wearing my "Poets Against the War" T-shirt. A friend introduced me to a young writer who took a look at my shirt and asked, "Do you know any poets for the war?" I had to think about that.

To have an actual writer in the White House? That seems like a good thing. Writers have an ability to explore the subtleties of an issue. We don't see the world in black and white. We like "gray areas" because that's where the stories are. Is this a good trait for a president? It will be a big change from our current regime. But too much gray can overwhelm you, leave you lost in a fog. Obama's pragmatism should prevent him from getting lost in any fog.
And we'll probably have to wait eight years before another Obama book. He'll be busy in the interim.

Why is Wyoming so darn red?

An article in today's Casper Star-Tribune notes that 65 percent of Wyoming voters cast their ballots for McCain. That is the largest McCain margin of any state save Oklahoma, which came in at 66 percent. Wyoming voted more red than our redder-than-red Rocky Mountain neighbors Idaho and Utah. In Idaho, McCain got 62 percent of the vote and Obama got 36 percent. In Utah, 63 percent supported McCain; 34 percent were for Obama.

Wyoming also sent three Republicans to Congress, with Repub Cynthia Lummis as the new U.S. House member. We'll have a lot of dissecting and transecting of this vote during the next few weeks. We do know that Repubs hate Washington, D.C., especially when the Repubs aren't in power -- especially when the Feds aren't sending us any money. Per capita, Wyoming is one of the top states reaping federal largesse. I ain't complaining, since it does a lot of good in this state in social services, health care, transportation and the arts. Then, I'm a Democrat who doesn't spend his livelong day complaining about the gubment. I spent two years in D.C. during the Clinton years and learned a few things in the process.

We Dems are partly to blame. We're still getting organized, still trying to figure out how it's done. Montana may be able to show us the way. We'll see. Meanwhile, we have to study Gov Dave's modus operandi to see how he does it.

Here's an interesting quote from the Star-Tribune:

Lewis Newman of Casper, a Republican and lifelong Wyoming resident, said he wasn't a bit surprised to see the GOP dominate Tuesday -- but he's not sure it's such a good thing.

It's not healthy for the Republicans to have so much power, Newman said.

"If they took Saddam Hussein and put an 'R' behind his name, he would get elected in this state," Newman said. "Voters don't give two thoughts to who they send back to Washington."

Paul Krugman hopes for "the end of the monster years"

Sometimes other bloggers say things better than you ever could. This comes from a Nov. 5 post on the New York Times blog of Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman:

Last night wasn’t just a victory for tolerance; it wasn’t just a mandate for progressive change; it was also, I hope, the end of the monster years.

What I mean by that is that for the past 14 years America’s political life has been largely dominated by, well, monsters. Monsters like Tom DeLay, who suggested that the shootings at Columbine happened because schools teach students the theory of evolution. Monsters like Karl Rove, who declared that liberals wanted to offer “therapy and understanding” to terrorists. Monsters like Dick Cheney, who saw 9/11 as an opportunity to start torturing people. [My emphasis, to note Cheney's Wyoming roots.]

And in our national discourse, we pretended that these monsters were reasonable, respectable people. To point out that the monsters were, in fact, monsters, was “shrill.”

Four years ago it seemed as if the monsters would dominate American politics for a long time to come. But for now, at least, they’ve been banished to the wilderness.

Lessons in here somewhere for WyoDems

When the news about Barack Obama's victory was announced last night, I was in a room filled with Republicans. It was a small room, and there were only three of them, but it seemed as if I was surrounded. J.D. was on the main microphone, Dave was tallying the election results on a legal pad, and Bob sat next to me at the guest mike. Bob was packing, his sidearm jutting ominously from his Cheyenne Police Department holster. Big guy, big weapon -- but he's the police chief and also my state senator. He was the Republican guest and I was the Democratic guest at KFBC 1240 AM in Cheyenne. The TV in the corner was on Fixed News, but even the Fox knuckleheads had to acknowledge Obama's victory when his electoral votes ratcheted up to 297.

"Now I have to listen to Democrats gloat for four years," said Dave, scribbling on his legal pad.

I replied: "There's not that many of us in Wyoming, so it won't be too bad."

I wanted to gloat my ass off. But I was a guest at the radio station, providing some powerful insights into the conversation. Besides, my Republican state senator was packing heat.

J.D. called up the Laramie County Clerk web site to find the local results. One big surprise -- Ward 3 city councilman Pete Laybourn was last in a field of four candidates. In city council races, the top two vote-getters are elected and the bottom two go home. Pete's one of those outspoken rabble-rousers who used to appear at every city council meeting to complain about overspending, potholes, and almost everything else under the sun. He was elected four years ago and reelected in 2006. This time, his constituency thought he'd gone a bit too far when he harassed the new city attorney so badly that she quit after only a few months on the job. Maybe they'd just grown tired of his rants and bad attitude. He can ponder the reasons during retirement. But Pete isn't a retiring guy. He'll be back in his role as citizen complainant as soon as new council members are sworn in.

One of those new council members is outgoing mayor Jack Spiker, who was elected (along with incumbent Pat Collins) in Ward 2. There should be some titanic tiffs between Citizen Laybourn and Councilman Spiker when the new session rolls around.

A couple other surprises in the night's results. A close U.S. House race between Dem Gary Trauner and Repub Cynthia Lummis got worse and worse for Trauner as the night progressed. A slim Lummis lead widened until she was ahead by about 8,000 votes with 130 precincts out of 465 statewide left to report. J.D. turned to the Laramie County Clerk's page and saw that Trauner was ahead of Lummis by about 150 votes. Cheyenne is Lummis's home town! It turned out not to be the only county that came in for Trauner -- Albany, Teton and Sweetwater also went to Trauner. Gary's home county of Teton gave him the biggest margin with 3,990 votes. Albany County voters gave Gary a 2,736 vote margin while Laramie County (LummisLand) voted 20,818 to 18,642 for Trauner -- a 2,176 edge.

But the state's other 19 counties all went for Lummis. Campbell County gave Lummis a 6,500-some vote lead. That did in Gary, who lost by almost 25,000 votes. Lummis rolled out the dirty attack ads in the campaign's last week, ads that appealed to the yahoo in rural Wyomingites. Gary gonna take away your guns! He a East Coast smarty-pants Liberal! Jackson Hole! It seemed to work. Or maybe it was just a combination of events. One good thing is that we worked our butts off for Gary in Lummis's home turf. Almost 21,000 people voted for Gary in the county. We knocked on all those people's doors and called them on the phone. We were out on the streets until 6:30 and then went to the Plains Hotel to party with the other Dems. After awhile, I sauntered over to KFBC to spell my Dem cohort, Ken the Retired Fighter Pilot. I sent Ken over to the party while I faced down the Repubs.

When Ken came back for the late shift at 10, it all seemed decided. The Laramie County Clerk was reporting that District 8 incumbent Lori Millin was losing to Republican Bob Nicholas, who is filling in as Cheyenne's city attorney. The margin was only 19 votes with 100 percent of the precinct's reporting. Damn! I couldn't believe it. Lori is a great legislator and she worked hard to get reelected only to lose to this new guy. While I was elated about Obama's win, I was bummed about Lori. I went to bed disappointed.

This morning in the paper, I see Lori's smiling face on the front page with news that she'd beaten Nicholas 2,438 to 2,271. Close, but it counts. You have to wonder how Lori could be shown behind the night before with all votes counted but be the winner in the morning with even more votes counted.

There are some lessons in here for WyoDems but I haven't yet grokked them. More tomorrow....

"Change has come to America"

Barack Hussein Obama is president-elect

Election Day in Cheyenne, Wyoming

Toddlers 4 Trauner

Gary T in Cheyenne

Latest updates from Election Protection

Getting interesting out there on Election Day. Vote counting may come later than expected. Still, you have to keep on keeping on. Election protection reported this at 10 a.m. (EST):

10 a.m. DEVELOPING STORIES FROM ELECTION PROTECTION

As of 10 am, Election Protection has received over 27,000 calls to the 1-866-OUR-VOTE Hotline since the phones opened at 5:30 am this morning.

VIRGINIA: We have seen the situation on the ground in Virginia change drastically over the past hour. Election Protection is calling for the courts to keep the polls open an additional two hours.

MICHIGAN: There are widespread reports of line lines, lack of ample poll workers and general disorganization, resulting in waits as long as two hours. Machine malfunctions are also contributing long lines and in some cases poll workers administering polling through paper ballots. Some voters are expressing concern over the security of their ballots in these situations.

FLORIDA: We have received multiple reports that optical scanning machines are broken in Tallahassee, Tampa, Broward County and Miami-Dade County.

Don't let them interfere with your vote

Election Day, the most exciting one I've experienced. I'm out working for Gary Trauner today.

If anyone messes with your right to vote, you have lots of options. Your precinct's election judges are there to help. Most judges I've seen in Laramie County know their business. They receive training and get lots of backup. But, if for some odd reason, it's the judge getting in your way, there's also a precinct captain or, in many cases, the captain that oversees the operation of the 4-5 precincts grouped together, as is the case with the Lions Park Community House and the Holiday Inn on Fox Farm Road.

Your county clerk and staff will be busy but you can contact them if you experience difficulties. Contact the Laramie County Clerk at 307-633-4268.

Election Protection provides a national clearinghouse at http://www.866ourvote.org/. The web site also provides a U.S. map. You can click on any state and get crucial information on voting -- and where to turn to for help.

You can also use your Twitter account to report polling place shenanigans. Here are some directions:

If you experience problems at the polls on Election Day(such as long lines, voter intimidation, suspicious behavior, machine malfunctions, registration errors, etc.) you can report it to us via text message or the web by using your Twitter account! (Don’t have one? Click here to sign-up.)
Here is how it works:
1. “Tweets” should include a description of the problem and a hashtag+zip code (ex. #22205). If you know your voting precinct number, it would also be helpful to add that.
2. Include in your tweet a simple hashtag of “EP” + state abbreviation—so if you
are a voter in Virginia, include in your tweet “#EPVA”
3. These tweet-reports will be monitored by the respective state teams on the ground who will confirm the reports and work to resolve any issue.
4. Add #votereport to your tweet to feed live into the Twitter Vote Report website.

My sister at Joe Biden rally in Florida

My sister Molly (with red hair and wearing Obama T-shirt) gets up-close-and-personal with Democratic Party V.P. candidate Joe Biden at a rally in Tallahassee, Florida. Molly is probably the only one of my eight siblings (all Floridians) casting her vote for the Obama-Biden ticket. Go Molly! Gobama! (Who are all those guys in the dark glasses?)

WYO voters turn out in record numbers

Peter O'Dowd reported this on Wyoming Public Radio this afternoon:

The Natrona County Clerk [in Casper] says her office had to request extra ballots to keep up with demand for early voting. Renea Vitto says she saw record turnout in the days leading up to the election. She expects 750 people to cast their ballots on Monday alone. Because residents can register at the polls, Vitto predicts 120 percent voter turnout. She says voters should be prepared to wait up to 20 minutes in line on Election Day.

Statewide, early voting continues to smash records. The Secretary of State says 23 percent of registered voters have already cast ballots. That nearly doubles the average of votes traditionally cast before Election Day in Wyoming.

Poll workers at the Laramie County Court House in Cheyenne reported an average of 700 early voters per day when I was there voting on Thursday. Lines were longer last Friday and I don't know what it was like today. So, if one-quarter of registered voters have cast ballots statewide, that's about 60,000 voters. It's still going to be busy at the polls tomorrow, so get there early. Or go during lunchtime and bring a sandwich.

In Colorado, about half of all eligible voters have cast ballots. In Florida, 4.2 million people have cast ballots. Something like 330,000 voters have been to the polls in Utah. This is one big turnout, with election day still ahead of us.

FMI: http://uwadmnweb.uwyo.edu/wpr/

Still time to pitch in for Democrats

I took a vacation day for Nov. 4 so I can get out the vote for Wyoming Democratic candidates. In 2006, I took the day off to be an election judge. In 2004, I was a pollwatcher for the entire day. Not everyone can get a day off, I know. If you can, there are national, state and local candidates who need your help.

For an overview, go to the Wyoming Democratic Party web site at http://www.wyomingdemocrarts.com/

Democrats running for the two U.S. Senate seats are Chris Rothfuss of Laramie, running against Sen. Mike Enzi, and Gillette's Nick Carter, running against Sen. John Barrasso. Contact their campaigns. See what they need today and tomorrow.

Gary Trauner of Wilson is running against Cynthia Lummis for Wyoming's lone U.S. House seat being vacated by Barbara Cubin. His well-organized GOTV campaign is ramping up across the state. But there's always room for more.

If there's a Democrat running in your legislative district (not always the case in WYO), call him or her and ask what you can do these last two days.

Finally, we have a presidential race. Sen. Obama will not win Wyoming. He may come closer than any Democrat ever has, but Wyoming is solidly in the McCain camp. But, the race is still close in Colorado, Montana and North Dakota. Cheyenne volunteers spent much of their weekend in Fort Collins and Greeley ringing doorbells for Barack Obama. I know a few people in northern Wyoming who have stepped across our northern border to work with Obama organizers in Montana. Nobody I know has been to North Dakota, but it's still interesting that the race is close there. You may not know this, but North Dakota has a longstanding progressive tradition that goes back 100 years.

Always more to do for Sen. Obama before 7 p.m. Tuesday. Go to www.barackobama.com/.

See you out there on election day!

Vote Republican! Avoid Pelosi Syndrome!

During these final days of the 2008 election, Republicans are pushing ads that portray Wyoming as a reliably conservative state and one that distrusts East Coast Liberals. If you are a born and bred Wyomingite with conservative creds, you are good and trustworthy. If you were born somewhere else -- especially any East Coast state north of Virginia or (worse) California -- and you're a Democrat, you are bad, untrustworthy and probably a Socialist.

The latest Repub ads supporting Cynthia Lummis emphasize these crucial differences and encourage Wyomingites to vote for "real" conservatives whom also are "real Americans" too. A radio ad I heard today in breaks of the Denver Broncos game has some ersatz cowboy narrator (probably an actor!) with a folksy voice. He used all the buzzwords that are supposed to push the right buttons in Wyomingites: "East Coast Liberal" and "out-of-state money" and "unions" and "Nancy Pelosi." When I heard all this, I began to feel a bit sick. So I went to the doctor.

Doctor: Sorry, Mr. Shay, but I'm afraid you have a case of Pelosi Syndrome.

Me: Not Pelosi!

Dr.: I'm afraid so.

Me: What's the diagnosis, Doc? Give it to me straight!

Dr.: First it's the arms and legs, and then the torso. Last to go is the head.

Me: Tumors? Lesions? Cankers? Boils?

Dr.: Worse. Your body turns blue. Hordes of Wyoming Republicans see that you're a Democrat and they set upon you like a pack of ravening wolves. You don't stand a chance.

Me: I'll stay at home.

Dr.: They'll find you.

Me: I'll hide in the mountains.

Dr.: They'll find you no matter where you try to hide.

Me: I'm done for.

Dr.: True, unless....

Me: What, Doc? Give it to me straight!

Dr.: Well, you could fall into line and vote Republican. This is a conservative state, don't you know? It's futile to resist. Vote Lummis. Vote Enzi. Vote Barrasso. Vote McCain. Vote Palin.

Me: Is this my only hope?

Dr.: I'm afraid so.

Me: Any side effects?

Dr.: There's one. First it's the arms and legs. And then the torso. The last to go is the head.

Me: What do you mean, Doc? Give it to me straight!

Dr.: It's called Palinitis. Your body turns red.

Me: But I'll be O.K. as long as I stay in Wyoming?

Dr.: True, but next time you go to a blue state, those Democrats will come at you like a ravening pack of slightly miffed bunny rabbits.

Me: Doesn't sound dangerous.

Dr.: It's death by a thousand little nibbles.

Me: I'll stay home. Who needs blue states anyway? Who needs Colorado or New Mexico or California or New York or Pennsylvania or Massachusetts or Washington or Hawaii or Florida or Virginia or Maryland or North Carolina or....

Dr.: Exactly. If you stay in Wyoming and vote the Republican Party line, you'll live forever.

Me: And what a full life that will be!

THE END

An ominous set of signs -- or coincidence?

So there I was, me and my clipboard and door hangers for Gary Trauner. I was trying to get my bearings in Cheyenne's Precinct 1-1. A shadow began to fall over me, an ominous shadow, fraught with meaning. I turned to look up. Hovering over me were a pair of street signs that sent chills down my spine. I was at the corner of Gop(p) and Lummis. GOP for Grand Old Party and Lummis for Cynthia, Gary's opponent in Wyoming's U.S. House race. Weird. Were these signs a sign? Or just some odd coincidence? We shall find out on election day. Meanwhile, I moved on, knocking on doors for Gary.

LarCoDems gather for election results

The Laramie County Democratic Party will gather at the historic Cheyenne Plains Hotel Round-Up Room on November 4, 7 p.m., to view the incoming results of local, state, and national elections. Members of the media are welcome to attend this gathering for research and reporting purposes. Refreshments and snacks will be provided.

Laramie County Democratic Party Chairman Mike Bell says: “We are looking forward to a fun and relaxing evening, celebrating all of the hard work that our Democratic candidates and volunteers completed in support of the Wyoming Democratic Party and our platform.”

LarCoDem member Mike Shay says this: "We are looking forward to cheering wildly when the presidential race results come pouring in."

For further information, contact Mike Bell at 307-631-7641.

I have it on good authority that Mike Bell has ordered two cakes for the event. Cake and Fat Tire Amber Ale go great together.

If you're looking for up-to-date results on election night, go to Dave Lerner's Wyoming Network. In 2006, the AP beat Wyoming Network by only a few minutes. Go to www.wyomingnetwork.com.

In Memoriam: Studs Terkel, storyteller

Not much you can say when one of your favorite authors passes away. So we'll let Studs Terkel have the last word:

"Who are the best historians? Who are the storytellers? Who lived through the Great Depression of the '30s, World War II that changed the whole psyche and map of the world, a Cold War, Joe McCarthy, Vietnam, the '60s, that's so often put down today and I think was an exhilarating and hopeful period, and, of course, the computer and technology. Who are the best ones to tell the story? Those who've borne witness to it. And they're our storytellers."

Obama vs. The Cranky Old Guy

From Al Rodgers on Daily Kos

Dick Cheney descends on Laramie Saturday

The Laramie County Democratic Party received a robocall from the Wyoming Republicans this morning. It sounded like a real voice on the line, but that's the strange thing about robocalls -- they come from robots who sound human. The big news from the RoboRepubs was that V.P. Dick Cheney is coming to Laramie tomorrow (Saturday) for an 8:30 a.m. rally for U.S. House candidate Cynthia Lummis and senators Mike Enzi and John Barrasso. Despite the cordial robocall, Democrats are not welcomed. Here's the protocol as outlined in a story from the Laramie Boomerang:

The vice president of the United States will be in Laramie Saturday trying to convince voters to get to the polls and vote Republican. Vice President Dick Cheney will participate in a Republican Rally at 8:30 a.m. Saturday at Laramie High School. The event will be an RSVP-list event and those interested in attending need to submit their name to the Wyoming GOP Headquarters at (307) 234-9166.

Wonder how you can hold a non-public rally at a public high school? But that's what happened a few years ago when Cheney visited his old haunts at the Wyoming State Capitol. The doors were closed to the common people. Usually Cheney is holding $10,000 a plate fund-raising dinners that are closed to the public due to the fact that not every Dick and Jane can afford $10,000 for a plate of rubber chicken.

“Because Vice President Cheney is a Republican, we are encouraging everybody to support Republican candidates,” said Tammy Johnson, head of the Albany County Republicans. “It is to rally Republicans and to make people excited about getting out and voting.”

I know that Cheney's appearance will encourage Wyoming Democrats to go out and vote for Democrats. None of us want to see another Cheney-like creature in the president's or vice-president's house. Let's just hope he doesn't return to Wyoming once he's booted from D.C.