A few thoughts on the 2012 Election

Just a few thoughts:

1) I predicted back in 2008 when Barack Obama won the election that if the Republicans ran another older white male for president, they'd lose. Unfortunately, that happened and in terms of the electoral college, the Republicans lost badly (the popular vote was much closer). I was surprised at how Romney actually made it a closer election than it seemed.

2) I think that we're going to see one of the worst 2nd term presidents in a long time. This is not necessarily an Obama thing, but rather, it's a presidential thing. We've already seen in the past that most second term presidents are not very successful. For instance, Bush 2 can be termed a failure for his second term, Clinton's certainly was, Reagan's was not great, Nixon was impeached and resigned, and Truman left office with the lowest approval rating until Bush 2. Eisenhower didn't have a necessarily bad 2nd term, but it can be said that many of the decisions made in that second term made things interesting for the next 50 years.

3) The charter school amendment in Georgia passing is going to be a windfall for private companies working in Georgia. Sadly, this means that Georgia students and teachers will again be getting the short end of the stick once again. I told Tasha last night that we should seriously start contemplating working for charter schools because that's where the money for schools in Georgia is going to go. At least we might not have furlough days there if that happens.

4) When I woke up this morning, I felt that we had reelected Hoover rather than electing FDR. The analogy is that in the Great Depression, Hoover sat back and tried to let the market correct itself until it was essentially too late. Having read some about what Hoover would have done if reelected, it seems that our current president is doing much of the same. Mainly, it was to let things work themselves out on their own rather than stepping in and doing something. When Hoover did step in, he did so in a way that did not assist people, and did not work towards any means of pulling out of the depression. Sound familiar?

5) Finally, it'll be interesting to see what both parties do in the next four years. I sincerely doubt that there will be much crossing the aisle to work with one another, so nothing will happen really in the next few years. Sad, really, that we are stuck in neutral as a country.

In all, it was an interesting night last night. As I said four years ago, I hope that my assumptions are wrong and that the president proves to be a great person. As always, more later....