Victory from sea to shining sea

How sweet it is.

Chimp boy showed up at a rally with the right-wing candidate for Virginia governor only yesterday; the White House intimated that the race was a referendum on his tenure.

"In jumping into the Virginia governor's race just 10 hours before polling booths open, [George] Bush put his credibility on the line last night and ensured that the results will be interpreted as a referendum on his troubled [tenure]. But the White House is gambling that after weeks of political tribulations, Bush has little more to lose."

The result was a 52% - 46% spread in favor of Democrat Tim Kaine, in a state that went for the chimp by 9% in 2004. You're looking at a 15 point swing in toto.

In New Jersey, despite last-minute chatter about a narrowing gap between Doug Forrester and Jon Corzine, fueled in part by a particularly nasty series of ads with quotes from Corzine's recently divorced ex-wife, the people gave Corzine a sound 11% lead, with 54% to 43%.

In California, with 48.9% of precincts reporting, it appears that seven of eight initiatives are failing, while one is ahead by 1%. [Update: in fact, all eight failed, including all four of the gropernator's proposals.]

In St. Paul, in a sweet irony, the DINO mayor who endorsed the chimp last year was swept out of office by a two to one margin. Take that, traitor. In Maine, an anti-gay measure was decisively defeated. In Pennsylvania, the Dover school board - the wackjobs who are trying to push creationism into the schools - were wiped out. Americablog reports that Faux "News" is having a hard time with all this.

Meanwhile, here in New York, it is decidedly a mixed picture, with several caveats. The resounding victory of incumbent Michael Bloomberg (full disclosure: members of this household voted for him as well, in what for some was the first ballot they ever cast on the R line, and likely the last) rewards a competent, non-ideological administration. Mayor Bloomberg has followed in the footsteps of distinguished republican mayors of the past, such as Fiorello LaGuardia or John Lindsay; he deserves this victory, having worked very hard, and spent a pretty penny besides.

The Democratic nominee, Ferrer, by contrast, is a pathetic machine hack; to better understand his patheticness, consider that he only managed to raise about $6,000,000 (this includes 4:1 public matching funds) in a city that gave over $300,000,000 to the party last year. It's hard to pinpoint any single factor in his defeat; was it the disgusting racial pandering ("We will forge a black-Latino coalition"), which alienated white voters and red plush sharks alike, the transparent compensatory pandering to whites about how the Diallo shooting was "not a murder", the obvious hackiness, the impression insiders had of his campaign staff ("PC nitwits" was one description), the awful commercials, the wooden personality, the lack of clear ideas? The New York City party needs to realize - maybe the fourth defeat in a row will help in this - that we don't reflexively vote for the Democrat locally. Showing up is not enough anymore.

Further down the ticket, despite some last-minute anxiety about inroads, we managed to expand the margin against right-wingers, including the one who campaigned with this odious anti-choice, anti-gay flyer out in Bay Ridge. In what this household regards as a personal triumph, the irritating green party candidate for Brooklyn Borough President, Gloria Mattera, came in in third place - with fewer votes even than the local reactionary. In Brooklyn, one might add, the R's are the third party.

And so it goes. The people have spoken, and it's pretty clear what we're saying.