Five ideas that have North Texas talking: Rockin’ Obama, a whole lotta Senate X chromosomes, the return of politicocktails and more.
Myth #1: Obama Is No Longer The ‘Rock Star’ of ’08
Electoral votes: 301 (plus, probably, Florida’s 29). ’Nuff said.
Exit polls showed Latinoswent even more overwhelmingly for Obama than four years ago. The much-vaunted youth vote actually turned out (despite what a few college students suggested to us earlier this week). And hey, Jay Z and Bruce Springsteen seemed pretty happy as opening acts the last few days of the campaign.
-- Lyndsay Knecht
(Thanks to photographer Dylan Hollingsworth for proof of Obama's iconic image holding up. Dylan's collection on Cowbirdand his own site is worth your time.)
Myth #2: Politics Is Still A Male Game
The roster of female winners is loaded with firsts:
- Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin, the first lesbian U.S. senator
- Tammy Duckworth of Illinois, the first wounded woman veteran in the U.S. House
- Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire, the only female Democratic governor
- Not to mention Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota -- the list goes on.
And then there were GOP Senate hopefuls Todd Akin and Richard Mourdock, who both proved that talking about women and rape can be political Kryptonite.
Here in Texas, State Sen. Wendy Davis held her ground, and her seat, despite a strong challenge from State Rep. Mark Shelton. Our own Bill Zeeble was in Fort Worth to see her take the win.
-- Rick Holter
Myth #3: Latinos Are A Monolithic Voting Bloc
Sure, President Obama won as much as 75 percent of Hispanic votes at the top of the ticket -- and that has serious long-term issues for the balance of political power. (GOP Sen. Marco Rubio from Florida has already weighed in on his party’s troubles courting minority voters and immigrants.)
But Texas gave Ted Cruz a ringing endorsement for the U.S. Senate, proving a Cuban-born, Tea Party-backed Republican could build a statewide (and possibly national) crusade.
-- Rick Holter
Myth #4: Nate Silver Can’t Possibly Be Omniscient
It’s not like he hadn’t defied human understanding before. New York Times “Algorythmic Overlord” Nate Silver of the FiveThirtyEight blog correctly predicted the outcome of 49 states’ votes in the 2008 presidential election -- and he did the same thing this time. (If Obama wins Florida, Silver will have swept all 50.)
Ad Age has 15 behind-the-curtain stats about the wizard and what his feat means for the Times’ brand.
-- Lyndsay Knecht
Myth #5: We’ll Never Get Over Last Night
This rollercoaster of an election cycle encompassed every state, voter, and value. It goes without saying that somewhere, someone isn’t happy. If that someone is you: Before you go and move to Canada, make sure you know what you’re getting into.All fatigued by the season can join fellow Americans on Twitter in healing by tagging Tweets with #electionrecovery. And don’t forget that Halo 4 is out, some awesome movies are in theatres soon, andKXT 91.7 is a perfect windows-down companion.
-- Justin Martin
