Georgia Senate Race: Saxby Chambiss Defeats Jim Martin - So What!

This just in: incumbent Georgia Senator Saxby Chambiss defeated Democratic Challenger Jim Martin in the runoff for the seat that, if Martin won, would have placed the Democrats just one-more seat win from a 60-seat fillibuster-proof majority.


So what.  


So much has been made of a race in a state that (was stupid enough) to vote for Senator John McCain over now-President Elect Barack Obama that what was forgotten is that technically, with Independent Senator Joe Liberman having made a deal with the Democrats in the Senate and saved by Obama, the Dems are really just one seat from such power, not two.   If Norm Coleman loses to Al Franken in Minnesota, it's just one away from full power.  


But that written, Obama already has his Senate power in place. With Senators Clinton and Biden at Secretary of State and Vice President, Obama has smartly moved to set in place people who have had great relationships and cultivated power in the Senate to move legislation.   Moreover, Biden is a great friend to Senator John McCain, and Obama has planned to keep Republicans like Bob Gates in place as Defense Secretary.


So my question is, on what vote will such a Republican Democratic split come into play?  The Economy? Even the most conservative economists agree America needs a large stimulus package, so the normal liberal / conservative economic argument has been jettisoned by a plainly terrible American economy.   


What's the magic issue?  I can't see it.   It's not there.  


Obama was right not to make a trip to Georgia.  Let's face it, given that states seemingly intractable conservatism, it would have taken a "Barack Obama-esque" candidate to pull voters in the runoff election and Jim Martin was just not that compelling person.  That's not a knock against the man, but more of a blunt read on what kind of political formula was needed to win.  


Obama doesn't lose a thing and Chambiss may find this new Senate tougher sledding than the old one if he tries to pull a minority challenge to the Obama plan.    


Uh, did I write "may" -- change that to "will."  

"The Spank Dance" At Grand Sierra Resort, Reno, Nevada

This is a crazy dance that's done to celebrate one's birthday at the Grand Sierra Resort Hotel in Reno, Nevada. The folks from the band Clear Blue 22 were in on the act and acting at MCs' too.



If you're wondering what I was doing here, I was on layover and on the way to Mom's for Christmas in Georgia!

2008 Presidential Race - Zennie Questions Fayetteville, GA

I recently took my trusty Sony camcorder to visit my Mom in Fayetteville, GA and in the process ask some of the locals two questions: first, what they thought of the 2008 Presidential Race, and second who they planned to vote for. I received some interesting responses.

Now, it must be reported that I did not go up to every person I encountered. I randomly picked my spots and let's face it, most people will not speak before a camera. Yeah, someone may give this great opinion but the minute I say "Hey, can I get that on camera?" they will say "No, not on camera." The very act of coaxing them is so time consuming that I'd rather not be bothered. But then there are people who do speak, and they offer a great opening to be interviewed.

Also, I knew I was going to make a five-minute video -- ok, almost six -- and so didn't focus on talking to a lot of people. I wanted to have full unedited responses, and that's what I got.

I also didn't try to get some kind of ethnic balance. To be frank, Fayetteville, GA offers a pretty fair variety of people. The 2000 census, which really reflects the mid-1990s when you think about it, is just plain wrong about Fayetteville, Georgia in 2007. This Atlanta suburb is now seemlingly half-African American, if not majority Black. Regardless, my experience confirms my assertion that our American Census and the country's overall perception of itself on a regional basis is way out of whack with reality.

The true picture I get is of an America more diverse and mixed in thought and in human color than we are led to think by the mainstream media, which itself needs an overhaul because it's so behind the times in how it covers American Culture -- fact is replaced by bias dressed as fact all too often.

But I digress.

What I learned in my little bitty video survey is that people have made of their minds -- sort of. The responses you hear all come with the causionary sentence "For now", or "At this time." Which means they could switch or shift for some unknown reasons.

To me this is shaping up as the most volitile and unpredictable election in American History. I think Bill Kristol nailed it when he said the 2008 Presidential Race will break all the rules. There are so many elements that are a part of today's culture that were not even evident in 2004, when President Bush was reelected -- YouTube, cell-phone-only-homes, to name a few of them. Plus, the standard methods of surveying our society's preferences doens't even capture this, and yet the results are reported on CNN and other news networks and without introspection.

Wow.

This is the election where America will learn how wrong it is about itself.