Reeling From Tuesday

The results of the election Tuesday night did shock me, no question about it, but there was more to it than just the results of one or even two races. 

First, the race for President.  I wasn't rooting for Mitt Romney (in fact, I proudly cast my vote for Gary Johnson), but I was horrified at the thought a majority of Americans could possibly vote for the re-election of Barack Obama.  The results of 2008 made me realize there existed about 70 million idiots in America; this year's results made me realize there are about 59 million fools in America.  If you haven't read Atlas Shrugged, I'd suggest you do so.  I think you'll get a good idea what will be happening in the foreseeable future.

A far better candidate than Joe Donnelly

The race for the U.S. Senate here in Indiana left me more outraged than the race for President.  It boggles my mind how so many of my fellow Hoosiers could think Joe Donnelly is such a better candidate than Richard Mourdock (pictured to the left).  Many claim it was because Mr. Mourdock's comments in October sunk his chances, but that wasn't the case.  The real reason had to do with Dick Lugar's supporters; their candidate had lost the primary in May (humiliatingly so), and the majority of them ultimately didn't back him up during the general election.  And since Lugar and Donnelly are ideologically close, it doesn't surprise me the majority of Lugar supporters would vote for Donnelly.

Here I am with a good man & a good candidate

The Governor's race ended just like I thought it would: Mike Pence won.  The only thing which surprised me about it was how close the margin was between Pence and John Gregg (you know, the candidate with two first names!).  As a candidate, Gregg wasn't much better than Jill Long Thompson in 2008, so to see him finish with 46% of the vote took me back a bit.  I voted for the Libertarian nominee, Rupert Boneham (pictured to the right), but I can live with Pence as Governor easily (it would've been humiliating to have to refer to John Gregg as my Governor; thank God it didn't happen!)

My Congressman, Marlin Stutzman, was easily re-elected to a second term in Congress, finishing even better than he did in 2010.  Having seen the one debate between the Congressman and his Democratic opponent, Kevin Boyd, it was crystal clear who the right choice was in the election, and that choice was Congressman Stutzman.  I'm glad to see he will be representing me and everybody else here in the 3rd District for another two years.

He came, he saw, he conquered

Here in DeKalb County, we were redistricted into the state's 52nd House district, and in the race for State Representative, Ben Smaltz (pictured to the left) defeated Charlie Odier to represent us in Indianapolis, but it wasn't so much a case of Smaltz winning the election as much as it was a case of Smaltz thoroughly cleaning his opponent's clock on Election Day.  It was quite easy to vote for him in this race, but considering Odier was on record being opposed to Indiana's school voucher program and the new Right To Work law, that made it extremely easy to vote for Ben Smaltz.

There were other races outside my area where I was hoping particular candidates would win, and in some races, there were victories (Jackie Walorski in Indiana, Ted Cruz in Texas, Michele Bachmann in Minnesota, etc.) and there were defeats (Dan Bongino in Maryland, Art Robinson in Oregon, Kurt Bills in Minnesota, etc.).  And in races for seats in the Indiana House, there were victories in nearby districts (Martin Carbaugh in the 81st, Dave Ober in the 82nd and Bob Morris in the 84th), so what happened Tuesday night was not totally bad news.

Tuesday was a hard night, and the day after was difficult to get through, but the fight is not over.  So let's take a brief rest, regather our resources, and continue fighting the good fight.