Presidential campaign: November 2008 Archives

You may remember the dialogue on race and the presidential election that NPR was having with a bunch of York-area residents.

They wanted someplace in a swing state, in an area populated enough where a lot of the big issues would be relevant, that was relatively easy to get to from their home base in Washington, D.C. And York fit the bill on all counts.

Frankly, I was a little surprised to discover that the history of race riots had nothing to do with it. Oh well. It's not like York had a monopoly on racial discord in the 1960s.

Anyway -- as promised, they came back to town after the election for a follow-up. Give it a look and a listen.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=97002890

You know, I'm not sure if I feel bad for John McCain or not.

That's not a put-down. It's just that in recent days, I've been thinking about his visit to York County in August, and my brief ride on the Straight Talk Express, which I decribed in greater detail in an earlier posting.

So Barack Obama won.

To tell you the truth, I saw it coming. Not that it makes me some great political prognosticator.

I've spoken to A. Carville "Peck" Foster, chairman of the York County Republican Party, a couple of times since Tuesday. And though he didn't say it in so many words, I get the strong impression that he saw it coming as well.

Don't get me wrong. The local Republican Party ran a good campaign. I stopped by county Republican campaign headquarters a number of times, and saw a lot of competent people working very hard.

It's just that the writing was on the wall after the economic meltdown and the Wall Street bailout. Fairly or not, public outrage attached itself to the entire Republican Party and McCain paid the price.

I'm starting this entry at 11:45 p.m. on Tuesday. I had to duck out of Cobblestones in York, site of the Democratic post-election party, in the middle of John McCain's concession speech.

I'll have lots to write about the election, and York County's role in it, in the days ahead. For now, I guess I'll just stick to what I saw tonight.

It's a little after nine right now. The polls are closed. Just waiting for the results to come in.

Like most of my colleagues, I spent some time earlier out at the polling places to talk to voters.