Is No On 1 loss due to Obama?
John Aravosis at gay.americablog.com has an interesting account of the interplay between the DNC, the Obama administration, the New Jersey governor's race, and the No On 1 campaign here in Maine. One very interesting point he makes is that the 2008 presidential race had far more people cast ballots than the 2009 No On 1 race. That's not that much of a surprise - it was an off-year election, after all - but it does raise the question of whether Obama's machine could have made a difference.By Aravosis's calculation, 122,000 Obama voters didn't cast ballots at all t

More on Tuesday's election
A pretty comprehensive round-up of some of the political philosophies around same-sex marriage votes. 

Post-election: the view from the wilderness
Deirdre's morning-after-the-election blog post had a line early on that really struck me: she mentions the "sheer disbelief that so many people have a worldview that is so radically different from my own."I don't think Deirdre is ignorant, or stupid, or insular - quite the opposite of any of that. But her perspective is enlightening. She grew up largely in the Clinton era. The first presidential election she voted in was Bush-Kerry in 2004. America was deeply polarized already, and the poles weren't speaking to each other. Occasionally, they shouted across

Morning-after thoughts
Well, it's over. I feel today -- and I heard several people echo this sentiment last night and this morning -- similar to how I felt on November 3, 2004, when John Kerry lost the presidential election. In addition to a sense of sadness and frustration, there's also sheer disbelief that so many people have a worldview that is so radically different from my own. ** Just got back from the No On 1 morning-after press conference. A morose scene, despite the let's-persevere messaging. Faces were long, eyes were damp, and many of the 100 or so attendees were wearing black. E

County breakdown - Question 1 #marryME
According to the Bangor Daily News numbers as of 9:25 am, here is the breakdown by county, and a handy map (made with the help of Microsoft MapPoint) showing exactly how little of Maine voted for marriage equality (remember, Yes is to repeal equality and No is to protect it):  County           % Yes              % No Androscoggin 60.13% 39.87% Very Stro