I hate to be a downer, but given the clear evidence of your senses, you may have believed that the nation is excited about the election of Barack Obama.
Silly. Allow Mr C. Morrissey to disabuse you of such foolishness. (Please do not tell him though that he is comparing final totals from 2004 to as yet incomplete totals from 2008, as not all ballots are counted the morning after the election, and that this is the not exactly a secret, except to people who don't know what they are talking about.)
This morning, after having absorbed the substantial victory of Barack Obama, I noticed a couple of interesting items in the data. Barack Obama certainly won this race, but he won it with just a little more votes than George Bush won in his re-election bid, and the turnout models came up short.
In 2004, Bush beat John Kerry by winning 62.04 million votes. In 2008, Obama won 62.443 million, a gain of only 400,000. In 2004, Kerry garnered 59.028 million votes; John McCain only got 55.386 million. That means this election saw 3.24 million fewer votes than four years ago. Far from being more energized, the nation appeared to be more apathetic.
Apathetic! Meanwhile...
2008 turnout shatters all records
More than 130 million people turned out to vote Tuesday, the most ever to vote in a presidential election.
With ballots still being counted in some precincts into Wednesday morning, an estimated 64 percent of the electorate turned out, making 2008 the highest percentage turnout in generations.
In 2004, 122.3 million voted in what was then the highest recorded turnout in the contest between President Bush and Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.).
Previously red states targeted by the Barack Obama campaign demonstrated remarkable turnout, setting records in North Carolina and elsewhere. Increased turnout was also reported in states including Virginia and Indiana.
Exit polls indicate that whites made up a slightly smaller percentage of the electorate than in 2004, as a surge among minority and youth voters aided Obama, who exit polls show won two-thirds of voters ages 18 to 29, 66 percent of Hispanics and 95 percent of blacks.
Although Kerry won all those groups in 2004, he did so with slimmer margins, taking 54 percent of the 18-to-29 vote, 53 percent of Hispanics and 88 percent of blacks.
And see also.
At the moment CNN, Mr. C. Morrissey's source for the 2004 numbers, has the 2008 total for Obama at 63,878,236, which, you will observe, is more than "400,000" greater than 62,040,606, which is what Kerry got in 2004. It is in fact 1,837,630 greater.
Moreover, McCain got 56,394,736, not " 55.386 million."
Note again that counting is not over even yet so these numbers are not final.
It is very comforting I suppose to realize that conservative bloggers are still really fucking stupid.