Joe

Bill Lyon has a heart-breaking column on Joe Paterno. Coach Paterno, now in his 55th season at Penn State, is the most admirable living figure in American sports.

A month shy of 78, his Lions program has fallen into disrepair, and the chorus of those who want him to step down grows weekly. It is terrible and gut-wrenching to watch.

I interviewed Paterno once. I went through Penn State's athletic department, and some secretary scheduled an appointment for the two of us to talk over the phone. Having grown up not far from Penn State, I was--there's no graceful way to put it--incredibly excited.

On the day we were scheduled to talk, my phone rang exactly at the appointed hour--he was prompt to the minute. I picked up the phone and said, "Hello." And he said, in that famous high voice of his, "Hi, Jonathan? This Joe Paterno. . . . I'm the coach of the football team at Penn State. . . . How are you?"

We talked for a long while; the conversation was as easy as talking with my grandfather. Real humility--not the fake kind politicians wear for us--is so rare. Paterno may have been the humblest man I've ever spoken with. And not just humble but deeply smart and wise, too.

It's a terrible thing to see a great man struggle. I'm praying Coach Paterno is given whatever grace he needs.

Trend Watch

First Jack Shafer, now Tom Maguire--we're just one hit away from an Official Ana Marie Cox Backlash Trend. Maguire says:

Mr. Greenfield also mentioned Wonkette for political gossip, and cited the first thing everyone mentions when they mention the Wonkette. Groan.

Look, I understand that she needs a paycheck, that Howard Stern is a ratings monster, that sex sells, and that "Sex and the City" has extended the boundaries of hip and humorous.

I also understand that folks like Jeff Greenfield may stop by for the jokes, but they stay for the content, which I have no doubt is first rate.

That said, I am old enough to remember when comedians would substitute the 'F' word for a punchline - I was not a fan of shock humor then, nor have I warmed to it over the years (Yes, I made an exception for the baked beans scene in "Blazing Saddles"). And I am especially irked by my sense that Wonkette is only considered to be funny because she is a woman - would Jeff Greenfield by yukking it up if those a**-f****** jokes were coming from a guy's site? Doubtful.

Grrr. If this is the sort of attention-seeking behavior that leads to success for female journalists, then I have a vested interest in what seems even to me to be a tired feminist argument. Since I have some smart-as-a-whip nieces and daughters who are talented researchers and writers, I would prefer that they not be evaluated on their willingness to engage in raunchy rhetoric.

What I want to know is, if Shafer and Maguire are so smart, where's their $275,000 book advance? I can't stand people who hate on a girl just because she's successful and talented. Word on the street is that Cox's forthcoming novel, Dog Days, is going to be awesome: Sort of Anna Karenina meets The Devil Wears Prada. Only with cursing and, you know, A2M.

Best Post-Election Joke

Now available on eBay: Michael Moore's Relevance. Be sure to read the fine print, too.

As a bonus, you can also bid on Bruce Springsteen's ego

This Isn't Gloating

It isn't gloating to look back at some of the recent stupidity of Bush hates. Take Wil Wheaton.

Over the last few days, Wheaton has set some kind of land-speed record for crazy talk. The day before the election, he wrote that "if George W. Bush wins, I will sit down, and I will cry. I will cry for my children, who will most certainly face a military draft, and I will cry for my country, because I believe that America can, and must, do better than George W. Bush."

"A military draft"? Yeah, under Bush 2.0, they'll be drafting young American boys left and right. But The Architect has this new computer chip that's being implanted in children born in safe Democratic districts, see. And this way he can draft predominently Democratic kids for W.'s imperial wars. In fact, he's not even going to draft them--he'll just swoop down and pick them up in his black helicopter.

But young Master Crusher wasn't that worried. "I'm pretty sure that John Kerry will win this election," he blogged.

(In this same post, Wheaton also worried that a second Bush term would mean "Goodbye freedom from religion." Note, that's "freedom from religion," not "freedom of religion.")

Then, this morning, Wheaton posted this gem: "Apparently, my country holds a fundamentally different set of values than I thought we did, and that scares the shit out of me."

This is just a working theory: Anyone who looks at this country and sees more divisions than binding ties is insane. The political differences between a liberal Hollywood actor and a conservative Midwestern businessman are, objectively speaking, very, vey small. Nearly all Americans share a pretty basic set of broad values; our divisions are around the margins of these values. Put another way, Tom DeLay and Barbra Streisand have more political commonalities than they do differences.

Take gay marriage, for example. The political "divide" in America is over whether homosexuals should be given full and complete access to the custom and legal definition of marriage (the Human Rights Campaign's position) or whether they should have some modified version of a civil union that does not have the word "marriage" attached to it (President Bush's position). Both sides agree homosexuals should have equal rights; should not be discriminated upon in the workplace; should be allowed to adopt children; should be able to live with dignity; and should, in general, be embraced by their fellow citizens.

If you want to see what a real "divide" looks like, gaze over at the Middle East, where the question is whether or not homosexuals should be jailed, tortured, and/or murdered. You'll recall that there's a certain faction of belief in the Middle East which is waging a war against America and seeking to impose these values on us.

This is just one example. More abound. The point is that any American who would have been "scared" by either a Bush or Kerry presidency is either crazy, embarrassingly provincial, or just plain stupid.

In America, we have an amazing luxury: Our political opponents are not evil. They are not dangerous. They do not want to kill us. And no matter what, they will abide by the ground rules of democracy, so, if we lose to them on a particular issue or election, we'll have a chance to beat them next time around.

The people of Russia, Afghanistan, and other struggling democracies do not have this luxury. And for people like Wil Wheaton to fail to appreciate our blessing is simply shameful.

Presumptuous Hacks

Think of all the waste that must follow an election like this. Those re-defeat Bush bumper stickers. Annoying lawn signs. Lindon LaRouche campaign literature.

But the long banner that hung earlier this week in the lobby windows of the so-called "bipartisan" Human Rights Campaign headquarters in downtown D.C. really belongs in a category of its own.

"George Bush:" it read, "You're Fired."

Drove by this morning. The banner's gone. Wonder what they'll do with it.

Loose Ends

The Columbia Journalism Review's Campaign Desk continues to embarrass itself. They wrote a long, indignant post early this morning insisting that the race is "too close to call" and castigating Fox, NBC, and MSNBC for doing so. This is nonsense. The proof, of course, is that nothing has changed since last night and Kerry is nonetheless conceding the race. Will the Campaign Desk now jump all over John Kerry for his reckless "rush to judgment"?

The other, bigger news is that Kerry is conceding. Good for him. John Kerry ran this whole race on borrowed time. He was left for dead just a few days before the Iowa caucuses and he shocked the world with an amazing comeback. All things considered, he ran a good and honorable campaign. Today he leaves the Democratic party beaten, but, I would argue, in better shape than it was last winter when he rescued it from Howard Dean.

He ran a good race, and is now passing the test of defeat. If his concession speech is as gracious as I think it will be, then I think he'll deserve to be remembered fondly by America.

I hope the rest of America will applaud Sen. Kerry and thank him for his service. We tend to forget that even people who lose elections are doing good work for our republic. John Kerry deserves our gratitude and well-wishes.

Speaking of Andrew

Andrew Sullivan early this morning: "I'm a big believer in the deep wisdom of the American people. They voted in huge numbers, and they made a judgment. Not a huge and decisive victory by any means. But at least a victory that is unlikely to be challenged. The president and his aides deserve congratulations."

Andrew Sullivan a few hours later: "Karl Rove understood the American psyche better than I did. By demonizing gay couples, the Republicans were able to bring in whole swathes of new anti-gay believers into their party. With new senators Jim DeMint and Tom Coburn, two of the most anti-gay politicians in America, we can only brace ourselves for what is now coming."

That was fast.

Props to My Homeboy

Sophisticates like Andrew Sullivan like to thumb their noses at Hugh Hewitt, but the fact is, he was right about this election and deserves credit for seeing the race clearly from a very early point. Fine work, Hugh.

Larry Rosin

Joe Tetreault is working on a story on Larry Rosin, a Democratic pollster who is part of the group that did yesterday's exit polling. Too early to tell whether or not there's anything here, but Tetreault has some interesting biographical information on Rosin.

"We will fight for every vote."

The operative word here is "fight." John Edwards didn't say "count," he said, "fight."

I may be reading too much into this, but I suspect this means that Kerry intends not to wait for the provisional votes in Ohio to be counted, but to litigate and fight this election until the last man. I may be wrong.

But if that is the case, it will be scandalous. If John Kerry fights this election to the last man he will, like Al Gore, prove himself unfit for the office after the fact of the election.

Again, I hope this isn't the case--I think too highly of Kerry to believe he'd really go through with a scorched-earth ballot-by-ballot fight.

Update, 2:45 a.m.: Bill Kristol disagrees with me and thinks the operative Edwards words are "wait one more night." A totally plausible, and charitable, interpretation.

On Fox the very smart panel seems to be saying that Democrats aren't assaulting the legitimacy of the process the way they were during Election Day 2000. But the panel is cooped up in a studio and certainly not wasting their time surfing the web! MichaelMoore.com has been publishing allegations of voter fraud all day, and has been planting the seeds of illegitimacy. Over at Daily Kos, many of the comments have been similarly themed. There is ample sentiment in the Democratic party that no Bush victory could be legitimate. I fear that John Kerry is about to give in to this mania.

This Is Not Encouraging

"Ladies and gentlemen, the next vice president of the United States, John Edwards!"

Waiting for Kerry

When will he concede? It's clear that Kerry has lost the election. The pressure on him not to concede--and to fight until his last legal recourse is exhausted--must be enormous. The Democratic party was breathlessly desperate to win this election. And in 2000, Al Gore set a precedent for attempting to settle the election through extra-electoral means.

But there are differences. Gore won the popular vote; Kerry did not. Gore was within fractions of a percentage point in several states; Kerry's margin of defeat in the key states is reasonably decisive.

Would Kerry or the Democrats pay a price for holding out? Perhaps. Doing so two elections in a row might cement their image as the party of sore losers. The benefit: At this point, holding out is the only emotional satisfaction Kerry has to offer his most rabidly partisan supporters.

There is a bigger picture. The Democratic party has been sick for the last two years. It turned aside men like Dick Gephardt and Joe Lieberman in favor of radicals like Howard Dean. Anti-American extremists like Michael Moore and the International ANSWER crowd have infiltrated the party.

If Kerry can reach down deep, he could do one last service for the Democrats: Break the fever. If Kerry graciously and promptly concedes, reaches out to Bush, and reaffirms that our true enemies are the Islamist monsters committed to the destruction of Western civilization, he could help push the Democrats out of the fever swamp and back into the mainstream. He could position Democrats so that their political interests no longer run counter to American success in Iraq and the war on terror.

If Kerry can muster the fortitude to do this, he will go a long way towards helping Democrats become a competitive party again. Which would be good for all of America.

Bush Wins! [?]

Fox has called Ohio, which means that the election is over. He will probably win the Electoral College outright. He's up in the popular vote by nearly 3 million votes (that will narrow as California reports), and he should lead the popular vote when all is said and done.

It is difficult to see where Kerry goes from here. Before he can even think about contesting the election, he'll need to run the table and pick up Nevada, New Mexico, Iowa, and Wisconsin. Tall order.

I've made no secret of my fondness for Kerry. He served our country well in Vietnam and served the Democratic party pretty well this winter when he rescued them from Howard Dean. Had he run a better campaign, he might well have won this race.

But his toughest task comes now. If he loses, it will be devastating. Yet he must reach down and find the courage to concede honorably, to reach out to Republicans, and to help continue orienting his party toward the American mainstream and away from the dark maw of Moore-ism. Al Gore failed this test, and his record of admirable service will forever be marred because of it.

I think John Kerry can do better. And I hope he does.

Kos Concedes?

I feel bad for Kos, since he's been soured since early in the night. And he seems never to even have enjoyed the contact-high of the mid-day exit polls. But doesn't this post seem a little premature?

Kos notes that an MSNBC poll is showing that the "youth" vote is down. Kos, old buddy, no matter who wins or loses, I think a smaller youth vote is something we should all be able to celebrate, no? I mean, have you ever met America's youth? Confronted with a news story about the most recent suicide bombing in Israel, one youth voter today asked me, "What's a Tel Aviv?"

This particular youth voter isn't stupid--she's exceedingly bright and successful and attends a prestigious university. But she (sensibly) spends her time concentrating on things other than current affairs and is, well, youthful. Which is a synonym for "not having been around long enough to know better."

Sex should be left to the young and voting to the old. It plays to both groups' strengths and is--all things considered--an exceedingly fair trade.

Where have you gone, Hugh Hewitt! Hugh is the best and smartest voice of Republican optimism out there, so I don't know what to think when he comes out with this: "There is no room for confidence, of course . . ."

Soxblog is, funnily enough, blue. Here's something to cheer him up:

On the morning John Kerry announced his choice of John Edwards as his running mate, my first thought was, Gee, he's giving up on North Carolina already?

Honest.

In a non-political note, Galley Brother B.J. was at the Jets game last night and came away with this amazing tidbit: "Hulk Hogan's daughter is hot!"

What are you going to do when Hulkamania runs wild on you? Indeed.

Thanksgiving Day

Beldar makes an excellent and very, very important point: We haven't had an attack on American soil since September 11, 2001. Al Qaeda and the forces of Islamist extremism surely would have hit us again, if they had the means.

For our safety--for the grace of being able to safely go to the polls and make our choice today--we always owe these heroes a special debt of gratitude, but today even more so than usual.

Thanks guys. You're the best.

I don't mean to cap on Jim Geraghty's sourcing--and again, I picked Bush by 8--but here he passes on the word from a "Middle Cheese" in Bush land who says, "There is total confidence that at the end of the night, Bush will win."

Really? Golly, I would never expect Bush, Rove, Hughes, et al. to be totally confident unless it was true, right? Ditto the "Closer than they'd have liked, but the president will win" line. Citing "confidence" from a candidate's team is meaningless. And anyone rooting for Bush who's taking succor from these anonymous reports is just begging to get burnt.

(Remember, George W. Bush hasn't made any mistakes in the last four years, either.)

I hope it doesn't look like I'm picking on Bush today, because it's not my intent. My point is that we don't know anything, and it's bad enough that blogland got twisted up over one set of anonymous, queer-looking numbers. People shouldn't make the same mistake twice by latching onto equally dubious counter-explanations.

Psssst . . . it's okay not to have all of the answers all of the time.

It's Over

At 5:00 p.m., Zogby called the race for Kerry. Bush is going to win the popular vote, 49.4% to 49.1%. Kerry will win the Electoral College 311 to 213. And Zogby can tell all that from a phone survey with just 955 respondents. Amazing!

Shouldn't Ana Marie "Washingtonienne" Cox post these numbers, too?

The shifting sand? My friend Hugh Hewitt has been pretty confident of a big Bush win since at least the Boston convention. Now he's reporting that, "Second-hand from the Bush-Cheney bigs: Closer than they'd have liked, but the president will win. Today's undecideds breaking for the president." Does he know something we don't?

Dept. of Pots and Kettles: Didn't I also predict a big Bush win? Yes! I believe the spread I predicted was 8 points. In my defense, the useless, baseless theory I've been pimping for weeks has been that someone would win big, but that I wasn't sure who. With a gun to my head, I went with Bush at the last minute. But that doesn't mean I would be surprised if Kerry wins. (And if Kerry wins big, I could still be 1/2 right!)

Update: If Hugh starts talking about the importance of holding a Republican majority in the Senate later tonight, then it might be time for panic.