National concerns trump state, local contests. Think globally, act locally? In Vermont this Election Day, it was instead vote locally, think nationally.
http://www.rutlandherald.com/article/20121107/NEWS03/711079857
Survey says: Vt. voters come out for Obama
By Kevin O’Connor
STAFF WRITER | November 07,2012
Think globally, act locally? In Vermont this Election Day, it was instead vote locally, think nationally.
“I’m very nervous,” Middlebury educator Kerry Burns-Collins said leaving the polls. “I’ll have to move to New Zealand if Mitt Romney wins.”
From Brattleboro to Burlington, Tuesday’s ballot featured dozens of municipal, county and state races.
But Vermonters focused most on the presidency — and their support for incumbent Barack Obama, according to interviews with voters in seven major cities and towns.
“He has disappointed me, but that other guy scares me,” said Randolph psychotherapist Marge Crowe, echoing the sentiment of many others statewide.
Vermont only has three electoral votes, but the national television networks didn’t wait a minute from the polls’ 7 p.m. close to project Obama had won the Green Mountain State — his first victory of the night.
“Even though Vermont is likely to go for him, voting for Obama is important to boost his national popular vote number,” Montpelier nurse Deborah Lowry said after casting her ballot.
In Burlington, University of Vermont student Celine Eid said she supported the president for his hands-off stances on social issues.
“As a woman,” Eid said, “I don’t agree with anything that Romney or most of the Republican men have been preaching.”
Romney — who sequestered himself in Vermont in September to prepare for his first debate — picked up a few local supporters. Springfield retiree Donna Blish, for example, said she voted for the Republican for his positions on jobs, the federal debt and “keeping us militarily strong.”
But more Vermonters agreed with Middlebury construction worker Sean Davio, who said he voted for Obama because “I don’t think it’s time for a change.”
Not that voters are content with the status quo. An Associated Press exit poll of 888 Vermont voters in 15 precincts found about half of respondents ranked the economy as their top concern, with about one in five of those surveyed rating health care as their most important issue.
About seven in 10 Vermont respondents supported Obama over Romney, the poll found, with four-fifths of those surveyed making their decision before September and only one in 20 waiting until Tuesday.
So you folks have no one to blame but yourselves.
ReplyDeleteWHAAAAAAAAAA, WHAAAAAAA, WHAAAAAAAA
DeleteSuch a sore loser....
I blaim all of you who voted for the wrong person
DeleteI didn't vote for the moron
ReplyDeleteGood, because I didn't vote for the moron that you voted for.
Deletewe arent going to bite the hand that feeds us.
ReplyDeleteSo true. I figure since we can't beat 'em, join 'em! I'll be applying for my fuel assistance, EBT card, and Obama phone when I get out of my full-time job today. I mean, I already pay for it all so I want my share. See y'all at the SNAP office ;-)
DeleteAnonymous, even with your full-time job, you might be needing fuel assistance, an EBT card and "Obama phone." Ask yourself when was the last time you got a raise, especially if you've been in the same job for ten years or more. I'll bet you haven't had one in five years.
DeleteChances are 50-50 that you haven't had the same job for three years, and chances are 80-20 that in terms of constant dollars, you are now earning less than you were 20 years ago-- in fact, that you have always earned less and less over those 20 years. There are two reasons you don't feel the pinch:
1. Your spouse or partner also has a job. Of course, this might be a little tough on your kids, especially if they're home untended between 2:30 and 5:00 PM, which is when most of the teen pregnancies happen, or if they have to make their own breakfast with the soft drinks and doughnuts at hand (setting them up for daily failure in the classroom).
2. Wal-Mart has disguised your loss of income by selling you stuff made in Chinese sweatshops. So, even though you're poorer now than you were in 1992, you still have "things" that make you feel you're doing well.
In case you'd like to know: To make it in Springfield-- all expenses covered except health care-- your household should be making a "livable wage." I'll assume you're a two-working-parent family with two kids. In that case, the two of you need to make $80,746... If you're single with no kids, it's $34,132. And if you need health care, you are quite simply doomed, period.
For most,it's not fun being a young adult in America these days. If you're under 50, you don't know how good it used to be.
There goes Gregory, serving up his standard tripe of woe. Just another jealous loser from Loserville.
DeleteAn economic genius he is not!
Deletere: "For most,it's not fun being a young adult in America these days. If you're under 50, you don't know how good it used to be."
DeleteChuck, early on I realized the world owes me NOTHING. And, desiring a comfortable lifestyle, I'd have to get a good education, excel at a my trade, save, and live within my means. Life is pretty damn good about now.
That meant a years of study, hard work, sacrifice, no debt, and no illegitimate children. So, when you post here about how though life is, I'm reminded of John Wayne's famous quote, "Life's tough, but it's tougher if you're stupid."
As tough as it is now for you slackers, wait until your Messiah further relaxes immigration policy, and you're having to increasingly compete for unskilled jobs. Suck it up, with the eminent financial collapse you and your ilk will be weeding my huge lawn for whatever I choose to pay you.
Anonymous, the world is quite indifferent to each of us. The only reason any of us succeeds is because others made it possible. It was good teachers who helped you learn what you needed to in order to do well-- they could have just sat back on their butts and let you slide through. It was doctors who accepted Dr. Dynasaur and used free (federally-funded) immunizations to keep you from being permanently crippled by polio or diphtheria. It was regulators who kept you from being screwed over by mortgage brokers, payday loaners, sharks of all sorts. I could go on and on.
DeleteThere will come a day when you will be introduced quite forcefully to the Nature whom you imagine you have bent to your will. With any luck, you will then be conforted by at least a few of the many who have made your success possible. Whether you will recognize their role and offer apologies for your lifelong self-deception is unknown.
Hey Chuck, this is in response to your step by step rendition of what you think my family consists of and how much we make. One thing you are right about is the fact that I do, now, make $14,000 less than I did 2 years ago (as a result of the economy; layoff). However, I have been in the same job for the last 2 years and have received raises each year and a bonus one year. I guess I ought to consider myself lucky. Together my partner and I make over $100K per year and have one teenager. Yes, we also have employer based health, dental and life insurance (but we pay out the nose for it). If my original post had an air of sarcasm, it was intended. You see, our government does not reward hard work; or being self-sufficient or self-reliant. They reward laziness and expect those of us who work hard for OUR money to pay for others. Quite frankly, it's troubling and unfair. It is that mentality that fosters layabouts. Every morning when I get out of bed to go to work I think how much easier it would be to let others take care of me and my needs rather than going to work; but I was raised with morals and values. And, when I drive through Springfield each evening on my way home, I wonder who is paying for the cigarettes, I-phones, and all the other luxuries that the baby mamas and daddies have. Bitter? You bet I am. Government assistance was meant to be hand-up, not a hand-out. And just for the record, I do feel the pinch. Taxes are raised each year in this lovely (sarcasm) town with no thought as to how it may impact those few of us who are taxpayers. The reality is that we are like everyone else; one paycheck away from being homeless. And to those of you who are milking the system as a way of life; You're welcome (sarcasm once again).
Deletewhy did the politicians do that?dem=rep=dem=rep
ReplyDeleteAnother blue stain on the map voting for another four years of hopelessness and spare change. From rugged individualism to ragged dependency in a mere 50 years. See Vermont. See Vermont decline. See Vermont whine. See Vermont in the unemployment line...
ReplyDeleteRugged individualism, my foot! Every cattleman out West who votes Republican grazes his stock on land he rents below cost from the Federal government; every military contractor who prayed for a Romney victory lives off federal contracts; Romney himself paid his way through college not by waiting tables but by cashing some of his stocks. GWB was born on third base and still thinks he hit a triple. World War II was won by a government that GAVE money to industries two and three years before Pearl Harbor to get them to tool up for manufacturing.
Deletewhat chuck? you dont remember what it was like when you people showed up. i do. self reliance was the way. land was affordable and you could find a good well paying job. you should realy stop insulting vermonters. side note chuck. ww2 was won in part by our empty shops. j&l used one of their projection overlays to improve the sites on bombers. bryants grinders were used for airplane engines because the tolerances were so good. the big reason though was the willing sacrifice of the greatest generation.
DeleteAnonymous, what you refer to is not "rugged individualism." Those shops were staffed by people like you who had been birthed by nurses and doctors whose professions were made possible by the money of others; those shop workers were educated by people paid to take an interest in their education. They were given safe neighborhoods and safe streets by people who were paid to make them safe. They were given good schools by people who were paid to build them. They were given access to good food by thousands of people who were paid to grow it, process it, and ship it, and by others who were paid to inspect it. And they worked in shops which were quite often rescued, stabilized and given the opportunity to expand through the flow of other people's money. And now they enjoy benefits accruing to them in old age of guaranteed financial support, generally-affordable health care (denied to their children, by the way), and community services provided by money from other people.
DeleteThere is a term we use in America for the person who believes he did it all himself and has no obligation toward the countless others in society upon whose shoulders he has been able to stand so high above them: "libertarian."
In ancient Athens, they also had a term for such a person: "idios."
"Self-reliance" is possible, but those who do it lead cramped, impoverished and demeaning lives. I suggest you give it a try: Find an empty lot and build your own home. Step one: Make your own axe and saw..... You will get a lot farther relying on others, and you do even better when you render them the respect and reciprocity due them for their part in your well-being.
As Francis Bacon said in proposing his encyclopedia project: The mind must be expanded to encompass the world, not the world compressed to fit into the mind.
Lead, follow, or get out of the way.
. --Ted Turner
the money was earned. not begged. you had to justify your worth. schools were an investment into the future of our town. not someplace else. the hospital was small and served its purpose. you see the problem i hope.
Delete@ 11/12/12 7:27 "earned" working a con, no matter how grand the size, is still robbery and thieving pawns are still crooks.
Deleteso if you make a product thats a con? hmmmmmmmm so the workers are thieves? wow
DeleteWhere is Loserville?
ReplyDeleteSince I don't want to work I'm glad Obama won! Until the economy gets better I'm more than happy to relax on the taxpayers dime.
ReplyDeleteMitt Romney would bet you $10,000 you won't reveal your name, because you're not relaxing on the taxpayer's dime.
DeleteI too am on the dole and won't vote republican EVER!
DeleteCoddle me cradle to grave! OBAMA 2012!!
ReplyDeleteI would just like to put out there that not all people are sucking off the system some people (myself) are legitimetley in need...I suffered a horrible traumatic event when I was young that now makes me not able to work no matter how much I WISH I could because trust me I would love nothing more than being able to get up and work! But for me that is impossible and you all make it seem like it is so easy you get a nice check foodstamps ect. let me tell you something, I live on $700 a month with that I have to pay my rent, electric and phone after that I am broke. And as for foodstamps I get $200 for a whole month ... That's about one shopping trip to shaws that has to last 30 days! So for all you thinking it is soooo easy being on benefits think again! I cry almost every day wishing I could work to support myself!!!!
ReplyDelete