Coyote Gulch

Tuesday, January 18, 2005

2004 Presidential Transition
Here's an opinion piece about the President's inauguration and second term from the Denver Post [January 18, 2005, "Bush's second-term challenges"]. From the article, "Bush has touted the mandate he believes voters handed him in November's re-election victory. He might be wise to remember that his hard-fought 3 percent re-election margin was a reflection of the American public's ambivalence toward him and his record. Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton won easy re-elections - Reagan by 18 percent and Clinton by 8 percent. Democrats in Washington and across the country hope to write a comeback strategy by blocking many of Bush's most conservative initiatives. As the president prepares his second-term agenda, the lines are being drawn. Bush has the opportunity in his inaugural address this week to show that he is willing to show some flexibility and, yes, humility, and focus on building a consensus."
TalkLeft: "A new Washington Post-ABC News poll shows that Bush enters his second term without a mandate and amidst continued division."
Washington Post: "According to the logic of the attorney general nominee, federal authorities could deprive American citizens of sleep, isolate them in cold cells while bombarding them with unpleasant noises and interrogate them 20 hours a day while the prisoners were naked and hooded, all without violating the Constitution. Senators who vote to ratify Mr. Gonzales's nomination will bear the responsibility of ratifying such views as legitimate." Thanks to Andrew Sullivan for the link.
6:04:48 AM

Denver May 2005 Election
Early voting and absentee voting have taken some of the load off precincts in recent elections. There is a move afoot to do away with the precinct system and replace them with voting centers according to the Rocky Mountain News editorial staff [January 18, 2005, "Are voting centers really needed?"]. They write, "We're all for other counties following Larimer's lead in adopting the technology to permit voters to cast their ballots at any polling site in the jurisdiction. And there is little doubt that some degree of consolidation is the order of the day. But to move from hundreds of polling places to a small fraction of that number is a radical move that could severely degrade the voting experience, and thus local democracy, if it isn't done right."
Colorado Luis: "Vote centers will make voting more convenient for everyone, cut down on the number of election judges needed (and therefore help reduce the problem of undertrained election staff giving out bad information), and eliminate the problem of people's votes not being counted because they showed up at the wrong precinct."
5:51:56 AM

e-mail John: