Part of the reason for both of those things is what hangs in the balance. If the Republican candidate wins, he would be the pivotal 41st vote that could throw the cog in the gears of the health care reform bill. There’s a third party (Libertarian) candidate, who doesn’t really stand a chance, but I think he would caucus with the GOP as far as the health care bill would go. Either of these candidates could end the bill’s run. Not to mention that the district has been a Liberal hot spot for centuries. And, despite that, all the polling leading up to the vote indicate that the Republican has a better than good chance of coming out on top.

So many conservatives are rallying to the side of their candidate. There have been tons of money flowing in from around the country on both sides of the line.

But, where were all of those people in 2008? There’s been a huge awakening in this country and we’ve seen an influx of new blood, so to speak. If even half of those people had been active in the last election, perhaps we wouldn’t need to be going to the extremes that we are now.

An excellent reason to stay active as best you can. What better incentive than loss of liberty.

I like it.

I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt and assume that part of it is that he’s been a senator for 30 years. But, when I look at that, I have a hard time not thinking that he saw a hard race coming and just felt like he was just too old for the battle. And it would be a hard battle. And likely a losing battle at that. Even without Hoeven having publicly announced his candidacy, he was polling with a 10-20 point lead over Dorgan.

Dorgan hasn’t exactly endeared himself to the conservative base of North Dakota. Yes, he’s a Democrat, but he represents a largely conservative state. It’s a funny state though. It votes conservatively for President, and usually for Governor as well. The state house and senate usually run conservative as well. But, all of it’s U.S. representation has been Democrat for decades. So, he’s had a pretty secure position for a while. But, his votes on the health care and stimulus bills have turned many of his constituents against him.

I’ve only lived in the state for a hair over a decade, but I have a very hard time not celebrating his departure. Good bye Senator Dorgan. I’m not going to miss you.

There’s some speculation that she’s doing this in order to focus on a run for the Presidential nomination in 2012, but I’m not so sure that all jives. I think it’s more likely that she will take a little time to get out of the spotlight, regroup, and then push towards a much more public speaking life. She mentioned that she felt that she’s done so much traveling the country and speaking. And maybe that is for a push for 2012, but more likely, it’s because she was getting some pressure to be the Governor instead of a spokesperson for the GOP.

Unfortunately, I don’t think that she’ll be the savior that the Republicans are looking for anyways and if she were to get the nomination, it would be a poor choice. Although, current trends continuing, she could win. I really don’t know that the “down-home country politician” is what the majority of Americans are looking for. And, while she certainly has the conservative chops, she just doesn’t have the perceived popularity to get the vote.

I guess time will tell what her path will be. She’s not very hard on the eyes, so let’s hope she doesn’t disappear altogether…

So, while Obama and Biden are doing their very best to make it look like it’s an official government entity, it is not.  But it isn’t just a fabrication either.  Technically, if I had a secretary, I could have said secretary answer the phone “Office of Donkephant”.  Much like Obama can have his secretary at his government funded office answer his phone as “Office of the President-Elect”.  He is the President-Elect.  And it is his office.

That aside, I think the way that Obama and Biden are using the name and unofficial seal as well as the website is horribly misleading.  As further evidence of the office not being an official office of the U.S. Governement, the bottom of the website for the “Office of the President-Elect” has the following:

Content copyright © 2008 by Obama-Biden Transition Project, a 501c(4) organization. All rights reserved.

I’m no lawyer, and I would have to be to fully research and understand the law, but I believe if it were an official office of the U.S. Government, it would not have that and would instead say something about it being property of the U.S. Governement.  Or it would have nothing in the footer, much like the whitehouse.gov and the usa.gov sites.

Finally, while it isn’t an official government website, it does appear to have the approval of the government. As far as I can tell, you can’t just go and register a .gov domain like you can a .com or .net.  You’ve got to get approval.  It might be noted that there are those who don’t think this was a legal use of the .gov domain, but I haven’t researched that at all.  Also, there hasn’t been much of anything from the established administration about it.  At least not that I’ve read or heard.

My guess is that the current administration is content to let Obama get away with it.  It creats a distraction.  The longer the buzz last from the election, the longer the people don’t feel the full effects of what is going on around them with the economy, job market, and the world.