Four out of ten ain’t bad. A bare majority is needed; not even one in some cases.

Did you see that? Did you catch the reference to Bush-Gore? Zing.

Obama won — in record fashion, not only because of the obvious (race), but also because he kicked ass and received the most popular votes in American history — in a change election. Although maybe not any democrat could have won, almost any democrat could have, especially any mainstream one.

The election was over in September. I was sitting at the desk in my New Orleans hotel room. The news was on the television behind me and across the room. “The fundamentals of our economy are strong.” It would have been better if John McCain had concluded with “my friends.” It would have sealed it more clearly. It was Monday afternoon, and I was itching for a drink.

Not too long after Obama clinched victory on Election night, my older sister phoned me. “Finally,” she started, “No longer is race an issue in this country…” I told her that I didn’t believe that was necessarily the case. She disagreed with me. We went our separate ways, and haven’t spoken since.

Race is an issue; it will be for the rest of my time on earth. Obama didn’t win Indiana — Indiana (!!!) — because race is not an issue in electoral politics. No, Obama won Indiana because George W. Bush was the president of the United States. The election was a referendum on the Bush presidency, and the voters outwardly condemned it. Yes, Barack Obama ran a near-flawless campaign, and yes, John McCain ran a disastrous one. But had the economy not tanked in September, and in such a profound way, the election would not have been that easy for Obama, it would not have been gift-wrapped, and it would not have simply become an issue of “being overconfident” for the democrat.

The majority of Americans voted against the Bush administration, against Dick Cheney, against Bush/Rove politics, against the Bush war and the Bush economy. This was the incumbency that John McCain was running on. Vote for my party; I’m just like Bush, only older. John Kerry and Al Gore could have won. Hillary Clinton could have won. Howard Dean, Joe Biden, Dick Gephardt and Mark Warner could have won.

And Barack Obama could have won — and he did — but it was not because race is not an issue in American politics anymore. It is because he ran a near-perfect campaign against an opponent caught in a perfect storm. It is because the sitting president is the longest-serving least-popular president in the nation’s history. The election was a resounding and damning repudiation of Bush’s policies.

There is no doubt that Obama’s message resonated — and that millions of people accepted that message as the way forward — but the message was contrasted by Bush. And thank god, because we have a democrat in the White House, and not just any democrat, we’ve got Barack Obama. I couldn’t be prouder. Thank you once again, George W. Bush.

I do plan on opining on Tuesday’s historic election — at times even against my better judgment, and also without the wife’s explicit approval — but I feel it appropriate to allow the (potentially irrational) elation to subside first.

Politicians have a way to break your heart, either suddenly or through a drawn-out process, and Barack Obama will most likely prove to do the same. Washington is a beast. It can be tamed; it will never be mastered.

Obama has climbed a mountain, but the mountain is actually a volcano.

- Driving through Berkeley last week, I noticed some Obama signs in apartment windows. These campaign signs may just turn the election in Obama’s favor. If only he could win Berkeley.

- I cannot wait for the long-awaited t-shirt and bumper sticker series: “I barely survived the Bush administration.”

- And if this does work out, the dems’ long-view strategy will have worked for the best. In a matter of six long years, the dems will have gone from terrorist sympathizers to a veto-proof majority in the Senate and House with a black guy in the Oval Office. Rovian politics at its finest.

- Two issues that should have been discussed at the debates, or at least mentioned once somewhere, anywhere during this election cycle: immigration reform and Social Security. When did those issues take the back-seat to banking reform? Oh yea…

- I guess you can call me a purist, but I do not care how much Sarah Palin spent on her outfits; the fact that it hurts her “Joe Six-Pack” pseudo-image is convenient however.

- So let me see if I understand this. McCain runs as the outsider in 2000, and gets picked to pieces by the base. McCain then spends eight years courting that very same deplorable base (“I’m a values voter.” You know what you are? An asshole.), wins the nomination, and loses the middle in the process. He then chooses Palin to further court the base, but she starts playing by her own rules, most likely looking to set herself up for a run in 2012 (or at least a run for the Senate), and ends up dragging down the ticket. And now the GOP elders are telling him that he should’ve courted the middle all along. And we wonder why McCain is so angry?

- Will George W. Bush throw out a ceremonial pitch at this year’s World Series? Not in battleground states Florida or Pennsylvania, that is for sure. And if he did, would he get out alive? I mean, the fundamentals of the Bush economy are still strong.

- Has there ever been an election when both parties ran against the sitting president?

- We must never forget how important this election is. This is the most critical election in a generation. Tina Fey’s career hangs in the balance. In fact, if McCain-Palin win, I wouldn’t be surprised if we see a True Hollywood Story on Fey in three years max. And then she became addicted to heroin…

- What if there were no polls? Would that be so bad? Just once, I would like to go through my day, without hearing about the twelve-hundred different poll results. Guess what? Obama is ahead, but only slightly, give or take five points. End of story. I apologize to Chuck Todd; he has been so dutiful making so much out of so little.

- Obama will not win in a landslide. He is black, and there are too many obstacles for him to cross to make that possible, at least this time around. Now, please stop suggesting it. It will only lead to “why didn’t he” stories, questioning any mandate that is provided by the results. (Well, it depends on what your definition of “landslide” is, I guess.)

- Speaking of mandates, what is the threshold for having one. Since Bush claimed one in 2004 with 51 percent of the vote (with two percent contested), I’m thinking if Obama gets 52 percent, we should start writing the history books now. At the very least, we should start measuring the drapes.

- Has there ever been a better time to be a democrat? Welcome back to everyone who left us from 2002 through 2005. I knew Bush was an idiot that entire time, and you, well, let’s just say your judgment was clouded. I should make note though that I was never a terrorist sympathizer just because I voted for John Kerry. That was a misconception and misconstruction of my politics. By the way, you are not forgiven.

- Joe Biden is doing a great job; no one even talks about him.

- The GOP is served better when less people vote. Likewise, the more people vote, the more likely the democrats win. That — and that alone — is the reason that McCain, Palin and the GOP surrogates on Fox and elsewhere are ripping on ACORN for trying to register people to vote. Oh, the heavens.

- And I am pro-America, but I didn’t realize it until recently. I really had to question it, though, you know, because of where I live.

* Good bullshit too.

Clinton was wrong (Obama is ready); Schwarzenegger is wrong (Palin is not).

Anyway, this is a kick-ass campaign poster…

Image: Zoltron

Bill Clinton presided over the longest expansion in our nation’s peacetime history. But a lot of that growth was subsequently squashed when the dot-com bubble burst shortly after his exit from the Oval Office. “Irrational exuberance” is what they called this in hindsight. Much like the “home ownership society” that Bush highlighted as a success in his term, Bill Clinton’s growth was shadowed by shady accounting practices, which trumped up the perceived worth of worthless internet companies, a practice that soon devastated hundreds of thousands of Americans’ savings accounts for years.

The globe certainly continued to heat up during the nineties, with little action by the Clinton administration to keep industry in check, and offered little to no discussion on the matter. When the economy is strong, it is apparently difficult to force companies to curb profits for the sake of future generations. The Clinton administration didn’t even try.

The president had a plan to go after Osama bin Laden at the tail end of the last century, but opted to present their actionable plan on the doorstep of the next president, George W. Bush (who then tossed it in the garbage, along with his credibility). Had the Clinton administration been more forthright on the importance of dealing with radical Islamic terrorists, namely Osama bin Laden, and the political courage to deal with the incoming political attacks on the issue, our nation’s recent history may have been greatly altered.

Hillary presented a reasonable health care proposal in the early days of the Clinton administration. The plan was widely panned in the media, although almost all of the attacks were irrational and irresponsible. Instead of fighting the republicans on the issue, however, bringing the pharmaceutical industry (and its lobbyists) and its policies to the center of the debate, the Clinton administration simply gave up and went home. Then they passed welfare reform. (Note: The second coming of Hillary’s health care policy proposal is that same early 90s plan wrapped with a different colored bow.)

The 90s was not all about AmeriCorps and raising the minimum wage. Campaign financing went unchecked, the Defense of Marriage Act effectively banned gay marriage, “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” solved nothing, and continued corporate consolidation further weakened consumers.

I do not assess these failings of the previous administration squarely as failings of the previous First Lady, that would be ridiculous, but the New York Senator and potential presidential nominee is claiming ownership, barnstorming the country and calling for the U.S. to “bring back the 90s,” much like a commercial on VH1.