Here is data about the November 6 elections, MN local and state and National.
(click on photos to enlarge)

If you wish, send me your brief comment about the meaning of yesterdays vote and I’ll post it here. Keep it very brief, perhaps a paragraph. Send to dick_bernardATmeDOTcom. Unless you specifically say otherwise, I’ll assume that I have permission to use your comment. I will include your full name and your state.
Working on another project on election day, yesterday, I had reason to look at a historic Minnesota document which likely very few have ever seen, from March 5, 1968 (See photo, click to enlarge). My thanks and credit to long-retired businessman Lynn Elling of Minneapolis for the major part he played in this long forgotten Declaration of World Citizenship that came to be only 44 years ago.

Note especially the signatories on the Declaration*. They are of all the major Minneapolis and Minnesota political luminaries of the time, Republican and Democrat, religious leaders, etc. (The out of place signature you’ll see in the lower right hand corner is that of Marshall Tito of then-Yugoslavia, who the Ellings visited in person in then-Yugoslavia and who signed the document for them.)
Within the signature block was this statement: “This is the first American community that we know of to take such action. We hope that many other cities and counties will follow this example whch is a valuable step in building a world community and world peace.”
The story of this document can be found here. Scroll to the very end of the faqs and read the comment from former Minnesota Republican Governor Elmer L. Andersen in his book, I Trust to be Believed.
Look here for the Minnesota version of this Declaration, issued three years later. Again, note the signatories. And watch the made-in-Minnesota movie from 1972 that is archived there..
Yes, both documents came to be controversial in their time. But for a time in our own recent Minnesota history, there was true bipartisan political will by our leaders to work for a better world, one in which all of us were citizens.
We tend to forget that the term “politician” applies to each and every one of us. It is not “them”. Yes, political leaders try to move agendas, but over and over again I read comments from even the highest of the high and mighty that they do pay lots of attention to the will of the people.
The people simply have to work cooperatively for a goal.
Lynn Elling, retired WWII and Korea Naval officer, is still very much alive and willing to talk about the history of these declarations. Let me know, and I’ll see if a talk can be arranged.

* – The Signers of the Minneapolis and Hennepin County Declaration of World Citizenship March 5, 1968:
Chair, Henn. Co Board of Commissioners Robert Janes; Mayor of Minneapolis Arthur Naftalin; President Minneapolis City Council Daniel Cohen; Gov. Harold Levander; Oscar Knutson, Chief Justice Minnesota Supreme Court; Eli Kahn, President Minnesota Rabbinical Association; Congressman Don Fraser; Chairs of Minnesota Republican and DFL parties, George Thiss and Warren Spannaus; Aux. Bishop of Catholic Archdiocese James Shannon; Irene Janski, President of MN League of Women Voters; President MN United World Federalists, Sidney Feinberg, Minnesota State Bar Assoc; Harold Greenwood Jr, United Nations Association of Minnesota.

For previous Election 2012 entries, simply type the words Election 2012 in Search Box and click enter. See especially post for November 6.
My personal comment: I was an election judge in my community in 2010; and a voter in 2012. In 2010 I noticed the relatively small turnout and the palpable anger coming in the door of the polling place; yesterday, I noticed a very heavy turnout and a very serious demeanor of the voters when we voted at about 10:30 a.m.
Now, your turn. NOTE: there will also be responses included at the end of this post. Don’t miss them.
Will Shapira, Minnesota: You read it here first months ago: Romney himself was the guarantor of Obama’s re-election. In 2008, we voted for Obama and got Bush III. Now, with no re-election hanging over his head, Obama can rule with impunity and you can expect drones hanging over many heads, at home and abroad, and an entire new litany of oligarchical, plutocratic war crimes as well, executed in the name of hegemonic capitalism.
Those of you who campaigned for him, donated to him and voted for him are now responsible for him for the next four years. When you stop celebrating, you can begin calling him to account.
Sunday, Nov. 11, Veterans Day/Armistice Day would be the perfect time to begin by speaking out for PFC Bradley Manning who has embarrassed the Obama regime with his and Julian Assange’s historic, heroic Wikileaks revelations.
Since AG Holder serves at the pleasure of the President, do not expect anything from him, DOJ and war criminal Secretary Leon Panetta when it comes to advocating for fair treatment of Bradley Manning humanely when he soon will have has his day in what could well be an Obama-curated kangaroo court.
May I remind you to read the Nov. 11 Star Tribune’s special ad section for Veterans Day and when you see my ad on behalf of PFC Manning and perhaps others, do not hesitate to write letters to the editor in support of Bradley Manning opinion@startribune.com and demand fair treatment for him in prison now and soon in court.
And when my friends and colleagues in Twin Cities Chapter of 27 of Veterans for Peace orchestrate the ringing of the bells of peace next Sunday, also remember this from John Donne’s Meditation XVII:”…any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in Mankind; And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.”
Jeff Pricco, Minnesota:
Congratulations to Minnesotans on once again showing common sense in voting No and No twice!
Also on proving that 2010’s Republican state legislature “victory” was as I said then, a mile wide and an inch deep.
I enjoyed Lori Sturdevant’s comment that she looked forward to covering an undivided state govt for the next 2 years, and having to report on the usual squabbles of the DFL… the herding of cats!
Nationally I am not surprised , it went pretty much as I expected for Obama, although I was surprised in wins in VA and FL.
I expect to see (and hope they are not brain dead) the Dems pursue immigration reform and other legislative and regulatory reforms that speak to the Hispanic and general immigrant community, and as I said before I expect to see the GOP face a soul search on this issue… do they continue with the Tea Party and the Knuckledraggers and Limbaugh/Savage? Or do they also see the future in gaining a larger share of the Hispanic Vote? I believe the GOP has a good case to make , as many Hispanic voters often are sympathetic to the social stands of the GOP. It should be very interesting.
SAK, London England:
Congratulations of course.
And let us take a moment to remember an aspect of the presidency & times of LBJ – race was then a seriously divisive issue, hence his declaration:
“There is no Southern problem. There is no Northern problem. There is only an American problem. And we are met here tonight as Americans–not as Democrats or Republicans-we are met here as Americans to solve that problem.”
Let us hope that Obama in his second term will be as effective as LBJ undeniably was because what we have now is not a liberal problem; it is not a conservative problem; it is not a rich problem or a poor problem. It is a global problem.
Cheers,
Dick Bernard Nov. 9, 2012: I’ve been watching and reading quite a lot about the meaning of what happened on Tuesday night. A good summary is provided by my favorite blogger here. His ‘cut and paste’ from other commentators left and right reminds me of Nate Silver, who accurately predicts election, largely, it seems, by aggregating all of the polls to get a larger and thus far more accurate sample.
At some point, Silver will blow it, like Karl Rove did on Tuesday, but so far Silver manages to catch a wave of reality, where others dwell in wishful thinking.
When I put together the above piece the day after the election, I focused on two things:
1) as powerfully demonstrated by those 1968 and 1971 declarations – in times when we were intensely divided as a people over Vietnam – powerful people of very different points of view came together to suggest a different direction; a different path.
(I know a fair amount of the back-story of how those Declarations came to be. The key leaders were Republicans who were not at the time elected leaders, and thus were not signers, but were very much part of building the narrative that led to the Declarations.)
I think I see coming together in common cause happening again, most dramatically with former Republican Governor Arne Carlson and present Democrat Governor Mark Dayton appearing together in a brilliantly produced and timed ad urging that the Voter ID amendment be sent back to the legislature for a redo. The Governors didn’t defeat the amendment unilaterally, but their ad sure helped at a crucial moment.
(Though I’m liberal, I’ve long admired Arne Carlson. He is no stranger to courage. We first saw him maybe six years ago in the yard of Rebecca and Shawn Otto, standing with former Vice-President Walter Mondale, endorsing DFLer Otto for State Auditor – an office she still holds. He knew something about her, and he gave public witness. It was a ‘goosebump’ moment to see he and Walter Mondale standing together on that suburban lawn.)
The movers and shakers who worked together back in 1968 and 1971 are mostly dead now, but there is a new generation working quietly and effectively for a new course in how we are as a people. These quiet leaders – Democrat and Republican – are not publicly seen or heard very often, but they’re talking with each other about how to change our polarized and destructive course.
2) The other observation I made above, on November 7, was this: “I was an election judge in my community in 2010; and a voter in 2012. In 2010 I noticed the relatively small turnout and the palpable anger coming in the door of the polling place; yesterday, I noticed a very heavy turnout and a very serious demeanor of the voters when we voted at about 10:30 a.m.”
When we election judges huddled after the tallies were made in the precinct we knew – all of us, Republican and Democrat and Independent – what that small turnout and angry feeling meant.
The Republicans won that precinct easily, in every election of any consequence.
Too many Democrats had stayed home.
I have frequently observed, since that Tea Party near-sweep in 2010 (which will still be very much with us in the 2012 House of Representatives and many state Governorships and legislatures and even the Senate), that the angry conservative switch happened not because the Tea Party et al had such good ideas, but more so that the more liberal left first helped elect President Obama, thought voting him in was all they needed to do, thus making him responsible for outcomes that were impossible for him to achieve, and refusing to do much other than make demands and complain about how he wasn’t even liberal. Many were so terminally angry they did not vote at all in 2010.
Voting three days ago on Tuesday (if you did), was not a destination, it was a beginning of your – and our –day-to-day work for a better future for us all.
We are a changing country, and I’m still getting that stuff from the Angry Old White Men contingent that suggests they just don’t/won’t get it. But their influence is dwindling, and that terrifies them, and we can help find a better way.
There is a better future, but only if we are ALL engaged in building it.
Let’s not only get to work, but stay at work.

Jack Burgess is a friend, and in retirement a regular columnist. His self-description: “Jack Burgess is a retired Chillicothe [Ohio] teacher and former Executive Director of the Columbus [Ohio] Education Assn., as well as Chief of Arbitration Services in Ohio’s Office of Collective Bargaining.”
The following commentary is long, but worth the time to read.
Dear Friend, October 31, 2012
If you haven’t voted yet, and you haven’t made up your mind who you will vote for, I hope you’ll read this letter. If you have a different point of view, and you want to write me back, I will read your views, but I won’t respond unless you ask for a response. I’m not looking for an argument. [4burgessATroadrunnerDOTcom]
Why am I writing? As I said in a letter like this in 2008, I was raised to take my citizenship seriously. It may sound corny, but I’m an old fashioned, patriotic guy. We fly the flag at our house almost every day. I call myself a “recovering” history and government teacher, meaning, I can’t quite break the habit of giving unsolicited advice—because I feel it’s my professional and patriotic duty to share what I’ve learned in my 75 years of living and 20 plus years of teaching.
I also write as a senior citizen, a dad, and a veteran. I come from a “mixed” family. My grandparents, with whom I lived for awhile, were Republicans. My dad and mom were Democrats. I, myself, like a lot of you I imagine, have voted for both Democrats and Republicans over the years. Not being on the payroll of either party or candidate, my opinions are my own. And, being a teacher, I would never say something I didn’t believe was true.
Some of you probably received a letter like this from me in 2008, when I said, in part:
…our country is in quite a predicament. Our economy is collapsing, not just right now because of wall street, but also because we have had policies—like trade deals supported by politicians of both parties—that have undercut our economic base. We don’t make as many things in the States anymore, we get most of our oil—which runs everything—from other countries, and our government is in debt to a potentially dangerous level, to countries like China and Saudi Arabia. Meanwhile, we’ve gotten into two wars in the Middle East that don’t seem to have an end. They’ve lasted longer than our part in World War II!
And…I think it is time to wind down those wars and to begin to spend our money on creating jobs here in the U.S. We can combine a move away from oil dependency and toward a stronger economy by investing in alternative forms of energy here in the states. Windmills, solar panels, hybrid cars, and so on. We might think we can’t afford it, but if we’re not spending so much on foreign wars, we would have more to spend here. Anyway, it’s a start.
As everybody knows, in 2008 we elected Senator Barack Obama to take over the job of President, in that very difficult time, to try to do some things to improve the economy and wind down the wars in the Middle East.
Being an old history-government guy, I remember Presidents all the way back to when FDR died and Harry Truman took over. All of them had some achievements and all had their critics. We heard rumors about all of them—and Bill Clinton was nearly removed because of his private life. However, Clinton presided over the only economy since the 1960’s which produced a balanced budget and rising income for all income groups, top to bottom.
But I’ve never seen a President so unfairly vilified and obstructed as our current one. He has been called a Muslim, a foreign-born, and a socialist—none of which is true. In fact, if we compare him to our previous Presidents, he comes off looking pretty good. I don’t agree with everything Obama’s done or how he’s done it, but he did bring Bin Laden to justice and end the war in Iraq. He plans to bring most of our troops out of Afghanistan in 2014. He got the economy going again, with unemployment coming down, the auto industry back on its feet, housing construction doing well, and the stock market mostly up. We are now producing more oil than ever, but we are also seeing rapid growth in solar and wind energy technology. Gas prices in Ohio and most places have remained well below the $4.00 a gallon his critics predicted, and new EPA standards are going to provide us with cars and trucks that get better mileage—all of which will help us and the environment. Obama has also appointed more women to key positions, including the U.S. Supreme Court, and the first bill he signed was one helping women in their struggle for equal pay. He ended “Don’t ask, don’t tell.”
Right now, as we watch the news, we can see President Obama giving strong leadership in dealing with superstorm Sandy—drawing praise even from the Republican governor of New Jersey, who called Obama’s work “outstanding.” This super storm makes us wonder if climate change isn’t a reality. As the President and the Federal Emergency Assistance people provide critical aid, we are reminded that however much we may criticize government, we need it. We need it to work well in crises and all the time. In a time like this, we need a steady hand and a cool head in charge.
We see a lot of high-paid nonsense in the TV commercials, and we hear a lot of back and forth. But Obama’s opponent, Mitt Romney, has said he thinks emergency assistance should be handled by the states or by the private sector. Most states don’t have the funds to handle big emergencies like this, and I can’t imagine businesses stepping in to give aid to victims of natural disasters. Churches don’t have that kind of money either. I am not going to attack Mitt Romney personally, though I have to say, in all my years I’ve never seen a Presidential candidate change his positions so often. And I guess I should point out that I once served on the Ohio steering committee of Romney for President—George Romney, Mitt’s father, in 1967-8.
But Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan do offer a choice on a number of things. If you believe abortion is always murder and should be treated as a crime, that is the position of the Republican party this year. (Though they don’t say how we would enforce such a position). On the other hand, if you believe whether to carry a child to term is a woman’s decision, not the government’s or the church’s, you might not want to vote for candidates that will probably appoint several judges to the Supreme Court, where such decisions are made. If you believe we should leave our troops in Afghanistan after 2014 and maybe in Iraq, that has been Romney’s position. He wants to spend even more on the military—which is already by far the world’s largest and most successful military. He also said the government should not help out the auto industry, just let it go bankrupt. The auto assistance program which President Obama developed saved and created over a million jobs, many of them in Ohio. (Even Rupert Murdoch’s Wall Street Journal points this out). Private assistance, as Romney suggested, was not forthcoming.
Strangest of all, Mitt Romney, as governor of Massachusetts, signed into law a health care bill which was the model for Obama’s health care law—which Romney now opposes. He says he will repeal “Obamacare” on “day one.” What a shame that would be. For all the silliness about “death panels,” and “socialism,” and “government takeover,” Obamacare is doing a lot of good things for millions of people. It allows our son to remain on his mom’s insurance a couple more years. It means that I and my wife can’t be denied insurance if we have to change plans when she retires. She has a number of pre-existing conditions, as do I—including bouts with heart disease and cancer. Also, Obamacare plugs the “donut hole” in Medicare drug coverage and doesn’t allow insurance companies to place a lifetime limit on our coverage. Quite a few of us got money back on drugs and when the new law required the insurance companies to spend at least 80% on coverage instead of advertising and high salaries for executives. Obama pledges not to try to privatize Medicare. If that would happen, as Romney and Ryan want, it would take away the guarantee now there for everyone, and undermine the funding even for those of us who are older. Do we really want to trust our health care and our pensions to the uncertainties of the stock market?
Romney and Ryan are promising big tax cuts for everybody, and cuts in government programs—such as FEMA, education, public broadcasting, environmental protection, and so forth. If that were done, not only would we lose the services of those programs, but the deficit, which they say they want to close, could only grow a lot bigger because they can’t cut enough to balance the budget. They promise their tax cuts and government program cuts will produce 12 million new jobs, but history doesn’t support that idea, whether you look at the Great Depression which FDR inherited and ended, or the current “Great Recession,” which Obama inherited. George Bush’s tax cuts and unfunded wars, as well as bank deregulation, caused our current financial problems, and there’s no support anywhere for the idea that big tax cuts produce a lot of jobs. Obama’s stimulus programs brought the turnaround, and his jobs program for next year, which includes assistance to students, small business, and infrastructure, promises to extend the economic recovery. Obama wants to ask folks earning more than $250,000 to pay a little more, to help balance the budget and to help us invest in new energies, education, and government programs—like FEMA—that we need. A healthy economy, as President Clinton proved, is the best way to balance the budget and bring down the deficit.
I think President Obama has done a good job under tough circumstances. I don’t feel sure what Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan would do, but I don’t really trust them. As Susan Eisenhower, granddaughter of Republican President Dwight Eisenhower said this week:
“As a result of this campaign, I am more confused than ever about what Mitt Romney stands for. I know little about his core beliefs, if he even has any. No one seems to agree on what they are, and that is why I do not want to take a chance on finding out.”
If you agree with Susan Eisenhower or with me, I hope you’ll vote to re-elect President Obama. He deserves it—but more important, so do we. So do our children and grandchildren, especially our daughters and granddaughters, whose rights he has defended and will continue to protect.
Thanks for reading this far, and best wishes in all you do!
Yours truly,
Jack Burgess
Chillicothe, Ohio
You can read more of Eisenhower’s views at her website.
Feel free to circulate this letter.