Just to correct one thing on employment. In, what remains of capitalist America, the President doesn't "create" jobs. Within the Federal government he executes laws passed by Congress that might authorize new Federal government employment.
In the real economy, entrepreneurs (do they have them in Euroland?) and businessmen create products and services that require new employees. That is where jobs are created. In America, the vast majority of new employment is created by companies with under 250 employees. Everyone is a risk-taking venture.
So, give up crediting various President's "employment" records.
Within the Federal government he executes laws passed by Congress
Therein I think resides the inherent danger of electing Obama, should that be the result; not that you give power to Obama, because you don't, really - but that you give power to the sort of people who think Obama should be in power.
First states called in US election
1:14PM Wednesday Nov 05, 2008
Race for the White House
Huge turnout for poll that made history
Obama and McCain - where they stand on the big issues
The first states have been called in the US election, with Associated Press saying John McCain has taken Kentucky and Barack Obama has won Vermont.
The results came after Americans waited hours to cast their ballots today, ending a marathon and historic political race expected to make Democrat Obama the country's first black president - barring a come-from-behind upset by McCain.
A record number of citizens were expected to have cast ballots in an election that stood to change the political face of a nation burdened with its worst economic crisis in nearly 80 years and still fighting wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The economy was by far the top issue on voters' minds.
An Associated Press exit poll found six in 10 voters across the United States named the economy as the most important issue facing the country. None of four other issues on the list - energy, Iraq, terror or health care - was chosen by more than one in 10. The results are based on a preliminary partial sample of nearly 10,000 voters in Election Day exit polls and telephone interviews over the past week for early voters.
With Obama leading in most national and state-by-state pre-election surveys, the first trends in Tuesday's voting were expected shortly after polls close in Indiana, Georgia, Kentucky, South Carolina, Vermont and Virginia at 7pm EST (1pm NZT).
Going into today, Indiana was a toss-up and Obama held a lead in Virginia. Neither state has voted for a Democratic presidential candidate since 1964.
Obama's fortunes would rise dramatically with either of those states in his column. A victory for the first-term Illinois senator would appear nearly certain should he hold reliably Democratic Pennsylvania and pick off either Ohio or Florida, both of which gave their huge 47-electoral vote prizes to President George W. Bush in 2000 and 2004.
To win, one candidate must pile up at least 270 electoral votes in what amounts to a state-by-state election for president. Most pre-vote polling of the states showed Obama near or already above the 270 electoral votes needed for victory. The 538 electoral votes are apportioned among the states roughly according to population.
An estimated 187 million voters were eligible, and in an indication of interest in the battle for the White House, about 40 million already had voted as election day dawned. Turnout was heavy. In Virginia, for example, officials estimated nearly 75 per cent of eligible voters would cast ballots.
Obama was on the verge of stepping through a door opened 145 years ago when Abraham Lincoln, a fellow Illinois politician, issued the Emancipation Proclamation that freed African-Americans from enslavement in the rebellious South in the midst of a wrenching civil war.
The Illinois senator would be laying claim to the White House on Jan. 20, only 43 years after the country enacted a law that banned the disenfranchisement of blacks in many Southern states where poll taxes and literacy tests were common at the time.
Obama clambered out of political obscurity four years ago with a stunning speech at the Democratic National Convention as he was running a successful campaign to become a US senator from Illinois.
He was awaiting the results at home in Chicago after a marathon campaign across 21 months and 49 states. At 47, with only four years in the Senate, he sought election as one of the youngest presidents, and one of the least experienced in national political affairs.
Mary Kay Ash (Cosmetics)
Michael Dell (your computer, perhaps?)
Walt Disney
Hugh Hefner
Steve Jobs (Apple)
Bill Gates (MS) and hundreds of spin-off entrepreneurs
Estee Lauder (cosmetics)
Larry Ellison (Oracle)
Wayne Huizenga (founded what became 3 Fortune 500 companies)
Donald Trump
Oprah Winfrey
Herb Kelleher (the original LCC)
In the end, I didn't absentee vote for these reasons:
Likely to be called for my fifth round of jury duty
I don't think either McCain or BHO can do central planning well, but both will try, so I don't want to be responsible for the ugly outcome
It's a waste of time, I have absolutely no possibility of influencing the outcome. Better to buy a lottery ticket, the odds are similar and the payout better.
That said, if power does reside in the Dems, Lord Acton will be likely proved right again. I predict a nasty 2009.
Bill Frye (gave me my first Citation job-created three locally large co.)
I do now know, after 233 pages, why McCain and BHO ran for President instead of joining PPRuNe. It was easier to appeal to 305 million Americans than to appeal to 40 or 50 "wind-ups" by foreigners who cannot vote, anyway.
Any Pprunners at Zhuhai Airshow, BTW? If so, identify yourself first, so I can be ready to duck.
Thanks for your help Con, but you might like to add the following
Tom Farmer, Brian Souter, The Walker family, Heineken family, Edwin Brenekmeijer, Bernie Ecclestone, Ian Wood, Stelios Haji-Ioannou, Gabrielle "Coco" Chanelly, Gianni Versace, James Dyson.
These are just a few Euroland entrepreneurs off the top of my head, I am sure I could come up with a longer list if I went looking on the net.
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