TODAY'S NEWS HEADLINES for INDEPENDENT VOTERS

POST POST ELECTION ANALYSIS

• Obama tries to pick GOP leader (Paradise Post) McCain generally hovered abound 35 percent - meaning most of the GOP voters had someone else in mind. Unfortunately, those who allege themselves to be moderate, voted in open primaries for McCain in numbers enough to defeat Romney who was also dealing with Mike Hucka-bee.
• In region, voting ‘blue’ is about economy (Business North - Duluth & Superior - MN, WI) Iron Range historian and instructor at Vermilion Community College, traces the ties of the Iron Range and the DFL to the turn of the last century. Reforms had given mining workers greater rights — the adoption of the secret ballot and an open primary system.
• Nader questions media coverage (LETTER by Ralph Nader, Frost Illustrated) We asked one top editor of a major daily why his paper was not covering us at all and he said, “Because you can’t win.”
• Age a big factor in voting (John Sowell, News Review) The older Douglas County voters were on Election Day, the more likely they were to vote. And members of one of the two major political parties were more likely to fill out and turn in ballots than those registered as independents or as members of the smaller political parties.
• Commentary: 2008 election marked fall of far-right wing (The Advertiser) As a registered independent, I find it seems strange to watch these political parties fall from grace.
• CQ Transcript: House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer Speaks at National Press Club on 2008 Election and Agenda for Congress (CQ Transcriptswire) We did not just make a full-blown ideological conversion of the other half of the country. What we did do -- and this in and of itself was a huge accomplishment -- was convince majority-making independents, whether they be Democrats, Republicans, or actual independents, or declines, that we will govern responsibly and effectively at this time of national crisis.
• Shrill Partisanship Not Embraced By Some New Lawmakers (By JOE GANDELMAN, The Moderate Voice) The tug against politics aimed at seeking broad coalition building, consensus and defusing partisan anger will continue to be independent political groups plus talk radio, which gets and maintains audiences by pushing emotional hot-button issues and polarization.
• Winning in a new South (Charlotte News Observer) "It isn't so much that Obama changed things, but that he built on the changes that already existed," says Guillory.

NEW YORK POLITICS

• The Transformation of Mike Bloomberg-How the benevolent billionaire with no political debts ended up owning us all (By Wayne Barrett, Village Voice) Last month's 29-to-22 council vote to do Bloomberg's bidding was the most tawdry moment in city politics I've ever seen.
• Union Endorses Gioia for Public Advocate (NY Times) In what seems to be the first major endorsement in next year’s race for public advocate, City Councilman Eric N. Gioia is being endorsed by the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union. The union will make the endorsement official at a press conference on Tuesday.