Election Day #s (1 of 4)_Virgil Goode Ironically Helps Obama Win

The Election Day chess game is over and besides President Barack Obama, other winners include Tim Kaine (D, pictured top) over George Allen (R, pictured bottom) for an open U.S. Senate seat, Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) over controversial Republican Todd Akin, and Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) over Republican challenger Denny Rehberg.

Amazingly enough, no incumbents lost seats in the U.S. Senate and only five seats switched sides, which helps broader the lead for Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.), the majority leader in the Senate.

In Congress, only 20 incumbents lost. Among them was Cong. Howard Berman (D-Calif.) to Cong. Brad Sherman (D-Calif.) in one of the most surreal house races in a long time. In other races that we've mentioned on this blog, Cong. Jim Matheson (D-Utah) narrowly beat out African-American Mormon Mia Love (R), and Cong. Mogan Grifith (R-Va.) got just over 60 percent of the vote from his Democratic challenger Anthony Flaccavento, who fared well for a first-time Democrat in the very socially conservative southwest Virginia.

One of the great ironies of this election was that far-right Constitution Party candidate Virgil Goode from Rocky Mount, Va, who was a Democrat, Republican and independent during his years in Congress, actually helped Obama defeat Mitt Romney and allow the president to gain the vital 13 electoral college votes in Virginia by proclaiming close to one percent.

Here are some Election Day numbers of interest:

34, 220, 984- Number of votes John F. Kennedy got in 1960

34, 108,157- Number of votes Richard Nixon got in 1960

21,427,123- Number of votes Herbert Hoover got in 1928

15, 015,464- Number of votes Al Smith got in 1928

35,726- Number of votes John Adams got in 1796

31,115- Number of votes Thomas Jefferson got in 1796

2,916,811- Number of votes Obama got in his home state Illinois

1,900,575- Number of votes Obama got in Romney's home state Massachusetts.

1,777,379- Number of votes Romney got in Massachusetts.

19,663- Number of votes Green Party candidate Jill Stein got in Massachusetts (also her home state)

37.6%- The percentage of votes Romney got in his home state

1,888,954- The number of votes Obama got in Virginia

1,773,982- Number of votes Romney got in Virginia

13,587- Number of votes Virgil Goode got in Virginia

688-Number of votes Goode got in Franklin County, his home jurisdiction

49%- Percentage of votes Tim Kaine got in his Senate victory.

47%-Percentage of votes George Allen got

671, 747- Number of votes Romney got in Utah

72.8%-Percentage of vote Romney got in Utah

4,725- Number of votes Justice Party candidate Rocky Anderson, a former Salt Lake City, Utah, mayor, got in Utah.

2,096- Distance in miles between Boston and Salt Lake City.

49.3%- Percent that Cong. Jim Matheson got in Utah house race

48.1%- Percent that Mia Love got in same Utah house race

30.8 %- Percent that former Washington Redskins Congressional candidate Jimmy Farris (D) got against Cong. Raul Labrador (R-Idaho); Farris was profiled in the "Washington Post Magazine" recently.

303,090- Number of votes Obama got in his birth state of Hawaii

36,975- Number of votes sitcom star Roseanne Barr got as a third party candidate in California (Yes, that is more than Jefferson got in 1796!)

27,337- Number of votes Libertarian Party Gary Anderson got in his home state of New Mexico

697- Number of votes Peta Lindsay of the Socialist Party got in Vermont.

7- Number of Dukakis 8 states won by Obama (both in 2008 and in 2012)

1- Number of Dukakis 8 states won by Romney (West Virginia)

4- Number of states in which Obama won every county (Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Hawaii)

3-Number of states in which Romney won every county (West Virginia, Utah and Oklahoma)

PS: We should point out that the guy playing chess in the middle is Gary Kasparov.

Pre-Election Day Tweets_Should Election Day Be a Holiday?

Before we begin, let's congratulate Marsha Line, the 2012 Cave Spring High School (Roanoke, Va.) homecoming queen; we presume that even though my home state is a swing state which reportedly the closest one in the country, along with perhaps Colorado, that neither President Barack Obama nor Mitt Romney has sought out her endorsement.

The 9th district of southwest Virginia has a fairly interesting Congressional race between Cong. Morgan Griffith (R), who is from Salem, Va., and his opponent Anthony Flaccavento, a successful organic farmer from Abingdon, Va., which is 2.5 hours from Salem and 7 hours from Washington, DC.

Coal has been one of the hot topics in the race in which Griffith is favored as coal miners, normally reliable Democratic voters, have been voting more Republican because of cultural issues and fears of environmental regulations, though climate change/global warming was the issue which made New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, the most recognized political independent endorse Obama.

We have tweets from both candidates in this final round-up of Pre-Election Day tweets, taken from last night:

1) @Slate (Slate.com): "Latest polls show President Obama ahead of Mitt Romney in Ohio and Florida."

2) @CNNPolitics (CNN Politics): "Washington Redskins lose, San Francisco Giants win, election still unclear."

3) @lmcnelly (Lucas McNelly, a liberal activist): "I'm spending way too much time cursing at Republican attack ads."

4) @afor9th (Anthony Flaccavento, pictured bottom): "Thought telling truth and standing up for working people would rally folks. And it has. #Flaccavento in Wise County."

5) @MorganGriffith (Morgan Griffith, pictured top): "At the Dickenson County GOP Dinner. We've made over 40 stops and traveled more than 3,000 miles. Two days to go." (John McCain narrowly won the far southwestern Virginia county over Obama in 2008 according to "The Roanoke Times").

6) @CrowleyTime (Michael Crowley, a reporter for "Time" who previously worked for "The New Republic"): "Even weirder if Mark Warner hadn't bailed out in '08, Obama would likely be in the Senate or making first WH bid now." (Comment is in reference to Virginia's Democratic Senator Mark Warner).

7) @DavidFrum (David Frum, a center-right pundit and former George W. Bush speech writer): "Why isn't election day a national holiday?/Aka The Nightmare Before Christmas." (This is why we have a Charlie Brown Christmas tree image)

8) @NeilDiamond (Neil Diamond, the one and only iconic singer): "Working the phones for Obama. If I call you, don't hang up, it's me and I need you."

http://www.flaccaventoforthe9th.com

http://www.morgangriffithforcongress.com