01/01/09
On this first day of 2009, I wanted to take a sampling of data from the
year just past.
So what follows is a collection of random numbers, but yet significant digits, that give some quantification to this historic, watershed year in local, state and national politics.
As always at BRD, fun with numbers... from 2008.
Economics:
$3,000,000,000,000 - the
estimated full cost of the War in Iraq.
$42,000 your family's share of
estimated tax payments over the next 30 years, for the War in Iraq.
$700,000,000,000 - size of the emergency loan package for Wall Street passed on by Congress and White House on October 1, 2008.
Public Law 110-343$17,400,000,000 - size of compromise bridge loan package, to prevent collapse of automakers General Motors and Chrysler, offered by the President GW Bush in the waning days of December 2008. Congressional legislation was blocked by
31 Toyota Republicans.
-38.5% average stock value decline in 2008, the worst annual decline since 1937, when the stock market fell 38.6%.
$43 was the price for a 55 gal barrel of crude oil at year-end 2008, down 71% from an all time high of nearly $150 per barrel in July 2008. Average price for a gallon of gasoline dropped from a July high of nearly $4.00/gal to about $1.60/gal. by year-end.
National Politics:
-29% President GW Bush December 2008 rating on the
Presidential Approval Index. The Presidential Approval Index is calculated by subtracting the number who Strongly Disapprove from the number who Strongly Approve.Overall, 68% of voters somewhat or strongly approve of Obama’s performance so far while 29% disapprove. By way of comparison, 14% of all voters Strongly Approve of the way George W. Bush is handling his job as president. Forty-three percent Strongly Disapprove.
365 - electoral votes for Barack Obama. 68% of 538 electoral votes for Obama. An electoral vote percentage win margin of 36%.
69,456,897 - popular votes for Obama. A 9.5 million popular vote win margin.
13.75% - predicted popular vote percentage win margin for Obama by
BRD regression model on June 5th.
7.2% - actual Presidential popular vote percentage win margin for Obama (52.9% vs. 45.7%)
33,994,860 - Americans voted for Senate Democratic candidates vs. 30,057,338 who voted for Senate Republican candidates. Democrats won 19 seats , Republicans won 15 seats.
Virginia Politics:1,959,532 Virginians voted for Barack Obama. 1,725,005 voted for John McCain. A win margin of 234,527 votes
2,369,327 Virginians voted for Mark Warner for the US Senate. 1,228,830 voted for Jim Gilmore. A win margin of 1,140,497 votes.
409,795 more Virginians voted for Mark Warner than Barack Obama.
6th Congressional District Politics:77,983 more folks in the 6th Congressional District (VA) voted for Incumbent Republican congressman Bob Goodlatte (192,350), than voted for Democratic challenger Sam Rasoul (114,367).
8 the number years that Rep.
Bob Goodlatte ran unopposed by Democrats for his congressional seat.
0 the number of years ahead that
Bob Goodlatte will likely be able to run unopposed for his congressional seat.
54,414 more folks in the 6th Congressional District (VA) voted Mark Warner (182,823) than Jim Gilmore (128,409).
Painting the Valley Blue for a second Democratic U.S. Senator from Virginia.
48,361 more folks in the 6th Congressional District (VA) voted John McCain (182,573) than Barack Obama (134,212)
48,611 more folks in the 6th Congressional District (VA) voted for Mark Warner than Barack Obama
68,456 more folks in the 6th Congressional District (VA) voted for Mark Warner than Sam Rasoul
19,845 more folks in the 6th Congressional District (VA) voted for Barack Obama than Sam Rasoul
14,042 more folks in the 6th Congressional District (VA) voted for Republican Jim Gilmore than Democrat Sam Rasoul.
$9.96 spent by Bob Goodlatte in campaign funds for each of his votes.
($1,916,442 /192,350 votes)
$3.20 spent by Sam Rasoul in campaign funds for each of his votes.
($366,391 / 114,367 votes)
311% higher vote/$ productivity ratio from Sam Rasoul versus Bob Goodlatte (Hey National Demos - you might want spend some of your money in the 6th CD next time -- see you in 2010)
1/2/09 3:00pm, corrected 6th CD results for Obama/McCain, and added FEC spending versus vote data
Blue Blogosphere:4 the number of BRD's posts in
Off-the-Bus reporting area for the
Huffington Post.
79 the number of comments on BRD's post in
Huffington Post Off-the-Bus on
Courting the Pro-Palin Hooters Demograhic in Va. Number of views exceeded 25,000 on November 3rd.
4,409 the number of views of BRD's
You Tube video of an Obama campaign appearance near JMU Convo in Harrisonburg.
63 the number of progressive blogs listed in the Virginia Blue Blogroll at
RK replacement, the new mothership,Virginia Master Blue Blog -
Blue Commonwealth9 number of hat tips to blogs that have encouraged, mentored and supported BRD in my freshman year of 2008.
Star City Harbinger,
Cobalt6,
Coarse Cracked Corn,
Daily Kos,
Augusta Free Press,
Staunton News Leader,
Harrisonburg Blogs,
Huffington Post, and now a front page author at
Blue Commonwealth.
Stay tuned, more to come in 2009...Happy New Year to all my newly found compatriots in the blogosphere.
RAM3
