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Wednesday, 09 November 2016


It’s no small thing to discover you don’t live in the country you thought you did. I'm listening to piano jazz (Mulgrew Miller at the moment) and doing nothing today. Then we'll see.

I share your anguish and admire you for publishing something, anything today. As for me, today is a day to try to think about something else than politics. This quote, attributed to Churchill, gives me a little comfort:


Mike, I think you're being a bit premature writing about a candidate for 2020. The first concern ought be survival, not re-taking control.

When things looked like they were over at around 11:00 PM Pacific Time, we retired for the evening, unwilling to watch the end. After a restless night, we awakened to confirm the worst. My wife's reaction has been very strongly negative.

After some discussion, we conclude this is like a death of our country, and we're going through the stages of grief. Optimistically, perhaps there will be a recovery four years from now. If, that is, global thermonuclear war doesn't obliterate humanity in the meantime. Either way, I'm grateful to be old and childless.

If not irreligious, I'd say "God help our country." As an atheist, I feel much better since I gave up hope.

Good mourning, America...

Good question. It's not like they have a deep bench, or even a decent farm system.

Just a thought from the commiserating outside world:
The person you are looking for in 2020 must exist and be nationally visible right now -- as a governor or a senator, at the least. And he/she must not only have the vision and the skills, but also the huge ambition to change the world.

I wish you and the rest of the world the best of luck in selecting the short list.

Yeah Mike, it's absolutely sickening. At least now half of America knows what half of the UK feels..

I don't have a candidate in mind that could have done better this round. But part of the dynamic of 2020 will be a reaction to what Trump does or does not do. He will upset the apple cart, for sure. Can he possibly deliver what he has promised? No.
I understand that people want change but I didn't think so many people would buy into his nonsense.

Elizabeth Warren is indeed the person you described, but as just proven- we are now well beyond any form of logic or intellect. The blind steamroller of ignorance, arrogance and bigotry Trumps all the above.

The only way sanity may be restored is when we are all left to pick up the pieces...

I don't think the problem the country as a whole had with Clinton was her gender. She has been subject to a decades long smear campaign (some of which probably originated with her gender). So much crap was thrown her way that it should be no surprise that some of it stuck. I think a different woman with her views could be accepted by Democrats and moderate voters, so long as the Right doesn't have decades to try to tear her down.

I have no suggestions other than we need to wait and not create another "chosen one". In the mean time as wide of an array of competent candidates should be identified without regard to gender, race, etc. As 2020 draws near the mood of the country should be clearer and one will make the most sense to primary voters. But we need to start the public conversation about quality people and ideas now.

Democrats also need to work on reclaiming the state governments. In 2020 the next census will take place and the gerrymandering will only be worse. Another decade of few Democrats in the state governments will spell disaster for the party. The "good" news is I have high expectations Trump and Co will screw things up so bad over the next two years we might see a backlash in the midterms. No, that's not really good news.

OK...Several of your "comment guidelines" are in violation so a precident has been established for todays reply comments. (I'm still waiting for yesterdays BTW). So here it goes....Never mind I don't really writing today either ! OK, one to address one of your issues today. The problem wasn't that Hillary was Woman, the problem was that Hillary was Hillary. That being said, four years now or before the impeachment, I want the best man to win or Elizabeth Warren.

Still, life goes on. This morning I was much comforted to note that I was breathing just fine, the traffic seemed in no hurry, and the common milk of human kindness still flows, as it always does, somewhere.

Tim Kaine.


It's a pointless exercise. The DNC and RNC weren't involved in selection of candidates. Since 1972, both parties' candidates have been selected by the American people, voting in primary elections (or caucuses or whatever).

I think it's arguable that the primary system has served us poorly, compared with the smoke-filled rooms of 1968 and earlier. But that's democracy for you.

IMO, politics isn't your forte. And I,for one, don't look to "The Online Photographer" for political opinions, be they...right or left.

Al Franken?

You said it! Thank you.


Having spent the weekend going door-to-door, and most of yesterday working a phone bank, I also feel the sense of loss, and mourning. But ...

a) please don't discount Elizabeth Warren, because

b) sometimes it takes hitting rock bottom in order to really, really know it's time to do something different.

(And, not to close on a downer, but there's a chance that rock bottom is yet to come. We'll just have to wait and see)



Tim Kaine

Time to hope for the best.

Richard Nixon was certifiably insane. Yet, he could be considered one of the country's best presidents, if it were not for a few legal issues.

Perhaps the Trumpster will rise up from where-ever he has been residing and be an effective president. He seems to be qualified by the certifiably insane Nixon standard.


I felt ill for days after the EU referendum.

Yeah, I hear you, Mike.

Sorry about your angst Mike. At my household I set out a sympathy card, a link to Breitbart News, and a selection of chocolates for my domestic Hillary voter. And I didn't gloat that I was right for the last 18 months.

I think Trump and the Republican control of congress and senate will do great things for all Americans, even disgruntled Democrat photographers. Working people won for a change, populism defeated globalism and I'm happy for that. It really would have been unacceptable to elect a blatant criminal... I hope Julian Assange can finally go free.

I don't see the correlation to causation you imply here, I would have gladly voted for a female or black version of Donald Trump over any liberal white male regardless. I went to several Trump rallies (photos on my website) and the crowds were far more diverse (and polite) than was (not) reported by the mainstream news.

Best wishes, try to keep an open mind, and if you live in a violent city (my daughter lives in Oakland) please stay indoors.

In your fantasy politics article, you wrote about a proposal for essentially a new primary process to choose attractive candidates for the general election. Due to how the political parties control the primary process and to, oh, I don't know, maybe game theory, I doubt the primary process will change for the better.

You'd think that what's best for the country as a whole would be best for the state political parties (who control the primary process), but it isn't working well these days.

tl;dr version (you know, for the kids): curse the parties for not finding better candidates for the general election.

Ok....this person does not fit many of your requirements.....but Kamala Harris....who just got elected to the Senate fits the bill.....

It's Wednesday morning in America. Get on with yourself.

"I have a feeling I will, though. It'll be good for my soul."

But will it be good for your blog ?

Just askin' ...

The media made Trump: The media sold the game show host because he was good for ratings, the media kept the spotlight on him because it kept adding up to more profits, they betrayed Bernie by refusing him coverage, and then the media preached poll numbers guaranteeing a Hillary win. I have to stop reading the media. http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/upshot/presidential-polls-forecast.html - I think the media touting polls influences the election--"If Hillary is a sure win, I don't need to bother to vote."--and publishing them is irresponsible.

Maybe we are all too connected electronically, and instead need to spend more time getting to know our neighbors, half of whom are so disillusioned by the system, that they voted for the game show host.

Hopefully the new reality show, The White House, isn't a horror story. And some good comes from shining a light on America's bigotries and hatred. And Trump's narcissistic need to look good and be a winner helps him make some good choices for the US.

Hang in there buddy. I'm with you, and so are the majority of Americans. I noticed that the sun rose this morning as always. We will get through this, somehow.

Yeah, that queasy soul thing is going around.

I'm thinking it might be related to the news.

Cory Booker


I know you and a lot of other people are very upset, but please, please, stick to photography if you can. This year has been an on-going deluge of everything bad about America and more divisiveness is not going to improve the anger, hostility, racism, etc. that has been dragged out in plain view. Views that I thought we had long moved past. Everyone believing they are right and not compromising an inch has gotten us where we are today. We are Americans and that includes acceptance and tolerance of all who have chosen the US as home, even if you disagree strongly with their viewpoint.

Let's all celebrate why we are here: a love of photography and your writing. Mental health researchers and practitioners both believe that society and happiness relies upon finding compassion for all. The Dalai Lama holds no anger against China over Tibet because anger causes one's self suffering.

I think the problem for the left is the fact that the left does not do a very good job of projecting what the goal is....What does this liberal utopia look like? When will we be there? Will it just be an ongoing effort to identify what is not acceptable and altering the lives (moral and financial) of citizens who do not step into line? Is it just an effort to eliminate rednecks and hangers-on? What is a redneck? What is a hanger-on?

Democrats and anti-Republicans did not get it handed to them by a skilled, articulate politician. They got it handed to them by an inexperienced "outsider" who has never won an elected office; furthermore, he forged his way through a level of political ineptitude (his ineptitude) like a runaway train. This wasn't about packaging, it was about the mood of the electorate. Trump, like him or not, presents a pretty clear lesson for everyone.

Consider W's response to the "butt-kicking",(W's words) following the Democrat take-over of congress during W's second mid-term election: "We got our butt's kicked.People don't like our plan. We are going to have to change things." I think W had that right.

It's a little too easy to suggest that Hillary Clinton was ineffective after the election. Nobody foresaw this outcome. One stat that is telling of American society is that 52% of white women who voted did so for Trump. Some Democrats voted for Trump because they do not believe a woman can be a tough leader and may be perceived as being weak in the international arena. Many Americans simply do not believe women can be leaders, period.

Rather surprising to read a left wing, political diatribe on a photography web site, but it's your web site.

[The diatribe was the one I didn't publish. --Mike]

There has been no one really suitable since Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan.

Right on Mike - I must take the same stand as you and die in the fire if need be. As you just said, I too could say more - a lot more - but won't. Instead I'm going to take a long 5 mile photo walk in a beautiful forest this afternoon before it gets sold off to the highest bidder! I need to cool off...

I'm glad you wrote this Mike, and made your political persuasion plain. We share the same values and I can tell you, I am dismayed, disheartened, aghast, anxious and just plain angry. Clearly, you can fool some of the people all of the time.

I truly believe that America had better be ready for body bags, because this lunatic is going to lead the US into armed conflict or even a nuclear exchange. Putin is rubbing his hands with glee. He now has carte blanche to start pushing the envelope, and places like Latvia will be the start. He will be emboldened to test NATO, because the Trumpet has sown doubt about the USA's resolve.

In my region, China will be emboldened to push the militarisation of the South China Sea islands even harder. We will be drawn into that if there is a conflict.

This result is just so depressing. It's clear that 51% of Americans are racist, xenophobic, ignorant, credulous fools. Armed to the teeth fools, with big guns. I am frightened for you and for the world. This will cause a world recession. The man is an idiot.

I fully agree with your post, but I have no answer, except to draft Barack Obama back in. I know you can't, but ... this is a good man and he will be remembered as a GOOD president.

I wish the USA luck. You're going to need it, as we all are now. This disaster affects all of us.

I'm someone that Obama referred to as a professional lefty.

It's been a long time since LBJ's great society. Recently we've had corporatist Demo's running the country for the benefit of Wall Street. That, along with a hawkish HRC wanting a no-fly-zone in Syria (WW3?) is why the Democrats lost.

What we need is a pragmatic anarchist/marxist—but that will never happen.

I expect that the country will go back to 1930s style non-intervention, but with a modern enhanced social safety-net. Like Molly Ivins said "You Got to Dance with Them What Brung You," So there is little chance that that Social Security, etc. will be effected. We need to remember that Otto von Bismarck started single payer health insurance, because he thought that a worry free employee was a harder worker. Trump seems to think the same way.

Joe. Biden.

(mic dropped)

Waking up in a rich country full of opportunity that happens for the next few years to be led by a figurehead from the opposite side of politics?

Definitely a first-world problem...

Back to photography I hope! :)

After Obama's four-year break, he's eligible to run again in 2020.

Just saying' (to quote The Mike).

Mike, did you do enough to avoid the outcome of this election? Or did you just take for granted Hillary Clinton would win?
These are rhetorical questions and they're not specifically addressed to you. I believe many Americans failed to see the danger that was coming and didn't bother to mobilize. Maybe they would have if they could care to even have a glance at what happens outside the US; then they would have seen what is going on in Europe (especially in Poland and Hungary), with the rise of extreme right-wing movements, and do whatever possible not to let it happen in America.
As it stands, now you'll be stuck with a clown at the White House. Let's hope he surrounds himself of such incompetent, ignorant people that his administration won't last a whole term. (But even an incomplete term can be enough to produce irreversible damage to the US and the world.)

Kamala Harris is one name I'm watching. She's been a terrific AG in California, and is one of the few younger, bright, charismatic Dems we have... Also, Tammy Duckworth, freshly in the Senate from Illinois. Dear Canada, can we borrow Justin Trudeau, PLEASE... Michelle Obama has never indicated any interest in politics, but she's perhaps the most gifted politician in the country... Any of the above!

You insulted the orangutan.
(Hopefully they are still with us by 2020).

My wife feels kicked in the gut by white America. I had to go out and take some photos, which helped.

For 2020, if he's vulnerable, I like Tulsi Gabbard a lot, rep from Hawaii. She was a strong Bernie Supporter, as was I. http://gabbard.house.gov

Best to keep politics out of photo websites. But....I suspect the voter revolt (Sanders and Trump) is due to current politicians not meeting the citizen's needs and wants.

Appalling result and and a rejection of all decent standards by Republicans during the whole election campaign. One day the Trumpists will look back and regret they ever did such a thing as vote for the orange man with small hands. They will pretend they didn't: like all those who pretended they didn't vote for George Wallace, or for the Iraq war. Even Nixon, as awful as he was, at least knew a thing or two about the world out there. The Reagan legacy (such as it was) is now officially dead. As to whether Trump will accomplish anything: prepare for profound disappointment, unless of course curbing citizens' rights (abortion, LGBT, health care etc) is what you want. This was a bad day for America and the West.

The DNC needs to hire Michael Moore as a special consultant. As a blue collar Michigander, he saw this coming. From your former rural Wisconsin perch, could you have seen it coming, too?

My put - over the next two years or so.
20 Million without health care - including me.
Out of NATO.
Out of the UN.
Trade wars with EU, Mexico, Canada and China.
Russia will be our new ally.
Muslims, Hispanics and a lot of people of color will be in internment camps.
Due to alt-right Supreme Court - Roe v Wade, voting rights, Gay Marriage -- all gone
EPA -- gone.
NPR/PBS -- gone.
Drilling in Arctic Refuge.
Native American rights/reservations -- gone.
Ultra rich pay no taxes -- at all.

This is just some of the things on the list alone with the Republicans desire to get rid of Medicare/Medicaid and Social Security.
Education Dept. -- gone.

Yes, the USA is dead - long live the USA

Cory Booker seems like the best hope!

Lateral thinking is called for here.

Beyoncé could whip Trump in an election tomorrow. I don't think she'd want the job - too much like a demotion for her. Still, there have to be a dozen or so musicians or actors with enough star power to win.

I'm only half kidding.

I also want to recommend a Sci-Fi novel about American elections called, "Interface," by Stephen Bury.


We haven't made it to that particular future yet, but we're getting closer. Neal Stephenson, one of my favorite writers, is half of "Stephen Bury."

I don't think the problem is a lack of qualified and attractive candidates - I think there are plenty on both sides, including working at nearly all levels of government. It is just that, how do you get them interested in running for president in this toxic political environment, to the idea of subjecting themselves and their families to months or years of abuse, venom, hate and sometimes violence? The answer is, for most of the sensible ones, you don't. Add to that the long, expensive and painful road to the nomination via our bizarre, outdated primary system, and we end up with the two most unpopular candidates in modern American history.

This may not be a great example, but just looking at the very close Senate race in New Hampshire - between Gov. Maggie Hassan and Sen. Kelly Ayotte - you probably have two candidates that many if not most Americans would have preferred to either Trump or Clinton. (And no I don't live in New Hampshire nor have any ties to the state - it's just an example that crossed my mind. I bet you can go across the country and pick numerous candidates who also would have been preferable to either Clinton or Trump.)

p.s. Joe Holmes, Obama is constitutionally ineligible to run again, no matter how much time elapses after the end of his term.

To my way of thinking, the Democrats over reached beyond what was necessary to win the presidency. They failed to see that they already had a solid "blue wall" of 272 electoral votes - enough to win the election with what they already "had". But given the crazy they were up against, I feel they wanted to go for the "slaughter" and bring in every "battle ground" and "swing" state they could. In doing so, they overlooked some much needed "maintenance" inside the blue wall. Clinton & company simply made too few visits and examinations inside their own assumed strength to sustain it.

I'm agreein with ya Mike

Who is the"It can't be a cranky hundred-year-old Jewish socialist with a clear view of what's wrong but no plan to make it right."?

Tough cookies, Mike.

While Shakespeare thought a rose by any other name would smell just as sweet, that only works in the garden. In politics, a biased choice of words just plain stinks.

It is presumably well known that whoever controls the terminology controls the debate. Yet, conservatives have been getting their semantic plows cleaned by liberals for decades and have not yet understood this basic form of thought control. The left does not underestimate, as conservatives do, the power of word selection in manipulating ideas and opinions. As Barack Obama himself has said, “Words matter.”

To begin with, let’s note two major errors in the previous sentence:
1. The use of the word “conservative” to describe those who hold to the principles of the founding fathers of this nation. The founding of America was the most liberal act ever committed by mankind. The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution are the two most liberal documents ever to arise from the mind of man.
2. The use of the word “liberal” to denote those who essentially believe in Socialism/Marxism, a philosophy which is antithetic to freedom and which caused the deaths of more than one hundred million people in the 20th century and the enslavement of countless millions more.

The basic meaning of “liberal,” according to Mr. Webster, is “free” or “generous.” He also defines the word as “Favoring political reforms tending toward democracy and personal freedom for the individual.” That is exactly what the Declaration and Constitution do.

Conservatives are both conservative and liberal, in that they seek to conserve those “political reforms tending toward democracy and personal freedom for the individual” which our founders established.

In contrast, the “reforms” advocated by so-called Liberals may appear on the surface to advance individual freedom, and do in fact often advance license, which is not the same thing. But their reforms always, ultimately, advance government control, which always and inevitably leads to loss of freedom. They present themselves as liberal, but in practice their philosophy always kills true liberalism.

"Traditional liberal democracy," as espoused by the Democratic Party, is nothing but thinly-veiled Marxism currently traveling under the name of Progressivism and bears not even a passing resemblance to the genuine article.

The Declaration of Independence states that "All men are created equal and are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, among which are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."

Marxism, of course, denies the existence of a Creator. Progressivism may give lip service to the concept, when it seems convenient, but is basically skeptical, agnostic, if you prefer. But if there is no Creator, there can be no inalienable rights. Rights become whatever the powers that be say they are.

If there are no inalienable rights, then there is no right to liberty. Including freedom of speech and freedom of religion. Political correctness, which is cultural Marxism (Progressivism at work) has already done a great deal to suppress free speech. Both Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine spoke of the need to force religious groups to change their doctrines to hue to the Progressive line. Really, Mike? That is "Traditional Liberal Democracy?"

The problem is you don't have a liberal democracy, but a puppet for neoliberalism.

You can start by reading "Killing the Host", the author outlines much in this interview, well worth watching, then build a political movement that reflects the reality of inequality:


You want Justin Trudeau? You can have him. Canada will have to build a wall to keep all the disaffected Americans out. You keep them, we don't want them. The US has gotten what it deserves. Both parties are corrupt along with the entire political system. Do I hear a fiddle playing??

I didn't sleep at all last night. My kids woke up this morning asking if this means everyone hates us. Have been trying to convince them and myself that everything will be okay.

I do admire you for writing about this today. You could easily lose some readers over it. But yes, we have to make the most of this scary situation, hope for the best, and do what we can for a better outcome in future elections.

It sickens me that so many people don't vote and that somehow multiple critical states came down to less than 1% margins. All seems so unreal.

The Electoral College is a great system...

Actually it's my belief that, as ironic as this may sound, it would be Michelle Obama. She has a consistent, heartfelt, somewhat liberal delivery that seems to strongly resonate with voters from the entire spectrum, well many spectrums, we all know the ones who under no circumstances would accept her.

Phew, thank goodness for Donald J Trump. After Brexit I feared the UK was going to assume the mantle of the world’s dumbest country - sad to say that the US has now grabbed that title back with great aplomb. You guys don’t do anything by half-measures do you ? To think, a man with no qualifications, no political experience, a short, foul, temper and degenerative views on a whole range of social issues will soon occupy the most powerful position on the planet. And he achieved this with the oldest trick in the book - promising to take a country back to some mythologized golden era, whilst demonizing minorities and promising to imprison his political opponent. Now, when was the last time that all happened ? Hmm, let me think.

I'd like to correct a couple of misconceptions that I spotted reading through the comments:

1) 51% didn't vote for Trump. He didn't even win the popular vote. Hillary had more votes. He "won" due to the Electoral College system of "winner take all" for allocating the actual electors who elect the president.

2) Obama can't run again after a 4 year break. The two term limit is a lifetime limit.

I share your pain. Am willing to follow Hillary's suggestion that we give him a chance. On a very short leash, as far as I'm concerned though.

P.S. It's your site, any thing you write about is fine with me.

I hope to have moved back to Canada by then. That's not to say I don't care about 2020 (should the planet not be annihilated by then) but, at my age, I'm exhausted by the stream of old white guys whose privilege ends their view of the world about 2 mm short of their noses.

...there is little chance that that Social Security, etc. will be effected...

Indeed, very little chance they will be effected for much longer after January 20. The affects on them, however, will be substantial, and will impact those who voted for him.

I'm sure that the dust will settle and life will go on, however... http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/montreal-immigration-lawyer-americans-crash-website-1.3844043


Unfortunately, the varnish of democracy is thin.

For an indication just have a look at us in Europe, the trend can be seen in many places and USA only joined the queue. Respect for democracy and the norms that Western democracy has developed since WWII is not a characteristic of this new nationalistic and xenophobic movement, in spite of them using it for gaining a platform for their discontent and disengagement.

Fortunately, in the long term globalism is here to stay, because the millenials will not have it any other way, they will just have to wait for their elders to die away. And the new economic powers will remind us in the West of the new distribution of power in the world, as they should. The soft power of economy and culture is always under estimated and the hard military power over estimated and the former tend to flourish in an interconnected, compassionate and curious set-up of human relations.

One takeaway: we have got to stop calling people "uneducated" - AKA "without a college degree." It can't be constructive to divide people between 'smart' and 'stupid' which is what that seems to do. I always winced when I heard that.

Still unbelievable, how matter how one voted, but here was a correct prediction based on historical models which might possibly ease your pain to certain extent, Mike, as it ignores or bypasses both the personal characteristics and past performance of either candidate:


Still leaves us all with a lot of work to do ~ again, no matter how one voted.

This is especially true for those of us who also pray.

I'll just say that this has been the most surreal few weeks to me. It's as if I was presented with a deal with the devil for the Chicago Cubs (baseball team) to win the World Series.

I feel like "barfing", too. (As I write this there are thousands of angry people marching outside my home in protest amidst the now-halted Lake Shore Drive traffic...at nearly 9pm. They're within a few thousand feet of where many hundreds of thousands attended a victory rally for the Cubs just days ago.

It's surreal.

I second Michelle Obama and Joe Biden.

I feel for you Mike, but at least you have a chance to change things in 2020, unlike those of us reluctantly dragged out of the EU. I will be dead before that choice comes around again, and I don't plan to die any time soon. It feels very lonely in little England.

The world seems a cold and unfriendly place sometimes, full of rhetoric and invective that goes, seemingly, unchallenged. Perhaps the saddest part is that it always involves blaming those even more desperate and worse off for our personal misfortune.

There is a cruelty in that assertion that I can never understand or sympathise with. Nor can I understand why so many turn to the very people who are mostly responsible for it, indeed profit from it, and expect them to help.

But think on this. The greater the edifice that protects a bad system, the bigger the pile-driver needed to demolish it. That pile-driver has started, now the challenge is to hold everything together while you build something better.

And the main issue seems to be your electoral system and the way it has been hijacked by the media and turned into a circus.

This is your blog, so you can write about whatever you wish. But...

I come to this blog to read about the art and science of photography. Please do not assume that your readers' interest in photography implies shared political views. I personally look to other venues for reasoned political analysis and discourse versus emotional hyperbole.

With no disrespect intended, I understand that my political opinions (about which you should make no assumptions) have no realistic influence on you or your attention, and I similarly have little interest in your political leanings.

The old school British elites had it right - no discussion of wives, religion, or politics in the club - that keeps the conversation civil. (Photography definitely allowed!)

[See my reply to Alan Carmody in the Featured Comments.

I'd hate to lose you, Mike, as your comments are generally excellent, even if they are relatively (too) few. --Mike]

One bright spot: One day after Trump warned Minnesotans about the Somali immigrants in their midst, the citizens of Minneapolis elected a hijab-wearing Somali woman to the state legislature.

I hereby declare that I am a secular Muslim. Now I am sure that I will fail the Reich Test.

Apparently I'm lousy at predicting the electorate so I'm sure my suggestions for who to run would be just as bad.

But the choice shouldn't be made assuming things will look substantially the same in 2020. The civil war within the GOP may flare up. Trump can be impeached if he's not wily or popular enough. If this is a con, we'll see the predictable kleptocracy and incompetence, and the resultant suffering. If it's for real and there's genuine fundamental change, well, that seldom happens without suffering.

But it would be too soon to run a political elite. I like Michelle Obama a lot, and she's hugely popular, down to earth, and hard to tag as "elite". Stephen Colbert might be a better choice, though.

Yes, Colbert. Look, a whole lot of voters are clearly not interested in qualifications. Yet Colbert is knowledgeable, smart, and will bring the right people in. And he's popular and funny. He'd be credible running as an anti-establishment wild card after four years of most likely not anything pretty.

No doubt there will be significantly more restrictive voting laws in place, aimed at urban areas, minorities and immigrants. It's sad, but a white male would have an advantage. And whoever runs will have to be able to compete with well-funded bread and circuses.

Because I don't know of any fake billionaire boobs on the left.

I told you, I'm lousy at this.

Mike, to you ant many commenters: there is only one consideration for the next Democratic presidential nominee--no more baby boomers. We had our chance and we blew it.

Mike what about this:-



Mike, the election put me in mind of the Leonard Cohen song, "Nevermind." Find the lyrics online and you may agree.

John Camp said "working class roots". He is right, the Democrats need to go back to their working class roots. They need to be the party of the working class. The problem, they have no idea of what today's working class is. They are to busy managing coalition's.

Joe Holmes: "After Obama's four-year break, he's eligible to run again in 2020.

Just saying' (to quote The Mike)."

That is not correct. The 22nd amendment limits you to two terms, period.

Greetings and commiserations from Australia. Our only complaint is our politics is predictable and boringly safe. Might stop complaining for awhile!

We all (Australians) would have voted for Michelle Obama given the chance. Maybe next time.

As an outsider (Portugal), I was not surprised. Yesterday, there was a lot of discussion about how the polls had failed (like in Brexit). However, many of the polls were either not-representative (more than half of the people did not reply), or not taken seriously (the ones saying that Trump would win). People only want to see/believe in what they like or expect, and then if the result does not go their way, they act like the rest of the country betrayed them.

Life goes on, and after all it is not the first time, and it will not be the last, that the USA has elected for president a ill-prepared, lying, and egotistic person.

Mike, if you lose a reader or two because of this post, good riddance. I've been meaning to, but I'm finally becoming a regular supporter of your blog today.

It is a sad, sad day. The politics of obstruction and character assasination have won. Only they could have elevated this troll to power. Hillary Clinton, whatever her faults, is clearly not the person she has been made out to be.

So here we drift, aboard a true ship of fools...

All you guys have to do is change the system so you don't have to be rich to get elected President. Isn't that simple?


You can tell your kids the world doesn't hate Americans. We're just a bit concerned for your sanity....

(Durban, South Africa)

I too feel crushed and my soul squeezed out of my body. No more to say about what's in the past though--it's akin to thinking a dead body will rise. To the future then! Right now I think Gavin Newsom (Lt. governor of California) should be the torch bearer for the future of the Democratic party.

O Canada!
Our home and native land!
True patriot love in all thy sons command.
With glowing hearts we see thee rise,
The True North strong and free!
From far and wide,
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.
God keep our land glorious and free!
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.

To return the subject to photography, the Guardian has rather a good article about those who have shot Trump (no, sorry: with a camera);

It's your party and you can cry if you want to, but I don't recommend it, because it diminishes the experience of your guests, which is just bad manners on your part. I'm just sayin'...

Another Brit here. With yourselves as with Brexit I have faith in the establishment ruling class looking after their own interests and not permitting too much instability. Didn't you think Trump's results speech was a bit too classically presidential? I wonder who wrote it? I think he has already had a talking to.

And yes, you write whatever you want to. Whether I approve of it or not.

Overreact much? Good lord.

Hmm... A female candidate for 2020, Ann Coulter perhaps? Seriously, both sides would do well to pull back from the extremes of liberalism and conservatism and move center, where most of the country reside. Until then, the basket of deplorables have spoken. And for that I'm grateful.

A note to William, who posted the lyrics to Canada's national anthem:

In June of this year the House of Commons passed a bill changing the words "in all thy sons command" to "in all of us command'.

Creeping slowly into the 21st century…

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