Democratic Chatter 11-7-2008

George Wenschhof

Today, President-elect Obama will meet with his economic advisers and then hold press conference - His economic advisers include Warren Buffet, former Federal Reserve chair Paul Volcker, and ex-Commerce Secretary William Daley. One item for discussion will be the appointment of Treasury Secretary. The Press Conference will begin at 2:30 PM ET in Chicago. Obama is expected to make several appointment announcements in addition to Gibbs as Press Secretary and Emanuel as Chief of Staff. Bloomberg.com has more here.

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Economic Bad News Continues - every day is a reminder of what the incoming Obama administration faces in regard to the economy. Today, it was announced unemployment reached 6.5%, the highest in 14 years. Meanwhile, Ford announces 3 Billion third quarter loss. CNN.com has more here. The Dow also dropped more than 900 in the last two days to close at 8695.79 - this is 3000 below where it closed just a couple of months ago.

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Senator Russ Feingold (D-Wisc.) may replace Vice-President elect Joe Biden as Chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee - TheHill.com is reporting Chris Dodd wants to keep his position as chair of the Finance Committee and John Kerry is seeking the Secretary of State appointment. Read more here.

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Exit Poll analysis shows impact of Youth vote, Latino vote and African-American vote - AnaMaria Arumi (NBC, MSNBC, Telemundo) says the data shows that while 2/3 of the voters under 30 voted for Obama, the only states that would not have been won by Obama without their vote were Indiana and North Carolina with Obama still winning the election with about 340 electoral votes. She also shows the impact of Latino and African-American voters on states won by Obama. MSNBC has more here.

I prefer to look at it that because of the youth turnout, traditional Republican states North Carolina and Indiana were won by Democrats. I also heard DNC chair Howard Dean say last night that the under 30 vote exceeded the vote by those over 65 for the first time. This is good news. Not because one age group is voting more than another, but because all age groups voted in equal numbers which provides for better representation of the electorate as a whole. The exit polling data above also clearly shows President-elect Obama won a majority from all demographic groups which make up the voters in our country. This is great to see.

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