Initial Impressions...

Post-Election Impressions:

It ain't over 'til it's over, but...

--That muffled bang you heard was Osama's and al-Zaqarwi's assholes slamming shut.

--Like Hope, Hate is not a method.

--Question for the MSM: Now what?

--Initial impression from Tony Blair: Whew...

--Initial impression from John Howard: Heh...

--Initial impression from the Iraqi PM: Heh...

--Exit polls re-prove the First Rule of Intelligence Gathering (the first report is usually wrong).

--John McCain and Russ Feingold rediscover the First Rule of Legislating (Beware the Unanticipated Results).

I'm talking about 527s. It amazes me how members of Congress seem to never, ever get it re: human response to external stimuli...in this case trying to get politically active citizens to be less aggressive about convincing the crowd to elect their candidate. You can pass all the laws you want to stop something a lot of people are emotionally and intellectually committed to doing (spending money to get their candidate elected) and they'll find a loophole or erect an underground system to get it done anyway.
Also: 1) McCain-Feingold effort itself--bad, unconstitutional (forget about lecturing me on the SCOTUS decisions to date), cynical (favors imcumbents, like John and Russ), 2) Bush's reaction to it--bad (I paraphrase, "People should shut up." Um, no, George...that's a slippery slope you don't want to go down.)
527 products writ large: If your message doesn't resonante, the amount of money you spend is irrelevant. (Corollary: If your message DOES resonante, it doesn't take much money to have an effect.)

--Bush is successfully fighting three wars simultaneously: Afghanistan, Iraq (Yes, I think it's going rather well, thanks you very much. The American soldiers and Marines are f**king heroes, period, dot. Their leaders have forgotten more about resurrecting a country and society and engaging in effective diplomacy than the NGOs and UN and the US State Department will ever know.) and the Battle for American Hearts and Minds in the US--despite the most nakedly partisan effort on the part of the MSM that I've ever seen. NOTE: It used to be a lot worse in the early 1800s (press vs. candidate) but that was so long ago, it doesn't count.

--Corollary to the above: A key to effective leadership--never, ever give up. Do what you think is right and then relax. Exude confidence and don't be afraid to make decisions based on what you think is right, not what you think the troops want to hear. Why can't more public figures do that? I think that's partly why people are so mystified by Bush's successes--they've forgotten this stuff.

Instapilot
OBTW, my contributions to this site are going to be a bit thin in the next few days...got to bone up for my Flight Engineer writtens (test results are good for two years and mine turn into a pumpkin at the end of this month). Yeah, still trying to get a job with the majors (FedEx, UPS, jetBlue)...I know many of you are probably relieved.