P7. Prayers

The seventh in a series of Prayers of the People, written for the Episcopal Church of the Advent.  See Entry #736 for a full explanation.

*****

PRAYERS FOR THE FOURTH SUNDAY OF LENT, APRIL 3, 2011

Reader:  As we journey forward through the Lenten season, let us pray for the world and all those in need, responding to O Lord Our Shepherd, Shine On Us!

For the people of your creation throughout the world, and for those who are blinded by the real and unreal issues of our time, and for those who have seen and believed, we pray O Lord Our Shepherd, Shine On Us!

For all the leaders of the world, in this special season, may they use their powers and resources for moderation in our use of fossil fuels which pollute our environment, diverting our limited resources from those in need, we pray O Lord Our Shepherd, Shine On Us!

For our national leaders, especially our President Barack and our military personnel, we seek the success of their goals and their safe return home from Libya, Afghanistan, and other sites of deployment, we pray O Lord Our Shepherd, Shine On Us!

For ourselves to be shepherded through our decisions affecting our environment; bringing light to the creation and use of new technologies; bringing acceptance of the need to reuse, recycle, and reclaim; and exposing the unfruitful works of darkness to find all that is good and right and true, we pray O Lord Our Shepherd, Shine On Us!

For the needs of your church in the Anglican Communion for the Diocese of Multan, Pakistan; in the Diocese of Kentucky for the Kentucky Council of Churches, and in the Highland Community Ministries for Immanuel United Church of Christ, and for our Presiding Bishop Katharine, our Rector Tim, our Deacon Eva, and for all those who minister in our Parish, and for those on Advent’s prayer list [names go here], in fervent hope that all these know you as their shepherd, and that goodness and mercy shall abide with us forever, we pray O Lord Our Shepherd, Shine On Us!

We pray for the dying and the deceased in our family and parish, for [names go here].  Give the living your peace and consolation, and the dead a home in the Church Eternal, we pray O Lord Our Shepherd, Shine On Us!

Presider:  O God of our Earth, our temporal home, give us the light and wisdom to awake and protect our planet, to sustain it in our days and for all the days to come we pray, and to one day hear the call of Sleeper, awake!, Rise from the dead, and let Christ will shine upon you.  Amen.

755. I was wrong - he did much better

The presidential race has finally officially ended with the posting of Florida's Electoral College votes under the Obama column, an apparent win of 55,000 votes.  This brings the president's tally to 332 to 206.  A landslide, although not of the proportion of his first win against Senator John McCain.  Those numbers were 365-173.  In 2008, then-Senator Obama garnered 69,297,997 votes to McCain's 59,597,52.  Those numbers are higher than the turnout this year which presently show the president with 61,715,465 to Governor Romney's 58,507, 338.  By either tally - the popular vote or the Electoral College, the one that counts, the 44th President of the United States has been re-elected.  Thanks Be To God.

Now, to be honest, that 332-206 tally is well above my prediction - or predictions.  One prediction had the president winning on the slimmest of margins - 270 to 268.  Then I went out on a limb and made it 271-267.  Wow was I wrong.  But, that's ok.  I erred on the side that Governor Romney did - that he would win the Independents - and he did.  What neither of us foresaw was the return to the polls of women and minorities for the president, and in particular Latinos, who wander in and out of both parties and political ideologies like the revolving door of a Wal-Mart.  Latinos voted for the president's re-election by 71%.  My guess is the Republican Party's hardlines on immigration have much to do with the swing in this body of voters.  Women voters were all over the board in the pre-election polling.  Prominent faux-pas by Republican candidates for the United States Senate helped many candidates up and down the tickets.  Women as a group had a great day with 10 new women, 9 Democrats and 1 Republican, joining the most exclusive club on earth.  When the polls closed, the president had also fared well with this decisive group of voters, receiving 55% of their ballots.

Young voters did not vote for the president in the numbers they did in 2008, but he still won the under-30 crowd, and especially in the swing states, where he improved his margins with the youth vote, of which he received 69%.

In the end, it was the swing states which won for the president.  This time they swung left with one exception, North Carolina.

My guess is the 2016 race will be much easier for the Democrats.  By that time both North Carolina and Texas will have become considerably "bluer" in political complexion.  Winning the Electoral College gets much easier if you can allocate early on the 38 votes from the Lone Star State or the 15 from North Carolina.

One more note - Kentucky.  Kentucky got redder.  In 2008 John McCain won Kentucky with 57.4% to Obama's 41.2.  Romney improved on that number getting 61% to the president's 38%.  In  some counties, the results defy reason.  Leslie County in southeastern Kentucky led the state percentage-wise for Governor Romney with  90% of the vote, 4439 to 433 - wow!  Other counties with high percentages for Romney were Owsley (87), Jackson (86), Clay (84), and several others (81).  The president carried only four counties in the Commonwealth, down from eight in 2008.  Only Jefferson gave him more than 50% with a tally of 186164 to 148415.  The other three winning for Obama were Fayette - 49 to 48%, Franklin - a near tie of 49% with the president besting Romney by 190 votes, and the always reliably Democratic Elliott County, where it was 49% to 47%.  Would these numbers were bluer.  Alas and alack.

Well, on to 2016.  At this point, I'm supporting Governor Martin O'Malley of Maryland - but it's early.

754. A wild guess

A few days back I posted my Electoral College prediction for next Tuesday's election.  That has the president winning the college vote 270 to 268 - a win is a win.

Today's entry is my prediction for the race between Congressman John Yarmuth and his Republican opponent. 

I've shared this with a few people including the congressman in a phone text sent on November 1.  There is an error in the percentages, pointed out by my friend Stuart Perelmuter, as they do not take into account any votes received by the third candidate in the race, another man whose name I cannot recall, or any write-ins.  So much for precision.

Here are my predictions for the two standard-bearers.

John Yarmuth - 211430
His Republican Opponent - 150103

Like I said, a wild guess.  We'll see.

Three more days.