Thanks for all you have done in reporting on this election. But, it’s over. Archive it for reference purposes, but kill it. Take the Command Post back to what it has been the best at, and well known for: Tracking, reporting on, and commenting on the war on terror and all things related to that. And ONLY that.

Enjoy the day, have a beer, pat yourself on the back…you deserve it.

Posted by: Alliturken at November 3, 2004 04:10 PM

Same as above, with the addition of I’d like to see the page stick around and be used for current events.

Posted by: mantis1230 at November 3, 2004 04:13 PM

My 0.02: I tend to think there’s a need for a general politics kind of thing. For political issues other than GWOT or Iraq.

Posted by: Sunidesus at November 3, 2004 04:13 PM

I agree with #1.

There may be more news now from Iraq, et al., since we can put this super-important step behind us.

Norm

Posted by: Norm at November 3, 2004 04:14 PM

No. This section should be retired. Maybe in a CP Graveyard for former sections. Because there will always be a need for an Election 2006 or 2008 to come.

Posted by: Bryan S. at November 3, 2004 04:26 PM

I think this page should not only go on, but be expanded, to not only covering U.S. Elections or Politics, but Politics and Elections around the world as well. Not everything that happens in the GWoT is going to involve guns and bombs. Sometimes ballots and speeches speak even louder.

True, the U.S. election may be over, but Iraqi elections are coming up in January, Great Britain will be going to the polls sometime in the next year and a half, referenda will be held on the new EU constitution, as well as countless other elections all over the world. Some parties and leaders will rise, others will stumble and fall. Old alliances may break, new ones may form. These events will shape the current conflict as much as any army can.

In addition, the U.S. election itself leaves many unanswered questions. Will the Democratic party continue it’s leftward lurch, or will it start swinging back to the center? How will Bush fare in his second term? And of course, who will set their sights on the White House for 2008, the first election since 1952 in which neither party will be running an incumbent president or VP? Never say that domestic politics never affect the conduct of a foreign war…

I say, keep the page up! There’s still a lot of history to be made! CP 2004 has been one of my favorite sources, and always informative.

Keep it up!

Posted by: Thief at November 3, 2004 04:39 PM

I propose a downloadable version as well, in a ZIP or gzip format (maybe both?), that people can download and browse off-line. Take a snapshot, archive it, and pack it up. I would love to take a look at it, maybe even analyze it with some text tools, to see what I could turn up.

The reports were coming in here so fast yesterday I couldn’t keep up. How many posts went into the Election section?

Posted by: gus3 at November 3, 2004 05:13 PM

How about a new section tracking the President’s agenda?

Posted by: Opinionated Bastard at November 3, 2004 06:06 PM

I certainly enjoyed myself last night, although my “real” job suffered from my sleep deprived mind today.

I would like to see this page go on to cover some of the many other isues out there.

Posted by: Dan Blomquist at November 3, 2004 06:18 PM

Just drove past two motorcycle cops busting two UT n’er-do-wells hanging a “We’re Fucked” sign on an I-35 overpass near downtown Austin. I wanted to roll down my window and holler “Dude, WE‘RE not fucked, YOU‘RE fucked,” but the Officer Friendlys didn’t look like they were in any mood for it.

:jackson

Posted by: jackson zed at November 3, 2004 06:25 PM

And now that I’ve spammed the thread, I’d better redeem myself…

I say keep it. But keep it a forum STRICTLY for electoral politics. Change the year to 2006. Tah dah! You’re done.

I hate to be the meanie to say it out loud, but 2006 isn’t that far away! The forum might be pretty slow for a while, but that will change before long =8^]

:jackson

Posted by: jackson zed at November 3, 2004 06:32 PM

I would change the title to the “Bush Presidency” until the next election cycle really does rear its head, but definitely general political material should stay.

Posted by: rdelephant at November 3, 2004 06:55 PM

I say archive the CONTENTS of this page and open another one for General Politics. Just think what a change in Government in Britain might bring to the War on Terror…and France, aren’t they due for another Revolution or something? Russia is still pretty interesting politically and the Palestinians are about to have their own knock down drag out when Yasser goes to visit Allah. Also, and perhaps most important, there’s another election coming up…not 3 months away…Iraq.

Global Politics have a direct impact on the War on Terror and I think this would provide an excellent venue for that discussion.

Posted by: Wayne Fielder at November 3, 2004 08:08 PM

I’d love to see a general politics page.

Posted by: Penosity at November 3, 2004 08:12 PM

Politics is waay too important. Keep it on.

Posted by: TomTom at November 3, 2004 08:44 PM

As someone who participated in the blogging…

Carry the theme over to state-specific blogging. It would be nice to have one place on the web where you can see reaction to events from around the country and/or read about what is happening in other states.

Posted by: Dave B. at November 3, 2004 08:54 PM

How about something like was done for the election? No spin posts about individual states, like:

Will Gov Mike Easley push the lottery during his 2nd term (and have a link)

No spin, quick posts.

Posted by: William Teach at November 3, 2004 09:37 PM

Keep the page, or move it to a new directory (2004 will soon be gone), or archive the elections section and start a US News section.

But keep it similar to the Elections coverage. Limit contributors to a state. Let them cover politics, business, etc.

Commenters above are correct that there’s more to the war than the war. But if international reactions are anything to go by, the biggest enigma in the war, and the least understood phenomenon in the world, is the United States itself - its politics, its federal system, its people and their preferences.

Keep contributors confined to reporting news from their states. Perhaps put them on a rotating schedule of contributing op-eds or less straight-reporting, more here’s-how-to-think-about-this pieces.

There are plenty of sites that aggregate international news. TCP does this well by selecting news in particular categories. But there are no sites that aggregate U.S. news in the manner I’ve described.

Keep TCP at the forefront of innovation by aggregating news relevant to a particular theme. Build on TCP’s strengths by harnessing the contributive efforts of people interested in particular things to provide comprehensive content that is interesting to people from a wide variety of backgrounds.

And, on an unrelated note, thanks for letting me be a part of your Election 2004 coverage.

Posted by: misterdasher at November 3, 2004 10:16 PM

There were a lot of posts yesterday. Frankly, I think that increased quantity came with decreased quality. Would there be any way to add an editor?

I also like the idea of keeping a politics page. I also like the way you made it possible to preface each post with the jurisdiction.

Finally, I like the idea of packing up the posts into downloadable archives. You may be able to sell advertising space inside the archives.

Whatever. Continued thanks for all your great work.

Posted by: Tomorrowist at November 4, 2004 12:41 AM

Keep her! I would like to thank both you and Michele for allowing me to guest-post as well. And I agree about state-level forums. Perhaps an image-map of the country to access to state

Posted by: mr lawson at November 4, 2004 02:02 AM

..needs to be expanded 10 fold..we need to search for contributors world wide.. every nook and cranny of this planet..the stars are the only limit..kind`a spaced this morning so shoot me…but the idea..is a great one..:-))

Posted by: Rob_NC at November 4, 2004 07:44 AM

Stick it in the archives. This is one of the reasons that TCP, which is supposed to be a non-partisan site covering terrorism and the like, has gotten to be heavily right-wing dominated.

Now if you want to open a parallel site for politics, that’s another story.

Posted by: Mark at November 4, 2004 09:38 AM

Yay where doing this for class…

Posted by: Csi111 at November 4, 2004 10:40 AM

I think you should keep it, that way when the draft is enabled and when WW3 starts with North Korea we can look back at they way the Bush duped all of the simple-minded Americans.

Posted by: nisse at November 4, 2004 12:40 PM

nisse: Please complete your Yahoo profile. The men in the black suits are looking for you.

(I love watching lefty libs twitch! ;-)

Posted by: gus3 at November 4, 2004 01:00 PM

Well the 2006 mid-terms are a target rich environment: will Hillary defend her seat? Will the Reps pad their lead even more (dare I say it) to a filibuster-proof 60 seats? Looking at the Senators up for reelection the Reps look solid and some Dems look vulnerable, not to mention with the propect of perpetual minority status staring them in the face many Dems might retire? Woohoo let the next cycle begin now!

Posted by: docweasel at November 4, 2004 01:06 PM

Continuing as an elections-related area sounds like a good idea. 2006 races are coming up and I think our governor’s race is then. (I’m in Texas.) That and the usual hijinks from the Texas Legislature when it’s in session always makes for interesting news.

That said, I like the idea of archiving the posts from the 2004 election coverage and making them available for historical purposes. PDF, Zipping the archives, etc.

Posted by: elgato at November 4, 2004 02:34 PM

Election 2004 should be archived (with, hopefully, copies of all of those stories linked to that will soon disappear or hide behind expensive access.)

It might be too early for Election 2008 (although I know people working on it.)

But “Politics and Elections” are the ways we keep from shooting at each other with or without armies, and deserve more attention than the horserace reporting that they usually get.

There are many more elections coming — Iraq 05 comes to mind — and they should be covered, too.

And many thanks to all of the contributors; this has been a very useful site, and that is due to your hard work.

Posted by: htom at November 5, 2004 09:56 AM