Our thanks to those in the political game

Thanks to the 99 percent of the not-super-rich, the 47 percent Romney said would never vote for him, the 50.66 percent of Americans who actually did vote for Obama and the 61.7 percent of electoral college votes that reelected Barack Obama as U.S. President.

Thanks in particular to the other ethnic minorities, gays, youth and women who voted in large numbers with Obama’s base, helping to forge a new, more inclusive America and re-electing our courageous President, a great and good man who knows who he is, and remembers whom he is fighting for.

Thanks to the American people for not being as stupid as Fox News thinks you are and seeing through all of the lies, half-truths and deceptions spewed by Karl Rove and Mitch Romney and Paul Ryan.

Thanks to Nate Silver for showing Rove the door. He had been on the stage far too long.

Thanks to Vice President Joe Biden for keeping his mouth, approximately, on mission.

Thanks to Newt Gingrich, Rick Perry and Rick Santorum for doing to Romney what Obama wouldn’t have done on his own and to the Republican Party for ignoring Santorum and nominating Romney. i.e. the worst Republican to run against Obama, anyway.

Thanks to Fox News, the Obama fifth column and ultimate secret weapon. Fox trapped the Republicans in an alternate universe, a bizarro world where they spent a whole 2012 campaign in 1950s America. They even nominated Ward Cleaver! Fortunately for us the election was held in 2012.

Thanks to MSNBC for keeping the porch light on. It got pretty dark out there, didn’t it.

Thanks to the big dog Bill Clinton for helping to rout the Republicans and relieving the siege of Castle Obama that helped allow the true President to emerge. He did to Republicans what General Sherman did to the South and General Patton to the Germans!

Thanks to all hell for breaking loose after the November 6 election rather than before.

Thanks to Todd Akin for his candid answer to that question Charles Jaco asked him about rape, pregnancy and abortion. Thanks to Jaco for asking it.

Thanks to Russ Carnahan for proving that hateful, negative campaigns don’t work, especially when you surround yourselves with overpriced, out-of-town, out-of-touch hack consultants.

Thanks to U.S. Rep. Wm. Lacy Clay for proving by virtue of his huge margins of victory that the famed 1st District Democratic political organization still has juice, especially when it collaborates with other field campaigns.

Thanks also to Congressman Clay for establishing himself as the senior Member of Congress for our entire region, with enhanced power and remarkable access to the White House, the Governor’s Mansion, the County Executive’s Office and the Mayor’s Office.

Thanks to the feckless and foolish handful of black elected officials and some media types who backed Russ against Lacy for permanently soiling your reputations and zeroing out their political clout.

Thanks to Republican billionaire Rex Sinquefield for joining the likes of the Koch brothers and wasting millions of your dollars in seeking to dictate extreme public policy only to get a horrible return on your investment.

Grateful to the voters of Missouri for re-electing a “moderate Republican governor” in  Jay Nixon, over Republican political neophyte Dave Spence who is still trying to figure out whether Obama is a Muslim.

Thanks to Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster for giving a heads up to the black leaders in St. Louis who supported you to explain your dubious intentions on the George Allen Jr. case – not!

But we do sincerely thank Koster for leaving Ed Martin in the dustbin of has-been perennial losing political candidates.

Thanks to Jason Kander for defeating a Sinquefield-funded Voter I.D.-loving Republican for Missouri Secretary of State and – we trust – preserving free and fair election and ballot initiatives in this state.

Thanks to Judge Michael Manners for conducting a fair and informative evidentiary hearing of the Missouri Supreme Court for death row inmate Reginald Clemons.

Thanks to Speaker of the House Steve Tilley, oops Rush Limbaugh, oops Mr. Speaker for your “what goes on behind closed doors” leadership role on installing the Rush Limbaugh bust in the state capitol.

Thanks to Inspector Detector John Bowman for taking the initiative to pressure Muslim shopkeepers into taking down Jamilah Nasheed’s campaign signs on behalf of your boss, soon to be former state Senator Robin Wright-Jones, who lost anyway.

Thanks to state Rep. Stacey Newman for staying on the Voter I.D. issue, a major civil rights concern.

Thanks to state Rep.-elect Michael Butler and the other young street campaigners who set black voters on fire in the August primary. You could show the way to a new, awakened St. Louis.

Thanks to Mayor Francis G. Slay for doing a stand-up for our tribute video to our photojournalist Wiley Price upon entering the Missouri Photojournalists Hall of Fame. We understand we are not your favorite local paper.

Thanks to aldermanic President Lewis Reed for your willingness to give Slay a run for his (incredible huge tons of) money in the 2013 mayoral primary.

Thanks to Tishaura O. Jones for bringing a new clarity, intelligence, focus and conscious sense of our history to black politics in the City of St. Louis. Good luck reforming the Treasurer’s Office! Overturn every single garbage can!

Thanks to Brian Wahby for calling in old favors to raise over $200K and refusing to resign as chair of the St. Louis Democratic Central Committee in a presidential election year when your own name was on the ballot in a contested primary – just to come in last in a field of four candidates in the City Treasurer’s race anyway.

Thanks to Kacie Starr Triplett for stepping down from your aldermanic position – your heart isn’t in it anymore – and to Damon Jones for stepping up to run for the open 6^th Ward seat.

Thanks to Chris Carter for stepping up when we lost your uncle Greg Carter – the 27^th Ward needs you.

Thanks to St. Louis city voters for agreeing to downsize our bloated 28-ward system of city governance. Our grandchildren will thank you.

Thanks to Clint Eastwood for that thing with the chair. The out-of-touch irrelevance of your party was never so obvious.

Thanks to Post columnist Bill McClellan for publishing how you really feel about black males in St. Louis. We won’t return the favor and suggest that police profile grouchy old white men with a moustache, bed head and personal lapses.