DECember 2008 Black hole case study

Well, I’m flummoxed. Quite apart from any astrological prediction, on Tuesday, November 4, 2008, at approximately 10 AM EST, I performed an act which, if history is any guide, should have driven the final nail into the coffin of the Obama campaign—I voted for him.

In 30 years, I’ve only once cast my ballot for the winner in a presidential election, and if Obama can break that curse, then he may truly be, in the words of Oprah Winfrey, “the One.”

All that aside, it still seems unreal to contemplate the first black president of the United States, let alone another Democrat, after eight long, soul-deadening years of George W. Bush. The sense of hope and renewal in the country is palpable, with nearly 3 in 4 Americans expressing the opinion that Obama will be able to lift us from the looming economic collapse and set the nation back on the right track. Pluto entering Capricorn may have a thing or two to say about that, but hope is always preferable to despair.

Frequent readers of this column will recall that in the Election Preview of September, I gave the edge in this race to John McCain, based largely on a preponderance of asteroids which seemed to favor his cause. Most of my work in astrology is as a recorder, or chronicler of events, interpreting them in hindsight to determine their causes. As such, I have found asteroids to be extremely significant, but until now, I have been unable to determine whether their presence has been predictive of an outcome, or merely descriptive of what has transpired. I am now inclined to view them in the latter capacity, although John McCain did much better in the final voting than pre-election polling would suggest.

With an Electoral College victory of 364 to 173, Obama’s ranks with the Clinton era Democratic wins, but his popular vote margin of 6 points (52%-46%) makes him the only Democrat to win with an actual majority of the vote since Jimmy Carter (who eked out a 50.5% victory in 1976), as opposed to the Clinton pluralities created by Ross Perot’s presence on the ballot in 1992 and 1996. More than 133 million Americans came out to vote, making 2008 a record turn-out year, both in and of itself, and as the first time in over a century that turnout has increased in three consecutive presidential elections.

The large turnout was predicted galactically by the presence of both Jupiter (politics, expansion, increase) at 17 Capricorn and Mercury (the voter) at 29 Libra conjoined Black Holes, which often reflect record-making conditions. Both the Sun at 12 Scorpio, as representative of the day itself, and Saturn at 18 Virgo, ruling the office of the Chief Executive, were exactly squared Black Holes, indicating the history-making result, with America choosing its first non-white leader, and opening us to an alternate reality that I, personally, never expected to see in my lifetime.

It was probably the exact Saturn/Uranus opposition from 18 Virgo/Pisces on Election Day which was the most determinative aspect. In that conflict, Uranus/youth/change, as represented by Barack Obama, emerged triumphant over John McCain, tied to Saturn as the elder statesman, exemplar of age and experience, and further linked by the presence of asteroid Johannes in conjunction with Saturn from 17 Virgo. The exact square from the Election Day Sun to Obama’s natal Sun at 12 Leo apparently trumped the square to McCain’s Mars at the same degree, and the excitable, volatile Maser which conjoins both these planets played its role as well, creating a huge enthusiasm gap among supporters of the rival camps which favored Obama, while simultaneously pointing up the temperament defects in McCain’s character, who appeared angry and erratic. Asteroid Washingtonia conjunct Obama’s Sun that day from 13 Leo was another indicator of his victory, and asteroid Barry at 8 Scorpio, exactly conjunct Obama’s natal Neptune, indicated the attaining of a long-held dream for the little boy who at age 5 announced his desire to be president.

Key voter demographics can be seen celestially as well—Mercury and Venus, representing the youth vote and women, were both exactly conjoined Black Holes, and both demographics came out strongly for Obama. While voters in the 18-29 category only increased their numbers by 10% over 2004, which translated into a mere 1% additional share of the overall voting electorate, the difference in the split there was stunning. In 2004, Kerry took this demographic narrowly by 54%-46%, but in 2008 Obama swept them, 66%-31%, a 35 point margin blow-out over McCain. Obama also did better among women, boosted largely by an overwhelming hold on the black vote (which he took by 95%). He won the demographic by 12 points, 56%-44% (compared with Kerry’s 51-49 split with Bush in 2004), but did considerably less well among the subset of white women, whom he lost by 8 points (46%-54%).

A third key slice of the electorate, Hispanics, was also represented in the sky for the day, with asteroid Hispania at 11 Taurus retrograde opposed the 12 Scorpio Sun and forming a T-Square with the Black Hole at 12 Aquarius. In 2004, Kerry won Hispanics with a bare majority of 53%, while Obama’s sweep of 67% in 2008 was largely responsible for flipping New Mexico, Colorado and Nevada into the Democratic column.

Not that he needed them. As foreseen in the election preview, among the points clustered about the 13 Aquarius North Node for Election Day, representing the country’s future, were asteroids Ohio (at 12 Aquarius) and Indiana (at 14 Aquarius), and these proved crucial to the final outcome. Both went Democratic, Indiana for the first time since 1964.

In addition to representing the women’s vote, Venus acts as a marker of the money spent on the campaign, and the 2008 election goes down in the books as the most expensive ever, appropriate for an exact Black Hole conjunction at 19 Sagittarius, the sign ruling politics. An astounding $5.3 billion was spent nationwide on just the presidential and congressional elections, to say nothing of statehouse or governor’s races, local, city and county contests. This figure was up 27% from the 2004 race, where $4.2 billion was spent, and will set a high bar to be surpassed in 2012. The Obama campaign itself raised a record-setting $650 million (almost as much as the $690 million raised by both Bush and Kerry in 2004), and did so predominantly with donations of under $250, culled from more than 3 million donors.

Mercury on a Black Hole has been a significator of e-vote fraud since 2000, but there is little evidence of such in 2008, leading one to hope that these tactics may have been a Bush administration phenomenon, rather than an ongoing GOP strategy per se. The bizarre circumstances wrought by Black Hole interaction were well in evidence, however, in three remaining undecided Senate races. All three involve Republican incumbents, and this will be the place to look for e-vote fraud, should it yet rear its digitized head.

In Georgia, GOP Senator Saxby Chambliss and Democratic challenger Jim Morton shared the vote with a third party candidate, resulting in neither major Party candidate receiving the required majority of 50%+. They split the vote 49%-47%, and state law requires a runoff election limited to just these two candidates, which will be held December 2.

In Alaska, incumbent Ted Stevens, the senior Republican senator, who had just received a felony conviction from a DC jury on 7 counts of making false statements in connection with unreported gifts and services, is in an incredibly close race with Anchorage mayor Mark Begich. As of this writing, with some 35,000 absentee ballots still to be counted, Begich has just squeaked past Stevens by an 814 vote margin out of 305,000 cast. Should Stevens prevail, he will be forced to resign his seat if his felony conviction is upheld on appeal, but another Republican will be appointed to his place by Alaska’s governor, Sarah Palin, of whom you may have heard.

Minnesota’s Senate race promises to be the most bizarre of all, and is not likely to be decided before Christmas. At $36 million spent, it is also the most expensive in Minnesota history, and the most expensive Senate race nationally this year. GOP incumbent Norm Coleman currently leads Democratic challenger and former Saturday Night Live alum Al Franken by a mere 209 votes. When the margin of victory is less than 1%, Minnesota state law requires a mandatory hand recount, in this case, of all 2.9 million ballots, a Herculean task very appropriate to the energy-, time- and resource-sucking qualities of the Black Hole.

What of the infamous Bradley effect, whereby candidates of color underperform significantly on election day as opposed to pre-election polling? It would seem to be alive and well, although the mainstream media chooses to ignore the fact, and has done back-flips to assert, in direct contravention of the statistics, that it did not manifest. But in the week leading up to the election, most national polls showed Obama with anywhere from a 10 to 15 point lead, and his margin of victory was actually 6 points, so the effect appears to remain in force, although it did not alter the outcome.

Overall, it was a Democratic sweep, with 17 pick-ups in the House of Representatives, for a new majority of 259-176, and at least 5 seats gained in the Senate. Counting the two independents, Sanders of Vermont and Lieberman of Connecticut, who caucus with them, Democrats currently hold a 57-40 majority; should they sweep the three remaining undecided races, they will attain the filibuster-proof super-majority of 60. With both Houses firmly in their grasp, and a Democratic president at the helm, they will be able to clearly show the country just how effective, or inept, they truly are.

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