US Election Aftermath

A few interesting things from the US elections, both for state governor races and for the House of Representatives:

- First female Speaker of the House (leader of the majority party) in history, Nancy Pelosi. The Speaker is 3rd in line to the presidency, so you can make an argument that she's the most powerful woman in American politics in years.
- Bernie Sanders was elected as a senator from Vermont. Sanders was a long-standing Congressman, but he identifies as a democratic socialist, and he called in his campaign for universal health care.
- Arnold Schwarzenegger was re-elected as the govern-a-tor of California by distancing himself from George Bush and by embracing environmental policies over the last year
- 6 states passed ballot measures (state wide votes to bring in binding laws) on raising the minimum wage. The national minimum wage ($5.15, that's £2.70) hasn't risen in the US since 1997.
- The Democrats, with control of the House, are now pledging to implement all the recommendations of the 9/11 commission, raise the minimum wage, cut the interest rate on student loans by half, negotiate for lower prescription drug prices, end subsidies for Big Oil, and allow federal support of embryonic stem-cell research.