Obama and McCain Election Edition Open Thread

BOJMplanes.jpgBoeing’s Back to Work
With 100% of union halls reporting, the IAM has voted 74% in favor of the new four-year contract. The strike officially ended last night with the beginning of third shift after 57-days. Analysts estimated $100-120 million in lost revenue daily. This could translate into $5.7 to $6.8 billion in deferred revenue that will eventually be recovered once the delayed aircraft are delivered.

Oh right, there’s another election on Tuesday…
Tuesday is ELECTION DAY. Just in case you’ve been in a coma for the last two years, Sen. Barack Obama is the Democratic Nominee and Sen. John McCain is the Republican nominee.

They’ve got issues
As far as aerospace and aviation issues go in this campaign, they’ve been pretty low priority on the list. Though here’s a smattering of other people’s assessments of the candidate’s positions and proposals:

Dollars and cents
Also a quick look at fundraising data supplied by opensecrets.org shows some interesting contribution trends from aviation related interests:

contributions.pngThe Air Transport Industry (Eg. airlines, advocacy groups) has donated $368,146 to Sen. Obama and $521,684 to Sen. McCain. The Defense Aerospace Industry (e.g. Lockheed, Boeing, Honeywell) has contributed $251,297 to Obama and $199,144 to McCain.

Opensecrets.com only has a breakdown of select companies and their
contributions, which include donations from individuals employed by
those companies, as well as contributions from their respective
political action committees. UPS, FedEx, GE, Boeing, Lockheed Martin
and AMR (American Airlines) are amongst the top contributors to both
candidates.

MAKE SURE TO VOTE

Lastly, make sure to vote tomorrow – November 4th! I’m voting at my local library tomorrow to put some weight behind Washington, D.C.’s 3 electoral votes.

Where do I cast my ballot? Find out here.
Don’t know when the polls close? Find out here.

This post was originally published to the internet between 2007 and 2012. Links, images, and embedded media from that era may no longer function as intended.

This post originally appeared at Flightglobal.com from 2007 to 2012.