Early indications
I voted at 6:30 this morning, and the signs did not look good. Pretty much everyone there looked like stinky liberals. I think there was only one other white male voter present, and he walked kinda funny. And no, that's not a reference to his sexual orientation. I literally mean he had trouble ambulating. He also appeared to be about 100 and perhaps had the beginnings of senile dementia, as poll workers had to help him about three times before he finally cast his vote. Come to think of it, maybe he was a McCain voter after all.
Comments
There's one big thing I don't understand about polls: the polling organizations all claim to draw from a representative sample of voters by phone, but ... pretty much everyone I know has caller ID, and when a robocall or other unrecognized number pops up, they let their answering machine pick it up. Or, they don't even have a home landline and use cell phones instead. So who is this magical representative sample? People with nothing better to do than to talk to pollsters? Or people who don't have/can't afford caller ID? It all makes me wonder if there is a 21st century "Dewey Wins" http://content.zdnet.com/2346-9595_22-173287-2.html
headline in the making.
Posted by: Benny Lava | November 4, 2008 08:08 AM
Well, you do live on the NE corridor. Actually I just heard that Christopher Shay is the last Republican standing in New England. I had no idea (not that you live in New England, but that is kind of what you're up against).
Posted by: K | November 4, 2008 10:06 AM
Close. That old man wasn't a McCain voter. He was the McCain voter.
I've paid somewhere between $500k and $1MM to the various gov't entities over the years, and am stuck here with still working all the time, perfect credit, never been 1 day late on any payment for anything since my first account in 1987, and wondering how in f**k I'm gonna send three kids to college.
Now I know. If I quit working right away, stop paying all my bills and preferably develop a nasty drug habit due to my "financial predicament," I'll be front and center eligible for all the programs of the New New Deal, and I'll get free medical care (free to me at least), free legal advice (credit counseling and Chapter 13 so I can keep my stuff after I use up those $100k credit limits), my bank will be banned from foreclosing on me, and my kids will go to college on the nickel of whatever idiots are left clinging to the archaic "personal accountability" dogma, working their fool asses off at multiple jobs while I try to decide what I want to do that day.
Sweet. Life is good. I turned in my resignation at my job last Friday (I swear t'God).
Turns out Galt's Gulch is not a physical location, but is rather a state of mind. And separating from acting as a provider mule is actually only a partial step, the further step is to actually jump up on the wagon and ride with the other entitlees. Entitlees, is that a word?
Oh and Barry, speaking of John Galt, have you heard the whispers that Greenspan never renounced his allegiance to Rand, and we are actually witnessing the unfolding of a huge longer-term plan? Good conspiracy fodder for something to talk about after our New Messiah is formally coronated.
Posted by: Will | November 4, 2008 11:12 AM
>Oh and Barry, speaking of John Galt, have you heard the whispers that Greenspan never renounced his allegiance to Rand, and we are actually witnessing the unfolding of a huge longer-term plan?
Excellent! Prepare to initiate Operation Shrugging Atlas!!
Posted by: BNJ | November 4, 2008 11:31 AM
Voting looks incredibly heavy.
GREAT weather and lots of people motivated to turn out.
I had to get out and vote FOR my cousin, AGAINST one specific local candidate and, admittedly, tepidly for McCain....so did my wife, who was torn, having at least some ethnic pride in Barack Obama.
I know many will disagree with me (many have since May), BUT, while divided government would almost certainly be preferable in this case, I can also see an Obama win as a FINAL referendum on Liberalism.
IF they can't improve the economy and make all things peace and light, while controlling both Hosues of Congress and the Executive Branch, than let's call it what it is -an abject FAILURE.
If the Misery Index rises to double digits in 2009 (I know...it could actually top 10 THIS YEAR, with two months to go) and gets WORSE in 2010, I think that's about it.
I strongly disagree with Gary Barandt who seems to think a growing number of Americans are going to be willing to accept a "smaller but more equally divided economic pie."
We are a spoiled people and BOTH Obama and McCain have made ridiculous promises that neither can possibly keep.
Americans are NOT going to accept LESS prosperity (which is what a "smaller economic pie" is) and they are going to be viscerally angry if/WHEN they are let down....and doubly so, if things go from BAD (now) to WORSE (down the road).
So to me, an Obama win isn't "the end of the world," in fact, it's a chance to have a FINAL referendum on whether Keynesian Liberalism CAN WORK or not.
I am virtually certain that it can't, so I welcome the re-Carterizing of that ideology.
Only this time, can we make it "for good," and not just for a generation?!
Nothing an Obama administration DOES can't be undone.
BUT if McCain wins and winds up only sharing the blame for what appears to be an upcoming and very serious economic malaise, the effects of that may actually be much harder to undo.
For me, at least, there's no real good short-term outcome in this election.
Posted by: JMK | November 4, 2008 11:34 AM
Hey guys. Get ready. Later this evening we will start redistributing your wealth :-) Starting with Barry and his beers.
Posted by: Blue Wind | November 4, 2008 01:24 PM
a change is gonna come
oh yes it is
yes it is
Posted by: PE | November 4, 2008 04:46 PM