Three days to go and I don’t think Nov. 4 will go quickly or cleanly.
The essentials of this election have all the markings of a bad episode of West Wing: 14 percent of voters are undecided three days out, voter fraud on both sides is already happening, Ohio is using an unprecedented number of provisional ballots–fertile ground for endless lawsuits if the state is close, the polls are all over the map, the media is unabashedly in bed with one candidate, and thousands of radicals on both ends of the political spectrum feel it necessary to call anyone who does not agree with their viewpoint stupid.
Yet, the final measure of an election is not what happens in the opinion polls or on the news shows or on weblogs but what happens at polling stations around the country on Nov. 4. It does not really matter what party faithful or ideological adherents or media pundits think, but what the American people think on that day.
I think we might surprise ourselves in a few days with the conclusion we come to as a people. I also think that a great many of us have not put the kind of real thought into this election that it really warrants. Whatever decision we make, it will have consequences that reverberate for decades beyond Nov. 4. That is something to consider before we go vote.
In the mean time, be prepared for a late night come next Tuesday. This one might not be over until the Supreme Court sings…
