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Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Florida’s Crist believes in democracy
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Wow. A Republican who actually wants to help people vote.
Florida Gov. Charlie Crist has issued an executive order mandating that polls stay open 12 hours a day to handle the crush of early voters. “I have a responsibility to the voters of our state to ensure that the maximum number of citizens can participate in the electoral process, and that every person can exercise the right to vote,” Crist said.
Crist has also been frank about the existence — or more accurately, non-existence — of widespread voter fraud, the latest bugaboo advanced by his party to terrify its base into obedience.
”I think that there’s probably less [fraud] than is being discussed. As we’re coming into the closing days of any campaign, there are some who enjoy chaos,” Crist told reporters recently.
With such moves, Crist positions himself as a leader of his party’s sane wing. Unfortunately, that wing is rather small at the moment — about the size of a wing on the flightless dodo bird, as opposed to the size of a wing on a soaring bald eagle. But maybe that can change.
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Gallup says race tightening!
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Gallup’s numbers have tightened. Will that be reflected in other tracking polls as well?
PRINCETON, NJ — The gap between Barack Obama and John McCain in Gallup Poll Daily tracking from Saturday through Monday has narrowed slightly, and Obama is now at 49% of the vote to 47% for McCain among likely voters using Gallup’s traditional model, and at 51% to 44% using Gallup’s expanded model.
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… and you thought the D’s were hard on Palin?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
from Politco’s Mike Allen, author of the Playbook column, referring to Sarah Palin:
“In convo with Playbook, a top McCain adviser one-ups the priceless ‘diva’ description, calling her “a whack job.”
This is a week from Election Day. Heaven knows what’s going to happen once the election is actually over and people are more free to speak their minds.
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One week from today, world changes
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
It’s one week from Election Day. The polls have turned solidly toward Barack Obama and show no signs of reversing. Karl Rove’s own electoral vote map shows Obama with 306 electoral votes, well over the 270 minimum. Once-tight battleground states such as New Mexico, Colorado, Iowa and Pennsylvania appear out of reach for McCain, and he trails significantly even in Virginia. Recent polls put even Georgia in play.
In Congress, Democrats now believe the magic number of 60 Senate seats may be in reach, aided by the felony conviction Monday of Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens, long a Republican power in the Senate. The Republican House caucus is abandoning financial commitments even to incumbents, trying to defend what seats they can.
It is an ugly scene for the Republican faithful, and it doesn’t help much to see its two “running mates” running in opposite directions, with Sarah Palin now clearly setting her eyes on the prize in 2012.
Meanwhile, the market continues to struggle. Unemployment rises, along with foreclosures. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan drag on. The U.S. auto industry, long a symbol of industrial might, is collapsing. Across the country, across generational lines and political lines and racial lines, Americans are united by little except an understanding that we stand at a tipping point, what chaos theorists call a “phase transition” from one state to another. But none of us knows what that next state is likely to be.
One week from today, a new power structure will begin to emerge from the confusion and division of the past year. New leaders will assume new positions, promising new directions and results. It’s time. It’s past time.
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