10.31.04
2 days to the election, and its like dejavu all over again from 2000 with it too close to call. A couple good poll tracking sites, and one from the LA Times that shows updated national and state polls. Also, another good site from Jase.
There is a lot of campaign lore, statistical arguements what not. A couple come to mind that I think might tip the election: The sheer number of battleground states, especially the more recent ones . Hawaii always goes for the Democrat, in the past 50+ years of statehood, with the exception of for Nixon in 1972 and Reagan in 1984, both landslide republican victories. Also, the Redskins game before the election. Apparently if the Redskins win, then the incumbent party stays in power. In recent history at least if the Redskins win has corresponded with the type of victory as well. Apparently they blew out their opponents in 84 and 96, as did Reagan and Clinton. So I guess theres one more reason to cheer for the Packers today.
This campaign has had its fair share of trash talk, cheapshot ads, mudslinging, wolves and birds, Vietnam vets, military wives, lots of burning 9-11 rubble, flipflops and misleader-ing, all that amounts to a political partisan headache among other things. Talk about mudslinging, check out the Hawaii mayoral race. I got an email from some listserv about some shady past of one of hte mayoral candidate’s wife. Anecdotally, I have heard some shady things about him, but this is the first I’ve heard about any of this sort of thing. The thing was that a lot of people back home have been looking for a new mayor to clean house, with all fo the Harris scandals, if any of this stuff is true, then it doesn’t look very good for the city and county of Honolulu.
This of course is all in light of the ongoing war, which is going to heat up as operations continue to root out insurgent strongholds. I’m sure that caught in the crossfire will be more civillians to add to the more than 100,000 already killed since the war started. The one thing that is discouraging for sure is that both candidates are caught up in this tough guy stance towards this ill-defined war on terror. Last I checked, you can’t really wage war on a noun. It may be the time to finally take a long hard look at our foreign policy and long term goals and decide whether our present course has the liklihood of producing an outcome that is preferable or unacceptable.
Random links/articles/photos off the subject of the election. Nintento sues some alternative version of friendster for some members using their trademark game character’s names in a risque fashion. Apple comes out with a new color ipod, and Bill O’reilly gets sued for sexual harrassment. And of course, an analysis of MM’s stance on Internment, and a very good good response to her pipikanekukai in general.