Final Election Thoughts

I'll be on call tomorrow, on the eve of the election, so I won't be going to a Bruce Springstein concert this time. (Apparently, though it didn't work for Kerry in Ohio in 2004, he's doing it again for Obama.) Instead, I'll be doing emergent pre-operative evaluations on the elderly who fall and break their hips on Election Eve. There are worse things to be doing in my distracted state of mind (MICU?).

But before I disappear into the hospital for 30 hours, I wanted to toss out a few disconnected pre-election thoughts.

• Election Day is way better than Christmas: Not only is it for everyone (except felons), but it only comes once every 4 years. And unlike Christmas, when you are likely to get nice gifts from friends and family, on Election Day there is always a possibility that you'll really get a lump of coal. And not just any chunk ... one that will stick around for 4 (or 8!) years. It's like fruitcake! Only your fruitcake doesn't show up on the front page of the national papers on a regular basis reminding you how you didn't get that cool thing you really wanted instead.


• Sarah Palin - the gift that keeps giving? Sarah in 2012? Please, pretty please, don't throw us in that briar patch! Let's see, she would be a second term Alaska governor running against ... an incumbent Barack Obama. (Or, more disturbingly, Joe Biden carrying forth with the legacy of an Obama Presidency.) By then, Barack will have solidified his national security credentials, and Sarah will have ... invaded Russia? Do you remember what happened with Dan Quayle after his ticket lost the election in 1992. Neither do I ....


• Hillary done in by a non-issue: It's amazing to think that Hillary's biggest flaw in the eyes of the Democratic primary electorate was her vote to approve the use of force in Iraq in 2002. That irritated the left-wing of the party, and gave Obama an issue to use to peel away idealistic voters. And now? Iraq is a complete non-issue. Barack's signature issue that defined him from Hillary ... is a nonplayer. How would Hillary do against McCain in the context of the economic turndown that has dominated the election since September? Quite well, I suspect. So yes, she could have been President. If I were her, that thought would keep me up at night.
  

  I wonder if she'll support a movement to shift the primary season so it is closer to the general election, as to lessen the chance of the issues changing so dramatically from the primaries to November?



• Atheists: don't bother running in North Carolina. Though the country was founded by a group of Christians, they had good sense to explicitly state in the Constitution that there should be no religious test for public office. Sure, it's tacked on near the end in Article VI, but it's there. Perhaps Senator Dole should be reminded of the wisdom of the Founders.


• Fortuitous Five? While door-knocking this afternoon, I found a five dollar bill on the sidewalk. No one was around, no clear owner. So I donated it to the cause.


• The spectrum of Obama's supporters: amazing. Today, I talked with naturalized citizens from Africa, Mexico, and Eastern Europe. But the best moment was when an older Vietnamese man told me (through his teenage daughter, who was translating) that he would be voting for Obama. His face lit up when I responded with the only Vietnamese that I know: cam on.


• My wildest prediction: Obama takes North Carolina. He'll also take VA, PA, OH, FL, CO, and NV. We'll know the election is over when they call NC for him. Or Colorado. Or Florida. Or Ohio.
  

  But he won't take Missouri.



• McCain's (only) path to victory: he manages to win Pennsylvania. And Ohio. And Florida. And Nevada. I suspect, however, that McCain's ritual early bedtime won't be disrupted by the need to wait for late results to come in before making the phone call to Obama.