Yesterday afternoon after work, I went over to our county Board of Elections office to early vote, assuming that I'd whiz right on in and right on out again in minutes. Boy, was I wrong! There was a very long line of people waiting to vote who probably made the same assumption as I did, even on a cold and miserably rainy day. It did take a while to be able to get in and cast my vote, and I was disappointed to see that we were supposed to use the controversial Diebold touch-screen voting machines. I had assumed we'd use paper ballots in the old fashioned manner that would then be put in a box and stored in a safe until Election Day (that's what someone told me would happen if I early voted). Well, turns out we voted the same way we would have had we gone to the polls on November 4th. The Board of Elections folks told me that it had been a relatively light turnout day compared to what it has been since early voting began on September 30th. Still, there were lots and lots and lots of people and a good long line, meaning that interest in this election is very high, so much so that there are predictions of a record 80% turnout! Good turnouts typically favor Democratic candidates, so I hope that all of us of that party affiliation are out there getting out the vote and voting ourselves! Depending on which polls you're paying attention to, Obama's either got a double digit lead, or he's running neck-and-neck with McCain.
Here in Ohio, it's literally neck-and-neck, down to single digit percentage points. The candidates have been barnstorming Ohio in recent days and will be back in our state in the coming days to "close the argument" for their case for being voted our next President. Naturally, McCain is throwing everything he can at Obama, accusing him of fomenting socialism, of being just another tax and spend liberal, of "spreading the wealth" by taking people's money away and proposing job killing tax increases and so on. It's the same nonsense we've heard all along from Republicans for far too long now, and their legacy in this administration has been one big disaster. Naturally, as a result of our economic crisis, due to the terrible economic, free-market, deregulation policies of the Bush administration, McCain in recent days has tried to distance himself from Bush even though he has recently proudly admitted voting with Bush over 90% of the time in favor of Bush policies. All of which means that a McCain-Palin administration will basically be more of the same crap we've dealt with in the past 8 years. I don't know as Obama will have an easy time of it cleaning up the Republican mess left behind if he wins next week, and he's as much told us that it won't be easy, and not to expect overnight results. Here in Ohio, we really need change badly. We're an old industrial state that has seen its economic base eroded as heavy manufacturing has moved out of the state and gone south and to China and anywhere else cheap labor can be found. As a result, our state budget is in deficit and our job situation is grim. Unemployment is at 7.2% as of September and who knows what it will be this month. But it doesn't look good, and as you can see, a goodly chunk of the state is red and only a small portion is blue and the rest are "purple swing counties" that could go one way or another, depending on how people feel about the current economic crisis at hand. Well, with millions of people like me voting early, it bodes well for a Democratic victory next week, so let's hope that people don't continue to vote against their own self interest and instead look at their wallets and make their decisions on whether they are better off now than they were four - or even eight - years ago. Not many of us can say that we are, and I'm willing to bet that the good majority of us are not. I hope that this will tip the scales in favor of a big Democratic victory, but only time will tell. Next week will be the deciding factor as the still undecided voters finally start making their choices as to who they will vote for. They are the key to this election. Let's hope that they vote their pocketbooks instead of giving into fear and voting the wrong way. After all, Franklin Delano Roosevelt said it best when he told fearful Americans at the dawn of the Depression: "We have nothing to fear but fear itself!"
Yesterday afternoon after work, I went over to our county Board of Elections office to early vote, assuming that I'd whiz right on in and right on out again in minutes. Boy, was I wrong! There was a very long line of people waiting to vote who probably made the same assumption as I did, even on a cold and miserably rainy day. It did take a while to be able to get in and cast my vote, and I was disappointed to see that we were supposed to use the controversial Diebold touch-screen voting machines. I had assumed we'd use paper ballots in the old fashioned manner that would then be put in a box and stored in a safe until Election Day (that's what someone told me would happen if I early voted). Well, turns out we voted the same way we would have had we gone to the polls on November 4th. The Board of Elections folks told me that it had been a relatively light turnout day compared to what it has been since early voting began on September 30th. Still, there were lots and lots and lots of people and a good long line, meaning that interest in this election is very high, so much so that there are predictions of a record 80% turnout! Good turnouts typically favor Democratic candidates, so I hope that all of us of that party affiliation are out there getting out the vote and voting ourselves! Depending on which polls you're paying attention to, Obama's either got a double digit lead, or he's running neck-and-neck with McCain.
Here in Ohio, it's literally neck-and-neck, down to single digit percentage points. The candidates have been barnstorming Ohio in recent days and will be back in our state in the coming days to "close the argument" for their case for being voted our next President. Naturally, McCain is throwing everything he can at Obama, accusing him of fomenting socialism, of being just another tax and spend liberal, of "spreading the wealth" by taking people's money away and proposing job killing tax increases and so on. It's the same nonsense we've heard all along from Republicans for far too long now, and their legacy in this administration has been one big disaster. Naturally, as a result of our economic crisis, due to the terrible economic, free-market, deregulation policies of the Bush administration, McCain in recent days has tried to distance himself from Bush even though he has recently proudly admitted voting with Bush over 90% of the time in favor of Bush policies. All of which means that a McCain-Palin administration will basically be more of the same crap we've dealt with in the past 8 years. I don't know as Obama will have an easy time of it cleaning up the Republican mess left behind if he wins next week, and he's as much told us that it won't be easy, and not to expect overnight results. Here in Ohio, we really need change badly. We're an old industrial state that has seen its economic base eroded as heavy manufacturing has moved out of the state and gone south and to China and anywhere else cheap labor can be found. As a result, our state budget is in deficit and our job situation is grim. Unemployment is at 7.2% as of September and who knows what it will be this month. But it doesn't look good, and as you can see, a goodly chunk of the state is red and only a small portion is blue and the rest are "purple swing counties" that could go one way or another, depending on how people feel about the current economic crisis at hand. Well, with millions of people like me voting early, it bodes well for a Democratic victory next week, so let's hope that people don't continue to vote against their own self interest and instead look at their wallets and make their decisions on whether they are better off now than they were four - or even eight - years ago. Not many of us can say that we are, and I'm willing to bet that the good majority of us are not. I hope that this will tip the scales in favor of a big Democratic victory, but only time will tell. Next week will be the deciding factor as the still undecided voters finally start making their choices as to who they will vote for. They are the key to this election. Let's hope that they vote their pocketbooks instead of giving into fear and voting the wrong way. After all, Franklin Delano Roosevelt said it best when he told fearful Americans at the dawn of the Depression: "We have nothing to fear but fear itself!"
1 comment:
Bush gave two big tax cuts and that didn't seem to help the job market.-I hope that Obama pulls it out on Tuesday.-Somehow, I think there are powers in work behind the scene trying to thwart his victory.
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