mmcirvin: (Default)
[personal profile] mmcirvin
1. The early leaks of exit polls had bad sampling biases; CNN's final exit polls are a lot closer to the returns, except maybe in Nevada and New Mexico. Sorry, that's the way I'm seeing it. Kerry/Edwards shouldn't concede until the absentees and provos are counted in Ohio, but I don't see them getting a miracle and I don't see any obvious sign that the election was stolen. Republicans ran a really good, if hateful, GOTV campaign in Ohio and Florida, and Bush got a clear lead in the national popular vote; in the likely event that he wins it'll be because he got more votes than the other guy. Unfortunately this means that any meaningful electoral reform is probably going to have to come from the bottom up.

2. Screw bipartisanship. Democrats in Congress, etc. should use every clear and legal mechanism in their power to obstruct further obnoxious Republican initiatives (and they are essentially all obnoxious), even benignly named ones, and remind the country that whatever happens over the next four years belongs to the GOP. The tea leaves tell me that, in the age of Nancy Pelosi, this is exactly what they will do. The votes to start another impeachment circus aren't there, but they really ought to push forward on Abu Ghraib; there's no moral middle ground there.

3. I know a bunch of Bush supporters. They're not bad people; in general they're not stupid people. I would like them to watch closely over the next four years and consider if this was what they really wanted.

4. Leave the country if you want, I'm not gonna.

Date: 2004-11-03 04:21 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] mmcirvin.livejournal.com
I don't think Kerry should drag a bid to contest the election out for months, given how the totals look now. Given the exit polls (the final ones, not the mid-afternoon returns), he wouldn't have a plausible case that rigged Diebold machines did it or anything like that.

But I don't think he should concede without at least the absentee count, either. It's the principle of the thing and a signal that we won't get rolled.

Date: 2004-11-03 04:25 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] mmcirvin.livejournal.com
White House just claimed that Kerry called to concede a few minutes ago. We'll know more later, I guess.

June 2025

S M T W T F S
1234567
89101112 1314
151617181920 21
22232425262728
2930     

Most Popular Tags

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags
Page generated Jun. 29th, 2025 10:41 am
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios