I am one of these civics fanatics who thinks there is something very exciting and uniquely American about election day. One time when I was in high school I was listening to Rush Limbaugh on election day and he ended his radio program by saying, “by tomorrow we will know whether the country will become more conservative or more commie lib.” You may disagree with his characterization of the two sides but he sums up the point that in America, the people get to decide.
On most election days, I normally go to the polls the first thing in the morning. I didn’t do that today because it was raining and I had to prepare for my morning interview. But I fully plan on stopping by my polling place to vote later this afternoon when hopefully the rain would have stopped. There are no closely contested elections in North Carolina this year. My choices for Congress consist of the incumbent and the older brother of the pastor of my church. Mike Nifong, the Durham County district attorney who prosecuted the Duke lacrosse players, is in my district and on the ballot. Not sure if I will vote for him, his opponent (who wants you to vote for him even though he will not serve if elected), write in the name of the candidate endorsed by the Republicans, or write in something clever like Colin Finnerty. I am peeved that my home state is having the most exciting Senatorial election since Ollie North ran in 1994 and I am not there to participate (damn … if I had only gotten in to Dard … nevermind). This race has really been a big surprise. If you had gone to Las Vegas (or an online political futures web site) a year ago and made a bet that Senator George Allen would lose today, you’d make a five to tenfold return on your money.
Most of my classmates at Kenan-Flagler are either unaware or apathetic about today’s election. This morning I reminded a couple of my classmates that they had until 7pm to vote. One classmate jokingly said that if I was only going to encourage those who agree with me to vote perhaps I should send an email to the MBA Finance Club. Not a bad idea. And while I am at it, I should email Net Impact suggesting that its members stay home today and vote tomorrow when the weather will be much nicer.
Update: Oops ... I almost forgot to include my predictions. Comes January 1, I believe the makeup of the Congress will be 51-52 Republicans in the Senate and the Democrats will control the House by no more than 4-5 seats. And Buckyhoo will still not have accepted a full time employment offer.
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2 comments:
and who will be senator of va?
Too bad I did not see your comment until just now. On ABC News Tuesday night Gibson was saying that if Allen had not campaigned at all he would have won, that by campaigning he actually lost votes. That me thinking. I know hindsight is always 20/20 but a smart move on the part of George Allen would have been to come out a year ago and say the following:
“If I run again I will be re-elected. But I really want to be President and if I become President, there will be a vacancy which will be filled by the Democrat Governor, who no doubt will name a Democrat. Therefore in the purpose of protecting my party from a one seat loss and allowing my fellow Virginians to pick a Senator who will fill out the entire term, I am going to not run for re-election. Instead I will spend the year campaigning with candidates around the country and build my 2008 campaign.”
Instead Republicans in Virginia will spend the next 20 years pondering if only he had kept his mouth shut on that fateful August afternoon in Breaks, Virginia.
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