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11/03/2004: "A Dark Day"
It seems my predictions were way off, that neither Florida nor Ohio were as close as I'd thought, that the GOTV efforts among young folks were not nearly as successful as I assumed, that what I perceived as the return of machine-like mobilization in urban areas did not work in Ohio or Wisconsin.
In fact, the only state that did what I thought it might was Pennsylvania, with high turnouts and a large number of split ballots, i.e., Kerry w/Spector and Gerlach (that evil sob, whose ads attacking Lois Murphy came right out of 1953.)
What we have to look forward to:
1. the evisceration of environmental protections
2. a mounting deficit and ever-increasing national debt
3. a war run by folks who have no reason to feel accountable
4. the appointment of several ideologically inclined supreme court judges
5. the rich folks be gettin' richer.
Lost amidst the positive outlook of the past few weeks are the flawed decisions made early on by the Democratic Party. One, an intellectual from Massachusetts (and probably New England) cannot win a national election. Holding the convention in Boston further exacerbated this issue. Note to self: Hillary Clinton in 2008 in not the frickin' answer.
Two, while I don't subscribe to Ralph Nader's notion that the two candidates were basically the same, Kerry really didn't separate his vision of the war and of the economy from Bush's. A close reading of their positions highlights very different starting points (pre-emption vs. global cooperation, admitting your deficit spending vs. lying) but I doubt that most folks could honestly tell the difference.
What kind of world my son will be facing in 2008...sigh.