Okay, this isn't funny anymore. Ohio is going to decide the next president, as Florida did in 2000. Well, hopefully not exactly as in 2000, with regards to the Supreme Court's intervention. Vernam gave in to exit-poll optimism, there's no denying. But the projected Kerry victory never jibed with predictions that Senate and House races would go to the GOP. Sure enough, we seem to have been sandbagged.
Fortunately, no one I know can get enough of the joy that is this 2004 election. Most of the networks, certainly, gave in to their urges and called Ohio prematurely for Bush. But some of them were backtracking by about 2:00 a.m. central, in the realization that over 200,000 ballots remain to be counted in that state. MSNBC's Pat Buchanan (playing the poor man's math-challenged, lunatic Tim Russert) went so far as to say, "It's hard to see how Bush can win if he doesn't hold Ohio." He pointed out that Bush got creamed in Pennsylvania but did well in Michigan and Ohio, both of which had a gay rights referendum on the ballot. Open season, etc.
But that's demagoguery for another day. Right now, there's a presidency at stake. Let every vote be counted.
Posted by Vernam at November 3, 2004 01:54 AM