What More Can I Say?

(and extra points to whatever reader writes in to tell me without googling what musical that's from, who it's written by and what character sings it... UPDATE: Rocco Wins! yes that's right... It's from Bill Finn's Falsettos and "the gay guy" aka Marvin sings it... he wins... well, let's check back tomorrow and find out if he wins a good President or a kick in the nards by the almighty).

I feel like fretting in real time on this blog is sort of a waste of your time and mine. I mean, don't get me wrong. I am freaking. the fuck. out. Rachel Maddow's show last night on MSNBC didn't help.  She made some good points, most centrally about Virginia. Virginia is totally unprepared to be a swing state. They're looking at an average of roughly 350 voters per voting machine today.  In Ohio, the number of voters per voting machine is mandated by law at less than half that number.  Also, courts have refused to preemptively extend voting hours.

She then said that long lines are basically a poll tax. It costs money to wait in line for 6-8 hours to vote.  Poor people can't spend that money.  Another good point.

Then she said something so... erm... frankly stupid that I think it's worth highlighting.  She went after Obama for the 50 State Strategy, specifically for focusing on Indiana saying there's no difference between losing Indiana by one point or twenty points, and if Obama lost by 1 point it's still a loss. Horseshoes and hand grenades and the electoral college and all that. And while that's true in the limited sense that in the electoral college, losing is losing, it also misunderstands the far-sightedness of Obama and Dean's campaign philosophy.  Obama and Dean and the DNC aren't fighting to just win this election, they're fighting to help entrench the Democratic party and continue party-building efforts where we're still way behind the GOP.  Let's say for a moment that Obama wins but loses Indiana by one point instead of 20.  Sure, he lost Indiana, but at the same time, he set the stage to build bigger support in Indiana for his agenda and for Democratic party voters in the future. Indiana voters-- normally written off by a party that purports to represent their interests because they can't get enough of their votes-- will actually be included in the process.  This is a good thing.

Of course, this kind of long term party building strategy is completely deincentivized by the Electoral College, and this is yet another reason why we should just get rid of the damn thing already.  The counter argument is that Democrats will just GOTV in New York and California, but they're already ignoring plenty of small town voters in upstate New York because New York isn't a swing state.  

Comments

[Rocco]

Do we have to write in, or can we just comment? I think its from Falsettos. And if that's right then its by William Finn. And I'm also pretty sure the gay guy sings it.

What do I win? A good president?

[RLewis]

Come on, ya gotta take Maddow in small doses. Gesh, she still thinks Hillary is gonna jump in and take this election tonight. lol