Less than a week to go

I can’t take this. I have never been so emotionally tied up in an election and it’s driving me nuts. I’m absolutely obsessed. I cringe at every piece of bad news and mumble “I hope they’re right” at every piece of good news.

Nothing really has changed as far as I can see it. It’s still all about Pennsylvania. If McCain loses Pennsylvania then that should do it. He may even win Pennsylvania and still lose. Slate has Virginia firmly in the Obama camp and it looks like Nevada is on the verge of joining Iowa, Colorado and New Mexico in the Democratic column.

Assuming all of those states do in fact go for Obama, and he carries all the Kerry states other than Pennsylvania, that would be 270 electoral votes.

Obama gives his half hour Infomercial tonight. I think it’s the right thing to do but there’s the old saying, if it ain’t broke, than don’t fix it. We shall see what we shall see.

In the meantime McCain and Palin continue to lie, cheat and steal. I mean, political spin ok, but outright lying? I’m simply flabbergasted by the number of media organizations and individuals that have had to stand up and criticize the McCain campaign’s statements and ads. Forty workers at a telemarketing firm in Indiana walked off the job, without pay, rather than make calls about Obama being easy on criminals that the McCain campaign had paid for. Then there was the McCain campaign worker who made up a story about being attacked by a black man which, almost unbelievably, the McCain campaign tried to cash in on and then lied about trying to do so.

Yet, the man remains confident that he will win both Pennsylvania and the election. I read a memo from a McCain pollster explaining, statistically, why the public polls are actually way off and the election is in fact too close to call.

In the 2000 election, when we still had confidence in things like projections and exit polls, when the networks called Florida for Gore, I pretty much assumed that was a done deal. I had never remembered the networks calling a winner and then having to retract the call. Still, I remember clearly an interview with George Bush after the call and he was supremely confident that he would win Florida just like McCain appears supremely confident that he will win Pennsylvania.

Of course, McCain doesn’t have Katherine Harris and brother Jeb Bush to help him out like Dubya did.

Still, there’s enough criticism to go around and most people, including myself, tend to focus on things which support their pre-conceived notions.

I’m nervous as hell about this election and I just want it to be over so I can either celebrate or begin the healing process. Enough with the preliminaries already, LET’S FIGHT.