the rix mix

You mean I actually have to, you know, like go somewhere to vote?

A few years ago I was chatting with a local Dem party activist about GOTV stuff at the town & ward level, & asked him about new voters & young voters. He said that new voters are good if they'll vote for your party, but any candidate depending on young voters for a winning edge had a bad strategy. Why? Because at GOTV time he can't find them when he needs them. They aren't home. They aren't at the senior center. They don't treat voting as a ritual obligation. They don't comprehend the full ballot top to bottom or know what's at stake. They are, in a word, unreliable. He doesn't even like recommending them as poll workers. He uses older people who already know the routine, are easy to train, & don't mind the long, tedious day.

That's where I've always been suspicious of Obama's campaign - the young Obamaniacs, those huge cheering crowds crowning him president after the warmup band & celebrity introduction, but before a single vote was cast. I wonder, who are they? Who guarantees they'll mail in a ballot or show up at the voting booth? What if this "web" of support relies on one kid who won't bother to vote getting another kid to vote? What if it's like a snow day parent phone network that isn't set up to cover for the screwups on the list? What if there's thousands of kids texting each other & the messages are like this:

wanna vote?
can't ordering pizza
what
sausage
add peppers hot wings too
money?
yes cya in 15
no beer here
4 in my fridge
ok bye

.
In 2000, Bush lost the popular vote & won the election. In 2004, Bush won solidly on popular vote & nearly lost the election. 270 electoral votes, each state winner take all. Close is no cigar. Doesn't matter how large Obama's margin in New York is, or McCain's in Texas. Neither of the candidates needs a "youth vote" in those states.

Undecided Voters: I can't figure these people at this point, unless they're Repugs sick of George W. & desperately wanting to vote for "change" but are really torn about voting for the candidate who most definitely will provide it. Otherwise, what are they trying to decide? That they'll vote for Barack if between now & Tuesday they can convince themselves that he's not a socialist or secret Muslim? Flip a coin on the condition of McCain's health? It won't help now to read the fine print in the "issues" pages of the candidates websites. That's stuff you research in the primaries, keeping in mind that most of it won't happen. Think 8 years of presidential orders & directives affecting every federal agency, that Obama will review in detail & McCain will not. Think of the thousands of bureaucrats - political commissars actually - Bush installed throughout the Federal system where they ride herd on - to take one example - NOAA scientists by not permitting them to speak freely on global warming. Obama will fire, demote, & exile these bureaucrat termites, McCain might shuffle them around a bit.

Sure, Democrats have a liberal agenda for many agencies. But the Repugs' politicized every level & facet of government, including The White House Office of Faith Based & Community Initiatives, which almost immediately became a shameful system of partisan hand outs. For many government functions, Obama's goal will be to get the hacks & ideologues out & hand them back over to the professionals.

Labels: THE election