Suppose McCain squeaks this one out, but that it smells bad, with polls overwhelmingly supporting Obama and mysterious late-night wins in battleground states. Imagine the blogs alive with talk of election fraud, the exit polls mysteriously off again with vote results far outside the margin of error, and all missing on the Republican side.
Imagine the black neighborhoods of the inner cities thinking that they’ve been denied once again. Imagine civil unrest. Since we no longer have a posse comitatus law, Bush calls out the military to enforce order. But riots break out in major cities, and some Democratic officials finally suspect something is amiss with our election system, but they do nothing – no recounts, no court challenges. There’s war in the streets, and right wingers, fully armed and angry, take it upon themselves to help restore order. There are unsolved murders. Rush and Hannity incite civil violence, Gordon Liddy reminds them to aim for the head.
Then we settle down and go back to sleep again.
Here’s what Bush has given us: Two unwinnable wars, an economy in the tank, huge income disparities, massive deficits, world wide contempt for the U.S. and its policies, a shredded Bill of Rights, and an electoral system that no longer reliably counts votes.
Four more years. I hope I’m wrong.
Piece of Mindful 
You are. Obama has got this thing.
No offense Mark, sincerely.
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think i know why you do this to yourself, mark. i have a saying when people ask me if i am disappointed. i always say that i never allow myself to be appointed in the first place. but have to agree with wulfgar. this election there is too much anger over bush for the dead elephant to get away with stealing this one.
in either case. it’s out of our hands now and way above my pay level to worry about. enjoy good sleep and have a great day tomorrow, Mark.
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>>>>Gordon Liddy reminds them to aim for the head
Lock and load, baby. Pry this from my cold, dead, fingers.
>>>>Here’s what Bush has given us: Two unwinnable wars…
Maybe it is time to find ways to win these things. History has forced these wars upon us, it is not all GW.
>>>>an economy in the tank
There are people out there who bought houses they had no business buying. There are people out there with credit cards who have no business having credit cards. If the populace is a bunch of looters, there is only so much the Pres. can do.
>>>>huge income disparities
We’re not that bad. There is a natural order here: 20% of the people have 80% of the wealth. 20% of the real estate agents make 80% of the sales. 20% of the salesmen make 80% of the sales. 20% of the musicians make 80% of the music. If you don’t like it, see mother nature.
>>>>massive deficits
You can hang some of this on GW, but see also Democrats and a populace that wants something for nothing.
>>>>world wide contempt for the U.S. and its policies
Always has been, always will be.
>>>>a shredded Bill of Rights
What can’t you say or do today that you could before?
>>>>an electoral system that no longer reliably counts votes.
Voting is a local affair. It is more reliable now than ever before, your belief in urban myths notwithstanding. It is under more scrutiny now, so we notice more. We would not have known about hanging chads except that someone cared to notice.
You have set yourself up for eternal disappointment. You imagine the Presidency has all this power to make you happy, and if you are not happy, it is because the President has dropped the ball.
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If we “win” in Iraq, who loses? (Hint – Iraqis. We were never interested in them.)
And your 80-20 rule is skewed more now like 91-9 and skewing – listen – I know how markets work. Wealth gets bunched up in a few hands – that’s natural. It has to do with luck and advantage and skill. Fine. We seek to undo that. The best system around is regulated capitalism with progressive and estate taxation.
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By the bye – those “urban myths” – think of this – our election system is largely Windows-based and heavily dependent on Excel. You think that people haven’t figured out how to hack it? They are way ahead of local officials. And remember – voting machine software is proprietary – local officials have no control over it. It’s an openly absurd system, easily hacked. And hacked it will be.
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>>>>If we “win” in Iraq, who loses? (Hint – Iraqis. We were never interested in them.)
We “won” in Germany, Japan, and South Korea and now they’re among the largest economies in the world. Maybe Iraq should take a hint and realize we are good for 100 billion a year or so. Bleed the beast.
>>>>The best system around is regulated capitalism with progressive and estate taxation.
I agree.
>>>>Wealth gets bunched up in a few hands – that’s natural. It has to do with luck and advantage and skill. Fine. We seek to undo that.
I appreciate your sense of fairness, but we have to be careful about “undoing”. The trick for a modern economy is to let the rich get richer, take our 1/3 cut, but also get them to reinvest in the economy in some kind of job creating manner. The old paradigm was a castle on a hill where gold was hoarded and meted out to sycophants. Now we have a modern banking system with a little more meritocracy about where the money goes.
The rich are “the geese that lays the golden eggs” and what we need to do is keep the eggs rolling out for everyone’s benefit.
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We have some fundamental disagreements, it seems. But not today.
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