There's a little voice in my left ear that says we're going win huge across the board in November;

[Seabiscuit]

and there's a little voice in my right ear that says the Repukes will find some way to rally their knuckledraggers in record numbers and make all the races close enough to steal with their hackable voting machines again.

After eight years of drowning in depression about it all, it's hard to listen with my left ear any more no matter how hard I try.

Is anyone else feeling as conflicted and exhausted as I am?

[Samantha]

1. I am exhausted but I think Obama will win in a landslide

People are just in too bad a shape not to vote Democratic this year. Put that aside for a moment (the undecideds) and there are just too many people coming over to his side of the fence because they believe in his message.

It's difficult to see how McCain can compete against this.

Sam

[ejpoeta]

2. you'd be surprised

there are plenty of people who vote against their own self interests every election. Then they wonder how they always end up getting screwed by washington. they are people like my family members who mistakenly think they are on the winning side of the republicans ideals. But, unfortunately, they are not. And they find that out every two years.

If it is any consolation, my brother and brother in law seem to be of the mind that they won't even vote. Though I do not like that line of thinking, and even if they did this is new york, so it wouldn't matter much.... but there seems to be a dissatisfaction with mccain as the republican nominee.

Someone wrote a post regarding mccain being a sacrificial lamb of sorts. I am wondering about that myself, because Bush mentioned that Jeb would be a great president. Wonder if they are going to get him into a position to go against obama in 2012.

[Samantha]

4. I am not surprised - I come from the same type of family

But by 2012 "Bush" will still be a four-letter word, just one generally recognized by more people as such. I believe by that time the political name of Bush will be pure anathema to the American people in general - not just liberals.

[Seabiscuit]

8. Speaking of family,

my wife has some distant relatives in Escondido, CA who are such 21 percenters that they still blame the aftermath of Katrina on the "incompetent" Mayor of New Orleans (because he was black and a Democrat) and the AA's who died there for not lifting themselves out of the mud by their own bootstraps and getting out of town in time. Who still regurgitate Sean Hannity's message that it was a good thing that their houses were destroyed because they were nothing but "shacks". Incredible as it may seem, there are still seemingly countless numbers of weirdos like this in America who think they're perfectly normal and that anyone who doesn't think Rush Limbaugh is the best thing since apple pie, and who is not willing to kiss the ass of the "Commander In Chief" at every opportunity is an unpatriotic far-left liberal hippie "Bush hater". Oh. And a "communist".

That's what the MSM has spawned.

[Buck Rabbit]

22. The 2012 election is insignificant, this election is the one that counts.

The winner of this election will determine whether we have a mind numbing ultra conservative supreme court for the next 20 years or more. An Obama win will not cause a shift to a liberal court because the Justices almost certain to leave in the next four years are all liberal, but a McCain win would allow the conservatives to donate the court for a generation.

I also am confident that with an Obama win we will be out of Iraq and at least talking to Iran before 2012.

[LanternWaste]

16. I'm expecting a blowout on par with the 1992 Superbowl

I agree. It's not simply a political sea-change that's been going on for a couple of years, but an entire shift in our cultural perspective. The compassionate conservatism era that Reagan ushered in is being replaced by a moderate progressive mood. It's clear to the rank and file voter that Iraq, the economy, the environment have a priority over their distrust/distaste for new taxes.

The mouthpieces of the GOP (talk radio) are more and more often laughed at rather than listened to. The GOP chained tethered their horses to radio, and never realized that the internet, a force much more powerful than radio would be the next logical progression for inexpensive mass media.

The clincher comes in the GOP nominee. Hit FR and check out the threads on this guy-- they hate him almost as much as they hate the Clinton's. Post after post that reads as no more than a variation on a theme, "I'll hold my nose and vote him". The GOP lacks money, faith in itself and its message, and a strong nominee. That they are attempting a corporate rebranding of their identity speaks volumes.

Electoral fraud will be impossible without the support they've had in the past. The GOP has divided its base, and even the Evangelical crowd is re-examining its alliance with the Republics. Too many people and too many organizations with too much money will be examining in minute detail the November election.

I'm expecting a blowout on par with the 1992 Superbowl with the Democrats taking the role as the Dallas Cowboys.

[Spider Jerusalem]

3. Not at all.

Remember 1992? 'It's the economy, stupid.' The economy is going to be the number one issue in this election. Not the war, not the threat of international terrorism. And a recent Washington post poll had some VERY interesting results: when asked who they trusted to better address economic issues, 52% said Obama vs 36% for McCain; and a solid plurality said the economy waqs the #1 issue going into the November election. I'm not worried, but that doesn't mean I'm complacent, either.

[Tesha]

5. A'yup.

> Is anyone else feeling as conflicted and exhausted as I am?

A'yup!

IMNSHO, it's going to be a close call as to whether
or not sensible Obama-supporting Republicans outnumber
racist McCain-supporting Democratics. Our country stands
poised on a knife's edge and could tip either way, but
the consequences of this election are likely to be both
massive and very-long-lasting.

And the media will do what they always do: rig the
stories and coverage volumes in an attempt to keep
the "horserace" close, thereby enabling them to sell
the maximum quantity of the daily fishwrap. And
by keeping the race close, this enables the Repub-
licans to be well within "stealing distance" come
November.

Me, I wish I could just hibernate until the whole
thing has long since become history. Waking up in
the 23rd Century or so sounds just about right...

Tesha

[Seabiscuit]

7. Hibernation... hmmm....

I wouldn't mind waking up in a small village in the hills of Tuscany. :)

[gblady]

18. yum......

sounds heavenly to me!

[iconicgnom]

6. hmmm, I get it in stereo

[goldcanyonaz]

9. I hear voices too, but none about the election thus far

One voice says *cheesecake* and the other says *fatty*

[NotThisTime]

10. I agree with you, but I had a good friend who backed Clinton that Obama would win in a landslide....

My husband says the same thing, Obama in a landslide.... somehow I can't imagine it will be a landslide if he wins... I just don't think America has woken up yet...

[Seabiscuit]

12. Yep. As long as there's one freeper out there it's one freeper too many.

And this blinkin' country is chock full of freepers.

[NotThisTime]

21. I think you have it exactly right....

[RichardRay]

11. I keep telling them to shut up (the voices, both of them).

The 'looking good' voice is way too early to believe, the 'how did they do that' voice is pure fear. I'm trying to maintain equanimity for a few more months before I start listening.

[DerekJ]

13. hmmm...Get yourself checked ASAP!!!

:P

[Blue-Jay]

14. I'm surprised you didn't put that little voice on ignore!

:rofl:

[Seabiscuit]

24. LOL!

[Abacus]

15. Not particularly

http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-votemap,0,2338623.htmlstory?usergen=111100010111111011111000111110110011000001000000010

[beac]

17. It's not the knuckle-dragggers I worry about as much as the

software writers. It's still too easy for them to steal the election without leaving a fingerprint. :scared:

[boomerbust]

19. At a Thanksgiving gathering

back in 2004 I had a nephnew tell me he voted for Bush because of the guns. Guns? I asked him, Ya because he heard that Kerry was going to take away everybodies guns. This from a person who never owned a gun in his life.

[mnhtnbb]

20. I thought Kerry would win in a landslide--and I wasn't a Kerry fan.

I do not see the people currently in power giving it up. Hubby and I have been watching
documentaries about RFK, JFK, Martin Luther King Jr., and reading of the jackals that
successfully took out leaders of other countries. We both fear for Obama. I hope he can trust
his SS detail.

[Danger Mouse]

23. I think Obama will win by a significant margin.

But I think it's foolish to underestimate the dirty tricks the republicans can and will play, so I still worry.

[Orsino]

25. The stealing won't come from rallying actual voters.

It'll be in the lies they tell until November that go unchallenged by the MSM, and in Congress' failure to secure those goddamned voting machines. It's in the control the Executive Branch still has over the Department of Justice, which will prevent any investigation of the crimes they'll commit in tipping the scales toward the GOP. It's in the way we'll all just want to put the Bush era behind us and won't get around to prosecuting anyone after the fact.