Well, I watched Rachel one more time, tonight Nov. 3 -- morbid curiosity? Maybe. But I really wanted to see if she would change her negativism that we've so thoroughly been discussing on Daily.Kos. And what did I hear....>?
"I for one do not think either side has this race in the bag," said R.M. Yes, McCain could win, or Obama could win, she went on. She fears the Reps. will steal the election and she was very eloquent on that subject.
Rachel gave a lot of impressive examples of how the Republicans historically have supressed voting, run fraudulent elections and just flat stolen votes. It's nothing we did not know. Yet, she invested the subject with renewed energy and stinging denunciation and disapproval. Good for her! Not that it will make a damn bit of difference, but it was good to have her come down so squarely on the side of fair elections. That has to be a big subject for action early in the Obama administration.
We have seen so many times this week photographs of very long lines, hours and hours of waiting for people seeking to exercise their right by early voting. Ohio is a good example (as usual); six hours in Columbus; people just give up and leave. But wait, this year Ohio has a good strong Democratic Governor, Secretary of State and U.S. Senator. That Senator, Sherrod Brown, was Rachel's guest tonight on "Talk Me Down." And he did to a degree -- in the face of Rachel's quaking fears about the neferious Republican 72-hour sneaky secret plan to yank the rug out from under the Democrats and guide McCain's walker into the White House; Sen. Brown did a fair job describing the excellent 'ground game' of the Obama campaign and detailed all good work being done by them in Ohio. Yet -- those lines!
OK, I've got to say -- Rachel has a very good point. Here is why I stressed the Dem. administration in Ohio -- why have they not provided additional voting machines to relieve the long lines; where there are two and three, even more, hours of waiting, why haven't they sent a lot of volunteers out with folding chairs so that anoyone needing to be seated as the line slowly progressed could be given that assist?; why haven't the Democrats or the League of Women Voters in Ohio done some community organizing along the lines of crowd management -- maybe something like this: radio and television announcements, If you are early voting today and your name begins with A through M, please come between 8 and 11 a.m. There will be portapotties, chairs for those who need them, hot coffee; if your name is N through Z, come after 11 a.m. and you will be assisted as much as possible----etc etc. See what I mean? NONE of that has been done in Ohio, that I am aware of. In Missouri, in greater St Louis, an area of well over 2-million people, there was ONE (1) polling place in West County where people could go to vote absentee. There is no early voting in MO. Well the Republicans have been running MO, so I guess that's why. But Ohio? No excuse!!! Come 2010 - there better be no excuses, anywhere! Got that Howard Dean? President Obama? Sen McCaskill? Do you hear us?
Rachel really has two subjects: The great problem of obstructed voting and the long-standing and infinitely corrupt practice of Republican voter suppression, and what she is really doing is asking: WHY? Why has this not been fixed? It so easily could be. The second issue she addresses is how important and what a big difference such practices are and can make in the outcome of an election. She couches her second point in rather dire terms and drones on about election "not in the bag," etc. etc. That part of it probably does not apply this year, so why the emphasis.
So....here is tonight's message to Ol' Rache: You are doing good work, but please be more positive. And with www.538.com advising this afternoon that there is a 98.1 probability Obama will win, with Kos predicting 390 EV for Obama, and with Carl Rove stating that it will be a "blowout" for Obama, citing Ohio, Virginia, Ohio, Florida, Colorado as sure to go for Obama -- why, why, why Rachelissimo don't you throw that in, maybe at the beginning of the show, in a kind of good-news/bad-news equation? Give us something to hold onto while you do the negative bit?
Now, you see, I have deplored Ohio practices just as much as you have, I've even suggested that the Dem. state administration has been at fault for not correcting the most obvious of problems -- a managed shortage of voting machines (ditto in many other states) -- so I wish you'd give me and about ten million other concerned citizens a ray of hope while we go about our work, either by coming out to give aid to the long lines (yes, you personally, on the spot!), or cutting the "it's not in the bag" rhetoric when All the World Knows that it IS!!!!!!
Long Live Freedom of Speech and President Obama!