Your Guess Is As Good As Mine

I was on the David Goldstein Show on KIRO radio last night, along with fellow local bloggers Will and Carl, for a roundtable discussion on Tuesdays election and we were asked at the end of the segment to give our predictions, and I just couldn’t do it. I have read the polls, I have seen the general numbers and the numbers on individual races and I know that a big wave is coming, that the Democrats will likely sweep into the House AND the Senate on Tuesday, but I’m just not sure that it will actually pan out that way.

I was shocked this morning (well, this afternoon really, I’m a bit under the weather today which could be a sign that the Democrats will win, since I’ll be too sick to attend any parties!) to find that Nancy Pelosi expressed concern over a fair counting of the votes on Tuesday. "That is the only variable in this," Pelosi said. "Will we have an honest count?'' At this point, she’s exactly right, it is the only variable, with a level playing field, it’s a no-brainer, the Democrats win, and win big. I hope this means that she, and other Democrats will be up for the fight if there are clear signs that the count wasn’t honest. They have, in the past, been too afraid to touch the issue and instead have been all too quick to go straight to self-flagellation and cries of “where did we go wrong?”

On the bright side, Move On has built an incredible tool for their Call For Change program that will be helpful in turning out the vote in all future elections (if you haven’t signed up, do so now and make a few calls). This is exactly the kind of infrastructure and coordinated effort that the left has been slow to implement. Now, any time there is an important race anywhere in the country, we can all pitch in from our own homes and I’m hopeful that Howard Dean’s leadership at the DNC will help implement the 50 State Strategy and build up the state and local Parties in a way that will allow Democrats to be competitive in every single district in the country. We have the strength of ideas, we just need the infrastructure to back it up.

The big question is, will the Democrats take over tomorrow? If there’s no hanky panky, most definitely they will. And if they do, I will have a whole new slew of things to write. As much as I’ve needed to rail against the Bush administration, I’d much rather be holding the Democrats feet to the fire. If they fail to take control of even one chamber of Congress, I’m not sure what I will do. I’m prepared for that eventuality. However remote it should be, it still feels like a distinct possibility. I’m tired of writing about our slide toward fascism, it would be great to focus on moving back in a positive direction, even if we are at the very bottom of the canyon looking up.