Get Out and Vote, Then Despair
Patterico nails it. The absolute worst thing that could happen today would be for the Democrats to take both houses because 5% of all Republicans and Republican-leaning independents believed the polls (except maybe the most recent ones), wrote off the election as a lost cause and stayed home. The second worst would be for those same people to stay home or throw their votes away to teach the Republican Party a lesson. If you must do that, PLEASE confine such nose-face-spiting to local and state races, where any lessons learned by the party will not have repercussions for the millions of Americans across the country who didn’t need to be taught any lessons in the first place. Make no mistake about it: a vote for any Democrat for the House, however reasonable or middle of the road that candidate may seem, is a vote for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. A vote for any Democrat for Senate is much worse; it’s a vote to replace Justice Stevens with another Justice Souter for decades to come.
Oh yeah, and if any exit polling information is leaked while polls are open, ignore it. It’s almost certainly wrong; just ask Presidents Gore and Kerry.
Now go do the right thing.
UPDATE: OK, if you must despair first and vote second, here’s a good place to despair.
UPDATE: If you’re in the greater Richmond area, here’s a good place to share the despair after the polls close.
November 7th, 2006 at 10:00 am
[...] Senate: **drumroll** Bo Heyward. I did so not because I think Bo is a stellar candidate nor do I think my ideals line up with his (not even close). I did it because the Republicans fielded a terrible candidate. So, yeah, I threw my vote away to teach the stupid party a lesson. [...]
November 7th, 2006 at 10:28 am
I took great pleasure in voting for some unknown Republican candidate against the wicked witch from west of here (NY; Carpetbag Clinton). I just didn’t know who he was! The absolute lack of a campaign by the Republican candidate/party is discomforting.
Now to despair that she’ll be re-elected…
November 7th, 2006 at 3:54 pm
Whether or not the Democrats take control of the Senate, I think you’re dreaming if you think Bush is going to push any conservatives onto the court during the remainder of his term.
November 7th, 2006 at 7:32 pm
Steve, why do you say that? He’s kept his promises, so far, not just on Roberts and Alito but also on lower court judges and social conservative issues.
November 8th, 2006 at 9:24 am
Steve, you’re semi-right – I probably was dreaming about the Republicans retaining the Senate. I don’t think it’s at all unrealistic to assume that if they had, President Bush would have continued to appoint the same caliber of judicial nominees that he had been appointing up until now. Do you have any evidence he would not have?