Thursday, November 09, 2006

Congrats to American Voters!

I am happy that my strange feelings turned out to be wrong! :) The American electorate did give notice to the Bush Administration and sent them packing. My faith in the American democracy is restored....somewhat.
Now the ball is in the Democrats court. With both the Senate and House they have to show that they can get better results. Even if the president choses to veto their initiatives, just showing that they are capable of presenting a plan will help the party very much.
I am still reserved as to where the Country by and large is headed. It will remain to be see how different the new Democratic party will be. Article by Simon Tisdall in the Guardian sums up my position well.
Will the new Democratic party also get pulled to the right or will it be able to guide the country down a more pragmatic center?

Tuesday, November 07, 2006

Election gimmicks...

Just a day left. Will the Republicans manage to hold on to the majorities in the house and senate?
There is that strange feeling thats what will happen in spite of all the predictions. If it happens, the claim will be last minute canvassing by Bush, Saddams verdict, Kerry's joke, etc, etc. But really, I have to again bring up the possibility of GOP resorting to any number of dirty tricks to hang on to power. As I have posted before, I cannot imagine them giving in without trying all possible tactics, legal or not.
  • Electronic machines and Diebold. Lot of news on them. Machines showing republican selections in spite of user choosing democratic, etc, etc. Salon had a feature on it.
  • Scaring certain vote banks with false information. You will go to jail if you vote.
  • Robo calls to make voter negative on a candidate or give false information as to booth location
  • Saddams well placed verdict date. How can anybody possibly think that Iraq Court handing it down was independent?
  • Rejecting certain vote banks with extra indentity requirements
  • and many more..

There is no doubt that some of the tactics will push the numbers towards GOP. The only way they can be countered is if the gap is too much to overcome (> 5% in each contested seat). America will decide tomorrow whether they will stick with a bunch of demagogues or give them their notice!