It's Over -- Post Election #1

Someone tell the Kerry camp that it's over.

As the title would suggest I'm going to do a series of these. I'll let you know where I stand on some issues, and on some candidates. I do have a lot of opinions regarding this election. Some of them may be obvious, and others not so obvious. I do vote my gut most of the time, so I may not have the empirical rationalization that some of you may like, but that's how I vote. Please let me know what you think, so please post comments. With that in mind, I won't allow it to turn into "you're a right wing nut case" or "you're a pink-o commie" discussion.

First things first. I am most satisfied with the fact that the news and commercials can move on to something other than people claiming that your candidate is not good enough. We can get back to legitimate commercials for feminine hygiene products and hair transplant procedures, and serious news stories about how a crazy woman had 57 cats living with her in a one bedroom apartment. Thank god for TIVO!

I am disappointed though with the news coverage, and how the states are handling it. It's now Wednesday morning, and a winner hasn't been declared. Last nite all of the networks wanted to be the first to have the results. Yet this morning, even though the results are obvious, they aren't calling it. And it's all because of the state I live in (Ohio).

Let's look at the numbers from Fox News. They have called Ohio for Bush. I don't dispute the results. Yet we all know that there is a question mark by the Ohio results (However improbable that question mark is). With that in mind, it gives Bush 269 electoral votes, one short of having the 270 needed to win. Now on the other hand, Fox News is not calling the Iowa election. The report that Bush has a lead of approx. 25,000 votes, and 100% of precincts reporting. Seems like a done deal to me, yet they don't call it. Why? Well if they did, then they would have to call Bush the winner of the whole thing. But what if for some reason Ohio's results swing the other way. Then they have egg on their face. They would rather have to change the outcome of one state, rather than the whole country.

Now, I'm not picking on Fox News. It appears that all of the networks and news organizations are in the same boat. Others just claim that Ohio is still in play, while they have called states that would have less of an impact on the overall outcome.

In my opinion, we should take away from this media circus. I think we should ban the release of election results until they have been certified.

In my next blog: Every Vote Matters?