Well, the most important thing is that Americans once again get to comfortably exercise a right that people risk life and limb for in various hell-holes around the world.
Unless you live in New Jersey, of course.
Many Republicans are fantasizing about a big day today. Should Doug Hoffman prevail in NY-23 the bumbling GOP will still claim it as a victory (Hoffman will caucus with the Republicans) although it spent almost million bucks on a candidate who is no longer in the race. The party leadership will have had is short-sighted asses saved by a base it used to listen to way back in the day when it won elections.
While Bob McDonnell looks pretty solid in Virginia, New Jersey remains a mystery. Most polls in the closing days have shown Chris Christie with a slight lead. The one exception is one conducted by James Carville which had Corzine ahead and all Republicans committing suicide for Carville’s pleasure.
Corruption isn’t a problem in New Jersey, it’s a mission statement. Jimmy Hoffa (the elder) might vote twenty times today. Even if Christie wins, the election will probably be turned over to the New Jersey, um, legal system.
Democrats can whine all they want about the 2000 election, where most of the problems were the result of their appeal to a constituency who was too stupid to read a ballot. After last year’s debacle in Minnesota they might never have to worry about actual election day results again. Courts decided that every questionable vote to be allowed was Democratic and every vote to be dismissed was Republican. So now we’re plagued with Senator Franken for six years because the Dems are allowed to find votes in a car trunk if things don’t go their way.
A freakin’ car trunk, people.
Minnesota is fairly new to the game that New Jersey has practically written the rules for so don’t put this one in the “W” column until Christie’s furniture and Pop-Tarts have been delivered to the Governor’s Mansion and Corzine has been given a czar job.
Governorships aren’t going to have much of an impact on the health care or cap-and-damn-the-country legislation. In the end, most of the important lessons to be learned from this election will have to be learned by establishment Republicans.
I’ve got a lot of work to do this week so I won’t be holding my breath waiting for that.
