Election Luddites, Unite!

The machines are breaking down in Virginia and (of course) Florida, leading to a cry of the heart against electronic gizmos and for a return to pieces of paper and thick pencils at the ballot box.

Digital democracy has a nice ring to it, but at what price and for how long until the nerds get it right? If we need technology, why not supermarket scanners to count the pieces of paper that human beings have marking for centuries? If the results look fishy, scan them again or count by hand.

As it is, we're in for a day of breakdowns, long lines and who-knows-what glitches in the counting, leading to paranoia on all sides. Is it worth it?

Obama's Southern Surge

With a week to go, more than a million ballots have been cast in each of three swing states--Georgia, North Carolina and Florida--foreshadowing a record early turnout across the country.

The Solid South, which, in pre-civil rights days was a segregationist stronghold for Democrats, is showing signs of breaking out of the Republican redoubt it has been ever since.

Polls are showing Obama's lead in Virginia widening, and the Institute for Southern Studies reports that in North Carolina "a perfect storm of factors have come together for Democrats in 2008, including: a widespread sentiment for change, frustration over the tough hit on NC's economy, Obama's ability to mobilize a sizable number of core voters in NC, lack of excitement among religious conservatives for McCain--even same-day voter registration, which tends to boost youth and African-American turnout."

With all this going on below the Mason-Dixon line, next week's voting promises to shake up the electoral map in a way that goes beyond the obvious contest between new voters and old biases.

Cuba's Next President and Ours

The man who plagued the White House from JFK on won't be around for the next occupant, although the turmoil of his succession may be more of a problem than he himself has been in recent years for Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and John McCain in their campaigning in Florida and elsewhere.

From several generations of Cuban-Americans, Castro's announcement that he is stepping down will elicit joy and hope, shadowed by bitter sorrow over decades of exile from their native land. Feelings will run high again.

For once, perhaps because he is continents away from home, George W. Bush sounded presidential today in noting "the question really should be what does this mean for the people in Cuba. They are the ones who suffered under Fidel Castro."

Bush expressed hope this would be "the beginning of a democratic transition for the people of Cuba...An interesting debate will arise. Some will say let's promote stability. In the meantime political prisoners will rot...This should be a transition to free and fair elections. And I mean free and fair. Not these elections that the Castro brothers rig."

Nepotism and iffy elections are not a strong suit for the man who took power in 2000, but we can be grateful that he won't be in office long enough to help the Cuban people find democracy as he has been doing in Iraq. His successor will have to find subtler ways.

Democratic Trainwreck Scenario

Donna Brazile, who managed Al Gore's 2000 campaign, says flatly about the Super Delegates, "If 795 of my colleagues decide this election, I will quit the Democratic Party. I feel very strongly about this."

Sen. Bill Nelson of Florida, a Clinton supporter, predicts a "potential train wreck" over disputed delegates from Florida and Michigan, states that were stripped of them by the Democratic Party for scheduling their primaries too early.

Candidates were honor-bound not to stump in the states, but the Clinton campaign did not stop operating in Florida, according to the Obama people, and while Obama withdrew his name from the Michigan ballot, Clinton did not. She won the outlaw vote in both and immediately began efforts to seat their 366 delegates.

If one or the other candidates had a clear lead before the late August convention, none of this would matter. But that is not going to happen.

As a result, generations of younger Americans who think of political conventions as boring talkathons that the networks refuse to cover in full may get a taste of what they used to be like--with floor fights, accusations, recriminations, walkouts, parliamentary maneuvering and lots of overheated language.

The TV networks and the Republicans will love it.

How to Avoid Winning the White House

“I don’t belong to any organized political party. I’m a Democrat.”

Will Rogers’ classic definition of 75 years ago is alive and well, and the locus of disunity, after its little electoral scuffle in 2000, is Florida, which the Democratic National Committee is disenfranchising for the 2008 convention for leapfrogging its primary to next January 29th.

If there is some way to avoid winning the White House next year, Democrats seem bent on finding it. After helping Karl Rove steal the past two Presidential contests, they will have to work harder this time to undo the Party’s advantage in the polls after all these years of Bush bungling.

But when it comes to incompetence, never count the Democrats out. If they can’t find an unelectable nominee, they can always screw up the process of selection.

As a survivor of history’s most suicidal political convention in 1968, I can hardly wait to see the new forms of chaos they will devise for the next one.

Hillary's Impeachable Appointment

At her press conference this afternoon, Hillary Clinton may have to answer a few questions about her announcement this morning that “Florida Reps. Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Congressman Alcee Hastings have been named national Campaign Co-Chairs.”

Is this the Alcee Hastings who as a federal judge was impeached in 1988 for perjury and bribery by a 413-3 vote in the U.S. House of Representatives and went on to become the sixth federal judge in history to be removed from office by the Senate?

The same Alcee Hastings who earlier this year when Speaker Nancy Pelosi proposed his appointment as head of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence aroused so much protest that his name had to be withdrawn?

Beyond that, why would Hillary Clinton, of all candidates, choose to make an appointment that would renew discussion of impeaching a public official?

Just asking.