Election Blues

Well it looks like Hillary Clinton is still in it. For another couple of weeks, anyway.

In other news, the New York Times has an editorial today dealing with two pernicious electoral tricks, Vote Caging and Robo-Calls, that Congress is apparently trying to deal with.

Vote caging is a little-known but pernicious technique. Political operatives mail letters to voters, targeting areas where the opposing party is strong. If a letter is returned as undeliverable, the voter’s name is put on a list to be challenged at the polls. The challengers try to persuade election officials not to let the person vote, or only to let them cast a provisional ballot. Some voters end up disenfranchised. No matter how the challenges turn out, they often create confusion and long lines, reducing turnout in the targeted precincts.

Minority voters have been especially victimized. In an infamous case in Louisiana, a Republican political operative boasted that a vote-caging program “could keep the black vote down considerably.”

Hopefully these issues will be dealt with, but odds are against it, I guess.

Back on the Road

Well we are on our way back to Tallahassee - in the same care we came down here with. How did I know this was going to happen? We did get some nice pictures out of it - which I will be posting later.

I did catch some bits of the speech last night - I have to say I agree with the analysis in this New York Times Editorial.

Last night, the president was particularly strong when discussing the nation's shocking lack of preparedness for disaster, and the stark fact - obvious to every television viewer around the globe - that the people left homeless and endangered by Katrina were in the main poor and black.

The entire nation, he said, saw the poverty that "has roots in a history of racial discrimination, which cut off generations from the opportunity of America." Polls show that black Americans are far angrier and more skeptical than whites about the administration's actions since the storm. Mr. Bush's words could begin a much-needed healing process. But that will happen only if they are followed by deeds that are as principled, disciplined and ambitious as Mr. Bush's speech.

A lot of people will say that this President does what he says. I say, well, not necessarily. Take the aid to Africa to fight AIDS. Only a fraction has gone through because of stringent rules on how the money is to be spent; not to prevent waste but to prevent even an acknowledgement of the existence of abortion.

On the other hand, it's safe to say nobody was watching Bush at that time - and now plenty of people are watching him. So maybe he will fill compelled to live up to his promises.