Ground Game

[previous post in series here]

I've been driving between early polling stations all day; over 100 miles already. For the most part, voting has been problem (and fraud) free--if Lee county voters are willing to stand in line for 90 minutes.

What I'm doing is politics on the most basic level. Voters. Numbers. Precinct walkers. Phone calls. Drivers. Lawn signs. Buttons and bumper stickers. I can tell you exactly how many Lee country Republicans have been called; exactly how many Lee county residents have voted.

More interestingly, I know how many of our vans have their tires slashed (1); how many angry Democrats have chased our "walkers" as they ring doorbells (2); and what to tell voters with absentee ballots that want to vote in person (bring you vote-by-mail ballot with you so that it may be cancelled). And I also know how many Lee county residents not scheduled for in person contact came racing out of their houses chasing vans begging for a lawn sign to display their support for President Bush (4).

Which means I’m disconnected from most things in the real world. I know about the OBL tape; I’ve read the transcript. I know that senile Walter Cronkite--now, the least trusted man in America--thinks Karl Rove was responsible for OBL's Kerry endorsement. Yeah, right. But, apart from quickly checking that the Iowa Electronic Market poll had narrowed again (now Bush 58%/Kerry 42%). and Electoral Count still has Bush ahead, with 280 electoral votes, I've had little chance to check the net throughout the day.

Basically, I'm in news withdrawal mode. I got the shakes--and a jones for blogging. Just trying to keep one foot in front of the other. So, I'm off--back to observe the observers.

More:

Jonah Goldberg slams Cronkite:

Since the boys in white suits didn't immediately come out with a squeaky doggie toy and a syringe of Haldol to facilitate escorting Cronkite off the set — and since Cronkite himself has not issued a press release apologizing abjectly for his poorly delivered joke — we must accept several things as true. First, that Cronkite was serious. By which I mean not only when he let loose that incandescently dumb comment, but also in the sense that he "was" serious. As in, he is no longer serious, and his opinion should be sought no longer by wise men. I know this is an increasingly tiresome form of argumentation, but: If a conservative had said something like that during the Clinton years, he'd be the butt of jokes for the Frank Rich & Maureen Dowd School of Mockery for decades. Second, Cronkite's decades-long scorn for anyone who suggested he was a liberal should be entered into the Chutzpah Hall Of Fame. Third, someone needs to throw a bucket of water on Larry King so he doesn't let comments sail past him like that anymore.

[Series continiues here]