Short Stories, Long Odds

I’ve been taking it easy on the politics in the last 24 hours or so, in an effort to shore up some resolve for the coming week. A few interesting things have happened, but I’m staying off the news needle for at least a few more hours. Here’s a brief, general rundown:

Arafat may not be dying, and the CNN Breaking News bump I cited happened to be wrong, Arafat went to Paris after all. So my bad. However, amid conflicting reports about his health coming out of Palestinian officials, its consistent on one thing: he seems to have lost his mental faculties to some degree. His reign is most likely over, and he has not groomed a successor. So that will be interesting.

Osama bin Laden released a new videotape in which he sent the message to America that it doesn’t matter who the President is, but rather that US Security depends on policy. The candidates, of course, freaked out about it and started focusing on the tape. If Al Jazeera or OBL are trying to influence the election with the tape, it is obvious they don’t understand the American news cycle, as the tape was released on Friday afternoon.

Voter fraud accusations continue to roll in. John Zogby called the election for Kerry assuming that undecideds break for him 2:1 like they historically have done. Reports are coming in about Florida, specifically Democrats getting out of Miami-Dade with 100,000 vote lead.

For both candidates there’s still time to screw up.

Personally, I’ve been asked several times over the last few days if I’ll shut down DamnTheMan if Kerry wins, or if I’ll leave the country if Bush wins, etc. The answer to both is no. If Bush wins, I’ll continue to try and demand accountability as best I can and to bring you, the reader, my views and perceptions and analyses of American politics.

If Kerry wins, I’m going to have to be more vigilant. I’ve been critical of his campaign although not quite as much as I could have been, and I admit it. If he gets elected though, I will feel a level of moral obligation to make sure he isn’t a colossal fuck up like Bush has been. If I tell you forever and ever how bad Bush is and then I give Kerry a pass, that would make me an asshole. Expect continued vigilance either way - this year I’m with the Democrats but they’re just as likely to piss me off, given the chance.