Politics

For awhile but especially now I've been shocked at how many people I've heard say that Obama has the election in the bag. I feel like we need a little refresher curse on the electoral college, and the blue/red state map of the country. It doesn't matter if 49% of the votes are laffy taffy over Obama and 51% is lukewarm for McCain, McCain gets it. I think there are significantly more very conservative people in the country who will vote for McCain just because he's on the right side of the ticket (pun intended) than there are very liberal people who are excited to get rid of the familiar faces of the boomer-dominated political scene.
The fact of the matter is there are only a handful of swing states whose outcome is even in question, and they tend to be filled with blue collar white voters who have taken quite awhile to cotton on to Barrack. And I can hardly blame them: I used to be very excited about BO (wow. I hope no one else takes up that joke...), and frankly I've forgotten why. He gives a great speech and he's on the correct side of the major issues, as far as I'm concerned. Gradually pull out of Iraq, against the war all the way (luck for him he didn't have to make the no-win choice Hillary had), not actively anti-gay marriage, not actively anti-choice, not pushing universal health-care like the world will explode without it. But he's become what I'd hoped he wouldn't be, yet another Democratic party choice--the alternative to a raging hillbilly right-wing crank. McCain's website and policy stances are very cut and dried, and laid out in a concise, easily digestible portions, like an entrée at Chili's, and just as nutritious.