OT - Finally!

[IWB]

I have spoken to friends in other states - Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota - not a single call, a commercial or two and that is it.

Here in the Milwaukee area we have been averaging about 10 calls per day, about $20 worth of junk mail each day and so many commercials that I can't watch tv anymore.

Yes, it is great that we have this process, but the state of Wisconsin is out of freaking control right now.

[Alan Bykowski, "brewcity77"]

Illinois and Minnesota are both locked up for Obama, while Indiana is virtually assured of going for Romney. We are getting calls because we're a battleground. I'm sure people in Ohio, Colorado, and Iowa are getting similar attention to us.

Thankfully, the only call I received today was from work telling me I got hired for overtime tomorrow

[unclejohn]

It does seem mostly to be the battle ground states, but I am informed that the airwaves in Chicago have been deluged by Congressional ads. Personally, I feel almost like I am on another planet. I do not have a land line, I have a cell phone nobody has cracked, and neither of my TVs has a HD converter box hooked up, so I never watch them. And to top it off, I voted a week ago. Nobody cares about me! Yay!

As Valiant points out though, this is not the worst problem to have. Around here, people who waited until Saturday to vote early had to wait for about four hours. I understand it was not that bad, as they were nice to each other and kept each other amused. No one had to hike through mud for eight hours to vote, and nobody cut off the fingers of people with indelible ink on them that proved that they did. The barrage of ads this year stems from two factors: The ever-increasing sophistication in figuring out where votes are coming from, and the Supreme Court decision that said that private groups could spend as much as they wanted on elections. In other words, this is a direct result of something some people have been clamoring for and fighting about in court for years. They finally got what they wanted. Perhaps there will be some legislative way to limit all that after this election. Perhaps not, since the Supreme Court has spoken. But the fact is, we got the system we asked for and deserve.

And regardless of who wins, the sun will come up tomorrow. Despite all the hype and all the people who claim otherwise, this is not the most pivotal election in American history. It pails in comparison to those of 1860 and 1864, for instance. Regardless of which candidate one prefers, the result will be decided soon, probably no later than tomorrow morning. Despite all the partisan complaints, there will be relatively little fraud, the winner will be chosen by legal means, armies will not go forth to either make sure the winner takes office or prevent him from doing so, no one will be hunted down and killed by either the government or the political parties themselves for voting for the wrong person, and the winner will be sworn in in January, once again minus riots, deaths, and persecutions. Many countries have never experienced that.