Turmoil

This is getting bad, and it's only going to get worse. The election is still up in the air, and it won't be resolved any time soon. There are still absentee ballots to be counted, so even when the recount in Florida is complete, it's still not over. Then we have to take into account the ballot situation in Palm Beach. My class today was interrupted by one of the professors in the department to tell us that now it appears that the 19,000 ballots that had two candidates marked in Palm Beach may be due to mechanical malfunction, rather than user error. It's only going to get worse from here on... In some ways, I really hope that Bush wins. He's going to be faced with a Congress that's almost evenly split, and very hard to work with. He'll be completely lacking a mandate, he'll be a lame duck for four entire years. The economy is going to turn south sooner or later, and the next President will be saddled with the responsibility. So, Bush may win, but he certainly won't win re-election, and the Democrats would retake Congress and the White House in 2004. I could even see Al Gore winning in a landslide election...

If this drags on for another week, the American people will be so tired of it that the person who wins the election may really be the loser. It's a classic example of winning a battle but losing the war...

The Senate presents a very interesting scenario to consider. With the race in Washington still undecided, the Senate is split 50-49 in favor of the Republicans. If the Democrat wins that last seat, it's 50-50, with the Vice President breaking all of the ties. If it splits 50-50, and Bush wins, the Democrats would control the Senate from January 3 to 20, until Cheney would take over Gore's job as President of the Senate. If Gore wins, Lieberman's seat would be vacated, only to be filled by a Republican, nominated by the Republican Governor of Connecticut, so the Republicans would have control. Of course, Lieberman could resign as Vice President, to keep the Democrats in control in the Senate. Doubtful, but possible, and Gore could then nominate someone else to be Vice President.

Now, also consider that both Jesse Helms and Strom Thurmond are older than the hills, and they could both die or leave office for health reasons before the next election. Both of their states have Democratic governors, so Democrats would be appointed to fill their vacancies if they did leave.

And no, you can't emigrate to Canada just because you don't like this election...