Stolen elections and the best defense.

[AP]

I've been thinking that it's good for Kerry to be close to Bush now so that Bush can't characterize himself as coming from behind. Coming from behind has a tendency to create publicity that gets you one more vote for the one you just got.

HOWEVER, I also think it's VERY important for there to be a perception that that Kerry is inevitably going to be the winner beginning a couple months before the election.

I think the fact that Gore-Bush was so close made a lot of people feel that it was OK that Bush won even if he didn't. It also made it a lot easier to rob the election in the first place.

So, I really hope the Kerry is up by at least 15 points right before the election. That way, if the election is stolen, people will be outraged. They'll feel like something they earned and deserved was taken from them.

But I'll tell you what: if he is up by 15 pts, I guarantee you the media is going to be inflating even the smallest of stories just for Bush so that if he does steal another one, the media can say on Wednesday morning that it makes sense because, oh, they'll say, for example "after all, only Monday did we learn that Kerry went to a French-speaking boarding school and obviously that changed a lot of voters' minds in the last day."

[Eric J in MN]

1. We need exit polls. MoveOn should pay Zogby to c onduct

We need exit polls. MoveOn should pay Zogby to conduct exit polls, so it isn't all in the hands of Voter News Service.

[Gildor Inglorion]

2. Good points...but wasn't Max Cleland up by about 12 points...

going into the disastrous Georgia "election" of 2002?

[AP]

3. I think that was one of the races that really opened people's eyes

to the issue of electronic voting.

By the way, 2000 wasn't on it's a face an electronic voting problem. It was a different kind of problem. I don't think Gore was all that interested in taking it to the streets, but if he had been, it would have been easier if he had been up by 10 pts just before the election (presuming Bush had been able to rob that many votes).

[nose pin]

4. Kerry went to a French-speaking boarding school?

uh oh...