Exit Polls

Just a word of encouragement to get you through the tense tomorrow, at which time this blog either becomes a celebration or a felony hate crime. Also, here is your general timeline for the events that are going to happen - read it. First I'll go back four years - in 2004, on November 4, a Tuesday, by the time 5 and 6 pm rolled around here on the East Coast, exit polls (polling of people coming out of the election booth) were so highly in favor of John Kerry that the press had basically CALLED the election for him. As we know very well, he most surely did not win the election. Going county by county, it wasn't even close. So there's that. Let's go back a bit further, to 1984. Mondale/Ferraro were challenging Ronald Reagan. I was sure Reagan was going to blow us all up, outlaw abortion, and start WWIII. Instead jobs were so plentiful you never had to look for more than a day (even without a high school diploma) - most of the time your phone would be ringing off the hook if you said you were available, the Berlin Wall came down, the Soviet Untion collapsed, and abortion kept going on without a hitch and became more widely available. But Mondale was going to win! The papers said so, the TV news said so, the polls said so, the exit polls said so - hell, the sitcoms even said so (remember Family Ties?) My boyfriend and I sat in my room watching the returns come in - it was a sure thing! And one after another after another, I watched with mounting horror as each state fell to the blue. (Yes, it was blue then for Republican - they changed it to piss off the conservatives, if you ask me.) It was a LANDSLIDE. The entire map was blue - what did Mondale win, a couple states? People were absolutely STUNNED - this was not supposed to happen. They told us it wouldn't happen. They promised! See what they said in 1980, just in case you doubt me. And we mustn't forget to go back to 1972, the Nixon/McGovern election, where the press had it all sewn up for McGovern, and people watched, stunned, as the Silent Majority won it handily for Nixon. Since at least that time it has always been this way. It's hard to imagine just HOW stunned people are going to be if and when what they believe in so strongly (the polls say so!) just doesn't happen. And also it's kind of funny to think about. Those would be some rather sweet tears, seriously. I won't cry either way; we made it through Carter ruination and we'll make it through this too. One way or another, one day at a time. Life is short but it's wide. It passes. However don't let your heart be troubled. Do not get overexcited and jump the gun - the only poll that matters is the vote, and until the returns are in, you don't count your chickens. Please don't forget to read the article I linked below. It's mandatory pre-election reading! And give this one a try - Obama promises to bankrupt you if you don't help him part the seas. He also says the cost of your electricity is going to *necessarily skyrocket* after he's in charge...that thousand dollars is going to do you a WHOLE lot of good when your electricity costs 5 times as much as it does now, huh? Correction to above - Mondale took ONE STATE, not a couple. LOL