REFLECTIONS ON ELECTION EVE: 1:40 PM CST

When I've read recently about handicapped, elderly, and other people waiting in line for 4-6 hours to vote, I've been reminded of the tales of Afghani women doing the same and wondered, how are we, the marvelous sophisticated, privileged USA, so different from a third-world country? Surely, during a Kerry administration, our election system will be refined and brought into the 21st century.

I'm watching John Kerry now in Milwaukee. Alexandra and Vanessa are standing behind him clutching each other for warmth in the obviously freezing rain, their faces visibly lighting up in reaction to various phrases of their dad's rhetoric. How, you would think, could they be inspired by their dad, having heard him speak hundreds of times? The aforementioned dad is speaking passionately, wearing his now-familiar hunting jacket (buttoned up to the collar) and a Red Sox ballcap. The daughters are hatless, their hair hanging in drenched tresses. They are so REAL and achievement-oriented (a medical student and a filmmaker), so unaffected (by this I mean that they seem so unappreciative of the privileges of their position -- can you imagine Jenna and Barbara letting themselves appear so bedraggled just because the rest of the crowd was in the same boat?), and their respect for and pride in their dad is so viscerally felt by an observer, that it is testimony to the character of the father and the man.

Just saw Begala and Carlson on some CNN brief. The big deal for Tucker was Kerry supposedly conducting a poll to see how he should react to the OBL tape. Begala laughed, said the Republicans have some of the best polling people in the business and run polls on every little thing, and then (he buried the lead!) reminded the audience that Kerry responded within minutes of being informed of the tape and could not possibly have had time to conduct a poll. It's obvious to me that the poll was conducted more to assess the IMPACT on the electorate of Kerry's statement so as to judge whether or not more needed to be said.