The line has been moved…

As usual, James Lileks is a must read today.  (no permalink… yet )

My Newhouse column this week was written the day before the election, and said that one election isn’t a mandate. We’re still all over the map on a great many issues, as ever, and the desire for compromise is still a desire to settle the issue OUR way. At the end of the day the Line will be moved; it’s just a question of where it ends up. The “progressive” impulse questions everything; the conservative impulse wonders why we question what has worked for us before. What emerges from this dynamic satisfies neither, and fuels the next round of debate. I’d rather have that than 30 years of a static society that ends up so ossified and brittle it shatters into a thousand pieces. Because there’s always someone there with a dustpan, a broom, and a long loud speech about how the Jews wanted it to turn out this way because they control the Hefty Bag industry.

His discription of election day is an amusing read.  For those willing, I’ll write mine below the fold.

Morning routine, same as always, except it wasn’t.  Angie took the kids to school, then stayed and went to vote.  We vote at the elementary school, so easy for us as parent’s of elementary parents, and the design of Plano is such that there is slightly more schools than churches, so, there you go.

She comes back before 8, and I ask, “Did you vote?”

“Yeah”

“Any lines?”

“Not really.”

Ahhhh, life in a non-battleground state!

Hitch up my britches and head to the office.  Traffic normal, crane my head to see if I can spot the line as I pass by the school… still no line…

Arrive at work.  Didn’t you vote, you ask… Um.. yeah, if you are old time readers,please try to keep up... If you are new, you are excused…

Fire up the computer… or at least kill the screen saver, and read morning blogs.  Nothing. 

Do some work, answer emails, recheck the web… nothing… a hint at higher turnout reading a messageboard in Nebraska ... Nebraska… wow… some base is fired up…

Powerline reports that Wonkette has early exit polls strong Kerry, Drudge’s siren is up, the llamas (or just Steve) are on a roll… Time for new… Stream talk radio and listen.  Rush is pontificating on Exit polls, read blog, people are starting to reject the exit polls, but trying to do the balance of strong turnout in Nebraska and a strong Kerry trend… um, too stressful.  go back to work, listening to radio.

Ring…

Him: “Jon, what’s up?”

Me: “Not much”

“Doing anything this afternoon”

“Besides reading poli-blogs like they are crack… no… what’s up”

“My car got towed… I need a ride near Fair Park”

“Fair Park??? (downtown Dallas for you non-locals) You work in Allen (more north of Dallas than Plano), how does that work?”

“Well they… blaha blah, contracted tow company, blah blah, are you free to give me a ride”

“They are trying to supress your VOTE!... yeah, no problem, when can you leave, traffic is gonna be hell”

... ... more mindless conversation…

Agree to take him for a joy ride at least to squash the mindless clicking of reading the blogs… Keep the mind off the election… (picture me like the rocker in Lost, ring tapping on the seat in the airplane, looking up and down the aisle, just let me read Instapundit, what is the Corner saying...Captain Ed?  WizBang? Jawas? Ace? a REALLY SAD picture...)

So I leave, flip on Rush, he goes off air on come Hannity… Ahhh… Hannitization… like the real good stuff (what do I know, I barely drink and have no idea what an altered mental state really feels like...)

Drive 10 minutes north to his office, pick up friend and friend of friend.  Friend had voted already, so no voter intimidation there… Friend of friend hadn’t voted… Oh we must be quick so we can pull the car out of the stockyards and get thee back to vote… Bush needs it man…

Of we trudge down Central, in breezy late afternoon traffic, hardly slow through the high-five, the north loop leads us right onto 30 with nary a tap on the break pedal, well except a lady that thought ‘yield merging’ really means ‘charge on’, I allowed her to go on, probably wanted to get to the polls.  Go in peace.

Drift through the neighborhoods around Fair Park trying to find the tow-lot.  Lots of signs ‘Democrats Vote Today’...

Ah man, I think, voter fraud is gonna blow up in Dallas, didn’t they know that Democrats vote on Wednesday?!?!?

Think a bit on the neighborhood, poor, bars on windows, unkept yards, downtrodden industry… Think, yeah, how is that voting for the democrat doing for ya?  Stop it… Stop it…

Find the lot, wait.  There is a couple before us, waiting and arguing over every little fee, they take 45 minutes to get their car out.  My two passengers pay the fee, walk in get their cars, and we are out in 20 minutes.

Friend of friend braves the traffic to do his civic duty…

Friend takes me to dinner at a good restaurant near White Rock Lake.  Where?  exacty…

Head home, going north, stay on surface roads, avoid Central like the plague.  Drank too much water, stop at a Dickey’s to use the facilities.  Radio has switched to local talk jocks, WBAP has their usual line up, KLIF has Greg and will so be joined by Ankarlo (the morning guy).  No one has any idea, polls are about to close, 7pm pull up at home.

Enter, hug kids, kiss wife.  Sit down, shakes start.  TV has designingsomethingorother.  Smile, tap knee, hug kids.  Sit, stare blankly… tap knee… wring hands…

Wife turns to ABC News…

Um.. can we watch FOX?

Sure… since EVERYTHING ELSE IS PRE-EMPTED…

Ahh.. calls red states red… blue states not called so quick, but not many blue states are closed yet…

Laptop… on, blogroll rolling…
CNN.com has a cool map… listening reading… must have data, need more data…

Why haven’t they called this red state yet, huge early lead, but nothing that wasn’t expected.  Florida looking good, Penn oh no… Ohio, must have Ohio…

Continue this meme, FOX news is saying the exit polls are worthless… MSNBC keeps showing them… Keep voting out west, Pubs… give no ground…

Polls closing, looking close… Ohio still trending Bush.. cayuga what?  where is that on the CNN map… oh man… but wait, that is their base, mostly reported.. not many vote left to come out from there… Barone on Fox does the math, still no call.  This no call stuff is political, Kerry doesn’t want to read the tea leaves and the media doesn’t want to call it until Kerry concedes…

Stay up until 3am doing the circles… start hitting the other stations, Fox is good, but Brit was a little dry.  CNN is in a dur huddle.  Rather is doing yeoman’s work at saying the sky is GREEN, green I tell ya… Bradley tries to tell him, well maybe , but really mostly blue… as the bloggers already know…

giggle, smile, click the TV off…

go to bed, legs starts shaking, hands twitching, but finally fade off to sleep.

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• 

  RoadKnight  on  11/04  at  12:44 PM

  
  

  Good grief, Jon. Our days were much alike. Though mine without the trip to get a couple of cars out of hock. Instead, I got to go to my Dr.’s office (for the 2nd day in a row). Then back to the house, stayed on the computer and the news all day until 3am. I’ve turned into a political junkie. hehe.

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