Battlegrounders
[ archives email ]
NEW HAMPSHIRE: EVERYTHING IS DIFFERENT HERE NOW [Mike Tuffin 10/21 12:02 PM]
Everything is different here now.
The Red Sox are all anyone cares about. They are perhaps the only thing that brings this divided state together. The Red Sox relegate politics to an annoying sideshow for the time being. The First Lady is here today. Michael Moore is here today too. But nobody really cares. We misunderestimated ourselves. There's a sense of disorientation. New Englanders have never been here before and we're not quite sure what to do. But we know that politics is not what we want to do, at least not today. The campaigns would be well served to pull down the ads, call back the ground troops and enact a 24-hour cease fire.
When the campaigning resumes New Hampshire voters looking for clues about the candidates' character, will be interested to know that self-professed Red Sox fanatic John Kerry recently praised and associated himself with the Yankees. Kerry also claimed that growing up his favorite Red Sox player was one Eddie Yost, a fine player who never played for the Red Sox.
OHIO: COURT-WRITTEN RULES [Jonathan Adler 10/21 11:54 AM]
In the latest twist over provisional ballots in Ohio, yesterday Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell adopted ballot rules drafted by federal district court judge James Carr. Under these rules, provisional ballots must be provided to voters who show up at the wrong precinct, so long as they are registered to vote in that county. Carr had struck down the prior rules issued by Blackwell's office because they would not have allowed the issuance of provisional ballots to individuals who attempted to vote at the wrong precinct, and also rejected the revised rules Blackwell put forward on Monday. As an added twist, Carr ordered Blackwell to prepare back up rules in case Carr's order is struck down. Blackwell has appealed Carr's initial ruling to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. The Plain Dealer's coverage is available here.
OHIO: VOTER'S OBLIGATIONS [Peter W. Schramm 10/21 11:52 AM]
George Will reflects on what it means when the Columbus Dispatch reports, under the headline, "Punch Cards May Hurt Blacks" (and note that 72% of Ohioans use the Florida-like punch-card systems, but only 12% of the country does), that ballots cast with no vote recorded for president "were in 2000 a higher percentage in black communities (about 5 percent) than in other communities (less than 2 percent)." Will rightly thinks that this has nothing to do with "racial disparities" and argues that people who mess things up themselves are not being disenfranchised, but rather they are doing something themselves which they shouldn't do. It's their fault, and they ought to take responsibility. Liberals, of course, don't seem to understand this.
OHIO: TERESA'S MISTAKE [Tim Reed 10/21 11:50 AM]
I just talked to an accounting manager at a local company. He's generally understated, doesn't keep up with politics a whole lot, but listened to the debates, which comprise most of his knowledge about the election this year. He's a real, live swing voter. He happened to read a newspaper article about Teresa Heinz-Kerry calling out Laura Bush for not ever having a "real job." He was outraged.
Advice to the Kerry Campaign: Don't come strong after Laura Bush, people who don't pay attention to politics don't like it. You never had a chance at my vote, now you don't have a chance at his. |
