Unless you live in a hotly contested state, however -- like here in Ohio, or in Virginia, Nevada, North Carolina, Florida, Missouri and arguably a few others -- you won't be as glad as I'll be.
I'm a card-carrying political junkie, but enough already.
My answering machine has recorded an average of six "robo-calls" each and every day for the past ten days. I've heard the canned voices of both presidential nominees and both running mates, as well as Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Hank Williams, Jr. and other luminaries. I can find the DELETE button in the dark.
And then there are the rallies.
On Friday, Sen. John McCain, joined by Gov. Schwarzenegger, exhorted his followers at Nationwide Arena in Columbus. Pres. George W. Bush had drawn a capacity crowd of 20,000 to a similar rally at the same venue four years ago, but Sen. McCain managed to pull fewer than half that number. Empty sections of the hall were hidden by flags, banners and huge black curtains, giving the impression that it was a standing-room-only crowd. It wasn't.Enthusiastic partisans roared as Gov. Schwarzenegger cracked wise about Sen. Barack Obama's scrawny physique and they gobbled up Sen. McCain's familiar stump speech, but by all accounts the mood was as strained as the crowd was small.
Yesterday Sen. Obama made what we expect to be his final campaign appearance in Columbus. The rally, held on the grounds of the Ohio State Capitol, attracted an estimated 60,000 people -- that on the same day that the Democratic nominee drew a crowd of 80,000 to a lakefront mall in Cleveland.I'm sure that Sen. McCain and his people are doing the best they can, but the difference between a condensed event in a hockey arena and a sea of humanity on the best day of Indian Summer is striking.
Maybe McCain-Palin supporters just aren't the rallying kind. Perhaps most Republicans were busy escorting their spawns on trick-or-treat night. In any case, we won't know 'til Wednesday morning whether what we've seen at these events will be reflected at the ballot box, but if I were working the Republican campaign, I'd be in therapy.
When all is said and done, though, rallies and robo-calls are just sideshows in this political circus -- the main attraction, the point of this expensive exercise, is the voting.
Ohio has allowed its citizens to vote early, the first time that's been possible in a presidential election year. As we've seen all across the country, lines have been long -- at one big polling place in Columbus yesterday, for example, the wait was reported to be six hours.
As long as election officials are able to preserve the integrity of the process, I'm all in favor of expanding opportunities for citizens to register and vote -- motor-voter, absentee ballots, voting early and the like.
It's not about ensuring that everyone votes. It's about making it possible for every American who wants to vote to have a reasonable chance to exercise their privilege.
Ours is an imperfect system and always will be, and the early-voting phenomenon has highlighted its flaws. What's unacceptable to me, however, is the whining I hear about having to wait in line to vote. In this point-and-click, instant-gratification society of ours, anyone who bitches about the inconvenience of their freedom should be introduced to Iraqis willing to risk their very lives to dip a digit into a bottle of purple ink.
We're Americans, fortunate and free. Tomorrow we vote.
