[I am taking another day of rest today (normal columns will resume tomorrow). Instead of an article, I present here today as a public service the full text of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s final speech, which was given the night before he was assassinated (April 3, 1968). King was in Memphis in support of striking sanitation workers. If you don't have time to read the full speech, which is rather long, please at least scroll down to the end and read the last few paragraphs. Video of the speech is available from www.mlkonline.net.]

I See the Promised Land

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[This is a repeat of a column I wrote right after the 2006 election. Most of it is still appropriate, but since I am taking a few days off for a well-needed (and, in my humble opinion, well-deserved) rest, it suggested itself as the best possible column to run today. I still love the tinkly piano soundtrack -- paid for by my tax dollars, no less. The Toles cartoon is still hilarious, and could have run today. Some of the items are out of date, however. Now would be a dandy time to strip Lieberman of his committee assignments, for instance. In any case, I beg the gentle reader's forgiveness for this rerun, but it's been a long two years....]

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About the Cartoonist  |  Reprint Policy

Because it's Election Day, I'm not going to give a detailed analysis of the past week's polls, as I normally do here. For those who have been following the progress of my "Electoral Math" columns, I have provided the final charts at the bottom, so you can see where they wound up, if you're interested.

Instead, I'm going to make my picks and call the races. First, some down-ballot calls.

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Barack Obama has run one of the most impressive political campaigns in all of American history. That is saying quite a lot, but I truly feel he has earned that much, no matter what happens tomorrow night. The Obama campaign did not leak, and they did not squabble amongst themselves in public -- right there, two astounding feats that no other candidate in the race could manage. Should Obama be elected, and should he run his White House the way he has run his campaign; then we are about to see some professionalism and basic competence in Washington once again, instead of the pure partisan rancor and dysfunction we've (sadly) become accustomed to.

But it has to be said -- Barack Obama is where he is today because he is smarter than us. Now, by "us" I am not referring to you, dear reader (perish the thought!), but rather the collective "us" out here blogging in the progressive trenches on the left. We (and I certainly include myself in this) have been second-guessing Obama's political tactics and strategy for over a year now. Obama has had us tearing our hair out at times with frustration, and each time he wound up proving us wrong.

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[Today's Hallowe'en column is in two ghastly parts -- one frightful, fingernail-chewing tale for each side of the corpse-ridden and zombified political divide.]

Gather 'round, ghouls and goblins! Our annual Hallowe'en fright fest is about to begin... full of scary monsters, ghostly tales, and horrors galore... because on this night, everyone -- even the politically wonky -- deserves to be scared right down to their socks!! O, ye lefties -- think you that Obama's election absolutely cannot be derailed? O, ye righties -- think you that Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, and Barack Obama comprise the creepiest, most apocalyptic trifecta of liberal horrendousness you can imagine?

Well, think again! No matter what your deepest and darkest fears may be, no matter how mind-shattering your own political nightmares may be, you ain't heard nothing yet! Because your humble storyteller from the crypt has frightful and spooky stories to terrify both sides of the political chasm tonight... so without further ado, drag up a gravestone and gather 'round... for this year's two Spine-Tingling Tales Of Terror™!!

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While the news from Election Night is going to be all about losers and winners from various parts of the country, I think that the news from Election Day is going to be similar across a large number of states. I'm talking about what the news story will be before the returns actually start coming in, later in the evening. Because I think the news lead is going to be: "Polling places overwhelmed by flood of voters" or maybe "Election officials say they just weren't ready."

But before we get into that, we have a cartoon for your amusement...

About the Cartoonist  |  Reprint Policy

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Welcome to the penultimate Electoral Math column.

OK, I admit, I just like correctly using the word "penultimate." Plus, it's fun to say! Try it!

If you detect a certain giddiness here at Electoral Math Central, it is due to the fact that the election is actually drawing nigh, after a seemingly eternal campaign season. It's been a long, long road to where we find ourselves, and we're all feeling the strain. But fear not! Election Day is just around the corner, and just about everything seems to be breaking Obama's way.

"What's that?" you say, "the national polls are close -- I know this because the media told me so!" Well, all I can say is that's what you get for hanging around such disreputable characters in the first place.

(Ahem.)

Seriously, though, I remind everyone once again that we don't elect our president that way. If we did, we'd be at the end of Al Gore's second term right now.

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Good news for the Bill of Rights out of Berkeley -- they've restored free speech. The really astounding thing, and the reason this is a "man bites dog" story and not a "dog bites man" bit of non-news, is that they updated their laws in support of those voicing extreme right-wing positions. Since Berkeley is charmingly known in the Bay Area as "The People's Republic Of Berkeley," this is news indeed.

My position remains unvaried -- the same position mistakenly attributed as a quote to François Marie Arouet (a.k.a. Voltaire): "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." [Voltaire never actually wrote this line, it was falsely attributed to him after his death in a book called "The Friends of Voltaire;" but the line Voltaire actually did write is a pretty good one, too: "Think for yourselves and let others enjoy the privilege to do so too."] The First Amendment is there for everyone, not just those you agree with. In fact, it is specifically there for those with whom most everybody disagrees -- because such minority opinions are the ones most likely to be attacked by the government.

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[Note: I ran this story a few weeks ago, but it didn't get a lot of attention due to the presidential campaign. Now that Senator Ted Stevens has been found guilty on all counts in his corruption case, I thought it was worth running it again.]

[Update:] I did manage to reach Frank Prewitt by phone today, and asked him two followup questions since Senator Ted Stevens' conviction was announced. These two questions follow, before the reprinted article.

What is your reaction to the Stevens verdict?

I'm delighted. It's a sad situation, but I saw it coming.

Do you think this guarantees Mark Begich's election?

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John McCain is losing the race for the White House. Now, this doesn't mean he has already lost it -- we've still got to go vote, after all. I'll cover that aspect in the Talking Points section, but anyone looking at the polls or an electoral map these days would be hard-pressed to come to any other conclusion than: McCain is losing. The question that will obsess many in the media post-election will be: Why? So I'd like to offer my read of why McCain is losing. Call it a pre-mortem. Or maybe that should be pre-post-mortem, I'm not sure.

But what I am sure of is being able to identify the disastrous decisions McCain and his campaign have made (so far... we still have 11 days to go...). I've thought about this for a while now, but didn't want to publish it until I was sure it was too late for the McCain campaign to somehow fix any of these mistakes.

But I feel we've now come to that point, so I've identified the following seven major reasons that McCain may get swamped on Election Night, which I share now to see how many of them become media themes in about two weeks.

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