Dear Reader

Mind if I ask you for a little advice, and maybe help?

It is just that I am so down today, reader, so afraid really. I have been hearing all the stuff about the election probably not being clearly decided by November 3, so I am prepared for the idea that it won't be over for a while.

But what if George W. Bush gets reelected?

And what if Jim DeMint beats Inez Tennenbaum?

What are we supposed to do then?

I have read plenty of optimistic posts from people who feel confident Bush won't be reelected. Mathew Gross has a confidence that Bush will lose that I wish I could share.

Tony Pierce seems confident enough that although he has big problems with Bush action, he will vote for Nader. I suppose California is about as wrapped up as South Carolina, so it doesn't matter.

Jarrett expresses hope, but also, I notice, seems more capable of keeping his interests diversified, thinking about technology, the Red Sox, cucina and what-not. Perhaps his strategy is a good one.

I don't know what to make of the red couch that has mysteriously appeared on Gina Trapani's site.
[UPDATE: The red couch is gone, replaced by luscious pomegranate.]

Sure: there are surprising and encouraging endorsements from the Log Cabin Republicans (really a non-endorsement of Bush), Andrew Sullivan, Christopher Hitchens (I think?), and many others, not to mention insinuations that Iran likes Bush better.

And Eminem's video might catch the attention of some young voters and get their asses to the polls.

And if we live in a just world, then the missing explosives from al Qaqaa have to count for something. (Thank you Joshua Micah Marshall for the most thorough consideration of this issue.)

Everyone is watching the polls like crazy, hoping that the one that shows the results they want to see is right, but they might as well be talking to the spirits, like my man W. B. Yeats, who was sure he had the answers to all things through his wife's automatic scripts. (Don't get me started on this one.)

The real truth is we don't know what's going to happen a week from now, and while I find people's hopefulness helpful, I can't understand why they are not all scared shitless like I am.

How am I supposed to forget what is at stake, when we read of Rehnquist's health troubles, more and more carnage and disarray in Iraq, the proposed new $70 billion allotment for Iraq? And when I make the mistake of watching part of the debate between the SC senate candidates and see how much more smarmy and self-righteous and condescending Jim DeMint is on TV than he is on the radio--and believe me, non-SC people, he sounds pretty horrid on the radio, too.

Which is all to say I feel a little scared today, and down. I suppose I wear my pessimism like a shield, and it might be amplified by the realization that thanks to a load of clouds that have rolled in, I won't get to watch the eclipse tonight.

So if you have any ideas, dear reader, I'm all ears.