There is a lot of talk going around in these few declining days of electioneering.  Most of it now revolves around pundits small and large predicting an unclear future.  “IF”, is the critical word.  Clearly, the results are not predictable but that does not stop a few irresponsible seers and prophets who just know that one side or another will come out on top – and – this will be in the best interests of their party and America and the world and the future, and so on.

What IS clear is the outcome depends on who gets out to vote – or, putting it another way, who gets out the vote.  Rigging elections is the province of the incumbents who do their best in census years to gerrymander districts they consider their own and make it impossible for the other side to have a chance because if the voters come out in droves the riggers will win. The recent history of Texas is cautionary, a good example for bad practices.

In the sad instance of the less than popular “WAR” President, George W. Bush, his less than professional performance and clearly demonstrated incompetence has set the stage where even his own party does not wish to be associated with him in individual contests.  The crystal ball might be a little bit less opaque when you think of how he has not been welcomed in some solidly Republican areas. The conviction and hanging of Saddam Hussein will make Bush look good as a seer or prophet.

It is instructive to note that blame is already beginning to be spread around BEFORE the election is over.  Our crystal ball definitely can tell us the broad outlines of a list of sacrificial lambs who made the wrong predictions or who had their heads high up in the air as targets in their zeal to tell us who the winners would be. The scramble AFTER the election will be to escape blame.

If you have been reading the accounts of all the possible ways to discern a direction this election will go – will the Democrats win control of just one or (gasp) the Senate in addition to the House of Representatives – in each micro division of the population – you just cannot tell.  The results will definitely have to wait until the votes are in.  But, (there always has to be a but) – with the distrust of the voting methods and the people who do the counting, it may be some time before the concession speeches are made and the winners actually are in control of the jobs they were seeking.

Using a crystal ball is just as good as any other method.  I personally like the one where a prophet arises among us and tells us that disaster lurks in the road ahead unless we straighten up and live right.  It wouldn’t hurt.