Greg Mankiw has some thoughts. I don’t believe that high voter turnout is an intrinsically desirable goal, which is why I’m opposed to “motor voter” and other means designed to increase participation. If people aren’t willing to do a little work for their franchise, they don’t deserve it, as far as I’m concerned. The goal should be informed votes, with quality, not quantity. Of course, that wouldn’t work out well for the Dems.

From Lileks. He seems a little pessimistic (perhaps with good reason–we’ll find out as the sun goes down across the nation):

It

The CPUSA has endorsed the Democrats. And the libertarians are supposed to? Really? You’d have to have a real bad case of cognitive dissonance.

No matter how atrocious they’ve been on so many issues. Just to wipe the smile off of Chris Matthews’ face. And of course, there’s hardly an issue on which I disagree with the Republicans on which the Dems wouldn’t be much worse.

Austin Bay has written what I’d like to hope is John Kerry’s political epitaph:

John Kerry

Grassfire.org says that we should apply the “Pelosi Standard” to Kerry’s apology:

…of John Kerry. It takes a Brit to point it out:

US servicemen are revered in a way that the British squaddie can only dream of. Soldiers travel in uniform and are routinely ushered to the front of queues and given upgrades to business class with no questions asked. On an American Airlines jet from Dallas last Sunday, a flight attendant made a spontaneous announcement about “the sacrifice our young men and women are making to keep us safe”. The whole plane applauded her.

This is not just rah-rah jingoism. The aching reality of war is also apparent. At Houston airport on Wednesday night I pulled up behind a white hearse with two soldiers in dress uniform inside it. “That’s one of our boys coming home from Iraq,” said a sombre Avis representative, waving me past.

As Kerry has found out, you try to exploit this sentiment for political gain at your peril. The military is the most integrated sector of American society. Poor youths with a bit of get up and go about them use it to get funding for college to pull themselves up a rung on the economic ladder.

I have sat in Humvees and Bradley fighting vehicles with black sergeants from Alabama, marines from Mexico and good ol’ boy snipers from Kentucky in places like Fallujah and Ramadi as they described their hopes with an affecting optimism that belied the mortal danger they were in. In many ways, they embody what is great about America.

He was probably just speaking from his own experience. After all, he didn’t study that much, had lousy grades in school, and ended up in a hot-fire zone in Vietnam. He just figured that’s the way it was for everyone.

He was probably just speaking from his own experience. After all, he didn’t study that much, had lousy grades in school, and ended up in a hot-fire zone in Vietnam. He just figured that’s the way it was for everyone.

He was probably just speaking from his own experience. After all, he didn’t study that much, had lousy grades in school, and ended up in a hot-fire zone in Vietnam. He just figured that’s the way it was for everyone.