The d’blank poll and more miscellany

With just two weeks to go I am curious to know how everyone is handicapping the race. Cowboy-up and give us your predictions. The most accurate prediction of the final Electoral College vote, stated in a comment to this post, will win something of marginal value, as yet to be determined. As a reminder, there are a total of 538 votes with 270 required to win. Your predictions must be made no later than Tuesday October 21 at 11:59 PM EST. If you don’t feel like going public, just vote in the poll above my photo to the right.

Many of you wouldn’t be caught dead reading William Kristol, but his NY-Times column this morning is a very interesting look at the American psyche and well worth reading.

The picture above is called "Study in B&W." It hangs in my office and was painted by my bro Gaga, who has more for sale if you like this one. You can see them on his site. I just put it up ‘cause it looks purty.

I’m going out of town for a couple of days. Talk to you later this week.

Do one thing right

For most people, getting a new job is a pretty big deal. It’s a lot of work getting your resume and story together for a particular position. Then there can be multiple interviews; tests even for some jobs. But once you have the job, that’s when the real work usually begins.
Not so for politicians. Getting their job is the hardest work they’ll ever do; in fact, for many of them, it’s the only work they’ll ever do. Once one election is over they are campaigning for the next one.

The country would be a lot better off if each year the leaders of the two parties got together and agreed to fix one thing that year. One, and only one thing. And no other bills – especially earmarks – could be turned into laws until that one thing was fixed. Polls will help select what the American people think needs fixing most urgently, and God knows politicians can read polls.
The one thing selected should then be given the same kind of effort pols give to elections. There should be town hall meetings everywhere to discuss the pros and cons. Television spots should run advocating various points-of-view. We should have yard signs and buttons. The whole schmageggie.

By the end of the year we’d know if our elected officials had actually accomplished the task, and as long as we replace it with another task of similar significance we could keep them focused on what is really important to us.

One could argue for a long list of candidates for the first task on the annual “Do One Thing Right” list. I think I’d go for health care reform.