#73 The Secret Service

After tonight's debate, and all the poll and approval numbers were aired, I realized that the Secret Service may have its collective hands full for the rest of the campaign and then, depending on the results of the election, for four or eight years thereafer.

The polling about the debate showed that Obama clearly won, and is increasingly the favorite to win the election. In my next post, I'll list where I think the states are going to fall, and, yes, on that basis Obama will apparently win. There's still plenty of time for fluidity in the electoral count, however, so I'm not saying the election is over. Especially in light of the following:

As David Gergen (my favorite commentator on political affairs, even ahead of James Carville) said tonight on CNN, when asked what could now change Obama's momentum in this campaign: "Well, for one thing, he's black."

That sums it up. I've been writing periodically on this blog about latent racism. I have two concerns.

(1) As Gergen also expressed it, the polls may not be accurate. A recent Stanford study indicated that racism could shift the election's popular vote by as much as 6%. With Obama currently ahead nationally by 5%, that could enable McCain to overcome seemingly long odds and be elected. David Gergen looked really kind of ill when he made these remarks, as if he was implicitly and extremely concerned about...(#2, next)

(2) Even before the election (and obviously also after the election, if Obama wins), some crazy out there with a gun or some fertilizer, and stoked up on a derivative of pseudoephedrine or some other drug of choice, may try to make his/her "vote" count more than everyone else's. The Secret Service has to be particularly vigilant, and our government's intelligence resources have to be employed to eliminate any potential threats before they can be acted upon.

Now, more than ever during this campaign, I am truly concerned about racists acting out their delusions.

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