How confident are you that the General Election will be run fairly and smoothly?

[begin_within]

And that the true winner will be declared the winner? And that there will be no debacles in key states, like in Florida 2000 and Ohio 2004?

[Iwasthere]

1. Near zero

My gut tells me we are in for some serious problems AGAIN!!!

[Cleita]

2. Not very confident, but I do believe there won't be as much

blatant chicanery this time because the election robbers know that there will be election watchers looking over their shoulders.

[silverweb]

3. Not very.

That's why we need tsunami-like voter turnout and a landslide win!


GObama! _YES, WE CAN!_

[demnan]

4. With Diabold?

Near zero.

[bemildred]

Zero.

When was the last one that was not stolen and/or a botched media-circus?

[LakeSamish706]

5. Based on the fact that many states have touch screens with no paper trail...

I think it is a given that there will be all kinds of problems with a sincere possibility of another stolen election facing us.

[papau]

6. without mandatory random audits - as in the Holt HR811 bill - there is no "fairly and smoothly"

[gasperc]

7. very low

very, very low

[flyarm]

8. the primaries have been a scam why would the general be better? you gotta be kidding me!! eom

[leftofthedial]

9. zero

which totally ignores the fact that the corporations of the oligopoly have already decided who gets to run in the first place.

[BrklynLiberal]

10. Not at all. There had better be improved watch-dog arrangements made if there is to be anything

close to a fair and open election...

[SammyWinstonJack]

11. On a scale of 1 to 10, -1.

[the other one]

12. 100% confidence. Its already been stolen. Congrats to Sen. McCain.

Leave it to the Democratic Party to fuck this one up, but indeed, it is already a done deal.

[ThomWV]

13. I don't think they have the strength to rig it anymore and there are too many people watching.

[blues90]

14. Zero confidence

[groovedaddy]

15. None. n/t

[EFerrari]

16. I don't know if it can be done. We have a much better infrastructure

for election protection than we did in 2004.

But we need people to organize and volunteer to work it!

[InvisibleTouch]

17. Somewhat more confident than last time...

...if I may raise a note of dissent. I have no doubt the rethugs will try their dirty tricks again, but I don't think it'll be close enough to steal this time.

[AndyTiedye]

18. Not At All

We have two candidates who cannot possibly take any states in the South.

That means it is going to come down to Ohio — again! Arrrrgggh!!!!!!!!!

[Donk Yore]

19. zero confidence

none whatsoever

[BreweryYardRat]

20. Not at all.

I think I'm gonna volunteer at a polling place or a campaign HQ to check for and record discrepancies. And prevent electioneering.

[Timmy5835]

21. You miss the BIG picture

It's the moneyed elite that run this country, this world NOT politicians. All you have to do is look at the last election for proof. Weren't we promised an end to the Iraq war and what happened? Even with a Democratic majority Bush got ALL he wanted. The Moneyed Elite are making a killing. Sadly, even with the 2008 election I don't see much changing. Get ready for Real ID.

[warren pease]

22. It's already covered...

We're down to three corporatists and a Strangelovian loon. Corporate mass media was kind enough to choose these awful people for us on orders from their overlords at GE, Disney, News Corp, Viacom et al. Which is great because we didn't have to risk overheating our dulled, pacified, opiated brains worrying about boring stuff like politicians -- unless Entertainment Tonight does a special on their wardrobes or what kind of cars they drive or... you know, something, like, interesting and OH MY GAWD.

With the elimination of Edwards yesterday, all candidates with unconventional views have been purged. Unconventional in this case means agreeing with the dangerous idea that government should promote life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That's absolutely unacceptable because if that kind of nonsense catches on, it could undermine the only organizing principle left in this country: the dogma of ever-expanding corporate profitability.

So these heretics were gradually removed from the public consciousness, first by ham-fisted tactics like leaving them out of candidate group shots, removing online polls that they had won, ignoring them during the so-called debates and, when they were finally brought into the discussion, they were questioned about expensive haircuts, McMansions and UFOs. Pundit pap TV treated them as clowns or socialists, disparaging them at every opportunity and assuring the audience that they were absolutely unelectable and shouldn't be taken seriously.

And Americans sat back and let these manipulative bastards call the shots yet again, thinning the herd until the corporate choices were the only ones standing.

Now, all that's left is for us to troop dutifully to the polls, ratify one of their selections and perpetuate the illusion that we live in a democratic republic where the elected representatives are actually accountable to the people and work tirelessly to do their constituents' bidding.

Does it matter if the machines are rigged? Does it matter if the usual GOP game plan goes operational this November? Does it matter whether the eventual selection has a "D" or an "R" after their name?

Well, sort of, when you're talking about federal judges or regulatory appointments. But not when you're talking about maintaining the stranglehold corporate institutions have on every single aspect of life in America today.

It's axiomatic that as long as you can keep the choices within a narrow spectrum that you define and control, you can't lose. Being relatively slick and wise to human behavior, corporate schemers have figured out how to use their mass media propaganda machines to get their way 100 percent of the time.

I'd say it's mission accomplished.


wp