Monday, July 12, 2004

So Dubya and company are now looking into a way to postpone the Presidential election in case there's a terrorist attack the day before or day of that might sway those on the fence against him like he believes happened in Spain create the need for an unprecedented delay. And the comparison to the 9/11 delay of NYC's mayoral Democratic primary is way off base.

Most reports I've read on this don't bother to fully identify the guy putting forth the proposal, DeForest Soaries Jr., chairman of the Election Assistance Commission, or even point out the origin of his Commission:

The commission was set up after the disputed 2000 presidential vote to help states deal with logistical problems in their elections.

Soaries, who was appointed by President Bush, is a former New Jersey secretary of state and senior pastor of the 7,000-member First Baptist Church of Lincoln Gardens in Somerset.

--CNN.com
Interestingly, you have to go overseas to get this important little tidbit reported without any shading as part of the story:

No US presidential election has ever been postponed.

Abraham Lincoln once responded to calls to delay the 1864 election in the face of Civil War, by saying that if he did the rebellion "might fairly claim to have already conquered us".
Remembering 9/11 and Giuliani's shameless attempt at changing the laws on term limits to allow him to run for a third term, I suspect this is less about delaying the election to avoid a rush to Kerry - because really, on Iraq and the fighting terrorism front, there's little difference - and more about positioning Dubya to be able to declare a kind of martial law where he remains in charge, a steady hand to guide us through our darkest hour.

In other news, the Dump Cheney murmuring is getting louder and like I predicted, Giuliani's name is popping up as a replacement. Watch for it.

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