Well, here they come. The midterms. I’ve been reading for months about how this is going to be a bloodbath in favor of the Republicans — and have asked repeatedly what we are rewarding the Republicans for? — and now, I guess we’ll find out whether all the pundits were right.
As is well-known, in the last two Presidential elections, the votes for Donald Trump were vastly undercounted, resulting in the Donald’s victory over Hillary, and a much narrower loss to Joe Biden than was predicted (at least in the electoral college).
This time, the question will be voter turnout, and how many women are going to go to the polls because of the threats to abortion after the Dobbs decision. Early voting suggests that their may be more enthusiasm on the Democratic side than the polls have predicted, but we’ll see. It may take days (if not weeks) for the final results to trickle in.
There will be a few results that would be a real disappointment to me if they go the wrong way. Like überhypocrite Herschel Walker — who looks like he took a few too many blows to the head in his football career — beating the Reverend Raphael Warnock, who used to pastor in Martin Luther King’s church in Atlanta.
Ugh!
Or in Pennsylvania, where New Jersey carpetbagger and celebrity doctor Mehmet Oz could beat Lieutenant Governor and iconoclast John Fetterman, who is still recovering from a stroke.
Ugh!
Or in New Hampshire, where right wing General Don Bolduc — who pivoted from being a straight-up election denier to his current “neutral” stance — could unseat sitting Senator and former Governor Maggie Hassan, or where upstart right-wing pipsqueak Karoline Leavitt could oust sitting Congressman Chris Pappas.
Double ugh!
There are so many other potential disappointments out there, but let’s hope it isn’t all bad news. Although they are big longshots, Val Demings (vs. Marco Rubio) and Stacy Abrahms (vs. Brian Kemp) are both on the ballot again, and could provide an upset. Gretchen Whitmer looks ready to trounce her opponent (Tudor Dixon) in Michigan. Mark Kelly has a good shot to retain his seat in Arizona, and maybe Arizonians can also send election-denier Kari Lake back into the TV studios.
In any case, I’m prepared to be depressed, but hopefully I won’t be ready to shoot myself!
