Early voting here in Paradise has been high. Even four days after voting started I have seen very long lines. I know, anecdotal evidence is hardly indicative of a general trend, but I think there will be a pretty good turnout for this election.

As websites across the Internet have predicted an Obama victory (I think Obama will be the next president. In my memory, except for Johnson and Bush the Pater, every other president has been of the opposing party. Both of those guys followed incredibly popular presidents. Not scientific, I know, but who cares?) One, Electoral-Vote.com, is a perfect example of a trend I have noticed on the web. While they try to take a neutral stance, the ads on the page, and the wording of some news stories lead one to believe this is a Leftist site.

I've seen polls that suggest Obama has a 6-11 point lead. A story I read a couple of days ago (before I realized I would be writing more, and would want to refer to it) demonstrated that polls tended to track about 6% high even including the margin of error. This means that if Obama has a 6% lead in one poll, then the race is even. I have also seen stories that suggest the polls are even further skewed by people who say they will vote for Obama but won't because they don't want to appear to be racist.

Meanwhile, a couple of things have bothered me. First, I saw a blog entry about how police departments across the country are bracing for election night riots. (Again, I didn't bookmark the story.) Basically, they are expecting riots by blacks if Obama loses and by bigots if Obama is elected; and riots by Democrats if Palin is elected . The tone of the article suggested a no win scenario. Either way, the cities of America will burn.

At first I poo-pooed that. Then I remembered that cities burn when their sporting teams win championships.

Finally, someone I know and think highly of said, "I don't want a black president. That's the Southerner in me talking." To that person I say, "NO. That's the racist in you talking."