Twelfth street pre-election diary*

12th: all the green can be misleading; this is a blissfully blue city 

Twelve days, twelfth hour, twelve reasons to panic.

True, when I walk around the East Village, I get inspired by the display of support from a state that swings as blue as the writing on this post.

We The People... 

a welcome 'yard' sign 

But then, I come back uptown, get off the subway and am assailed by the following headline:

49 to 45 is way too close for a sure-fire Kerry state 

True, this is the NY Observer. I mean, who is going to pay attention to the Observer? Still, I am reading about those New Jersey types who are reveling in their tax-cuts and hating their Democratic governor and I get worried.

There are way too many references to guns in the papers today. Kerry is sporting a hunting rifle (thanks, macho boys, for demanding this of a presidential candidate), Bush is within shooting distance in New Jersey… Meanwhile, I read in the NYTimes that the NRA has already contributed $20 million to the Bush campaign. And there is Cheney, sarcastically scoffing at Kerry’s camouflage hunting jacket. I suppose his own duck-hunting excursion with Scalia last year is now but a distant memory. And here comes clever George, still playing with the “he can run” line. Why don’t you just KILL it already, George. [The latest GWB version, referring to Kerry in his hunting garb: “he can run – he can even run in camo – but he cannot hide.”]

(*see “forty-second street pre-election diary” post, September 22, for explanation of post title)