Hurry Up and Wait

Let me fire out a quick (if obvious) observation from today's perusal through the partisan blogosphere. Not only do both sides think they are winning conclusively at the moment, but both sides think their man will win for the same reason: each thinks it will grab the support of the solitary undecided alone in the voting booth. Will these inscrutable individuals follow the pattern indicated by the "incumbent rule" and vote Kerry, or will they ultimately fall back to what we may call the "post 9/11 rule" and simply chose the devil they know and trust on Terror? (maybe we could also call this the "Kerry is just a disappointing candidate" rule, but that is a rant for another time...) Conventional Wisdom has certainly been turned on its head enough times during this campaign season, so it is understandable that those following this closely have grounds to believe what they want to believe. One thing is for certain, though. I am damn ready for November 2nd to arrive. I have to agree with Daily Telegraph columnist Andrew Marr today, when he writes:

"No one at Westminster's quite concentrating this week. Not properly. We're all like schoolchildren pretending to be studying the book while furtively staring at the gripping scene through the window - in this case, the presidential election."

It is a struggle, this hurrying up to wait, with all the arguments said and my inability to participate in the GOTV operations from overseas. All the hoopla and micro-analysis about these missing explosives just seems so minor in the grand scheme of things. Basically, I don't think we are likely to know anymore about the likely outcome of this election on November 1st than we know today. The tracking polls will keep bouncing around in the margin of error, the useless electoral college predictors will shift nightly based on a 1-2% flip in Florida or Ohio, and both sides will continue to claim they have the momentum right up until (and through) the exit polls and counting of the ballots. So in the mean time, I am left wondering... just how are those fickle undecideds going to break? And will the October surprise end up being the utter lack of any surprise?