Postponing elections

I'm more in line with Digby on this idea. But, Billmon makes his point (which I think is similar to what Bob has been saying).

Billmon sets up a scenario where very close to the election there is a huge terrorist attack.

Under those circumstances, would you want the election to be held as scheduled? Or would you rather it was postponed for a month, until the initial shock had passed and the voters had had a chance to consider whether the administration's incompetence and the relative indifference of the GOP Congress to homeland security needs might not have contributed to the disaster?

I think the move to create some special rule or committee to postpone elections is another step in getting the people used to the idea that their constitutional rights can be altered. And that is not from a paranoid perspective, but from a reasoned one.

I see that Billmon's argument makes sense only if you accept his assumption that the attack would create a "rally around the president" mood amongst voters. And I don't accept that assumption. I think it could just as easily go the other way, to a mood of "he didn't protect us again". Especially now that his approval ratings for everything else have gone down the tubes, and especially since he has been sending even our National Guard overseas, leaving us less guarded here. Billmon's second question answers his first, and I think people already have their answer to the second. An attack would only be confirmation for either view. In fact, I think it would be more likely that there would be a tilt toward voting for Kerry if there is an attack, because I sense that the people who are following Bush are the ones that are buying his line that his policies have made us safer. And he keeps saying that, which I think is one of his bigger mistakes, politically.

Frankly though, I don't think it would tilt anything either way. I think people are very much decided at this point about whther they think the Bush administration has made us more or less safe and will find whatever justification or view of the matter fits that picture.

So, I'm still with Digby. If there isn't some disaster that makes it impossible for large numbers of people to get to a voting station on the scheduled date, there's no need to change it. And if something that huge happens, there's already a law in place permitting the pResident to call a state of national emergency and pretty much shut down everything.

P.S. check out Digby's post on the Armageddon Plan.

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.