Electoral College

One of my favorite computer games.

The game of presidential politics fascinates me.  It always has.  When I was a kid in the 1980's I would play the old PC game "President Elect" over and over again on our family's Apple IIe (the first and last Apple Computer I ever used regularly).  There were no graphics on that game.  Just lines of questions and choices about where to campaign and what issues to focus on and what type of advertising to use.  I would re-create the 1980 and 1976 races over and over again.  Rarely would Ford beat Carter in '76 and Reagan always triumphed over President Carter in '80 but it was fun anyhow.  You could even try running the races with different candidates.  How would Kennedy have fared in 1980?  I loved that stuff.

I take that back about the graphics... there was one screen with graphics in "President Elect": the big map of the US indicating which candidate was winning in each state and which states were too-close-to-call.  It's a map you are familiar with.  Back in the 80's though it was the Republicans indicated by blue and the Democrat states were red.  That's the way they were displayed in President Elect and there's a story that Nancy Reagan (always known for loving to wear red) wore blue at President Reagan's second inauguration because the whole map was colored blue for her husband on election day.

A blue Nancy Reagan

I loved pouring all my resources into states that were too-close-to-call.  What a great feeling it was when you could pull a state to your favor that way, but also how frustrating it was when, no matter how hard you tried, you couldn't get a state to budge.   

In a lot of ways following the polls in our presidential election campaign the past month has felt like my old "President Elect" game.  Those polls just are not budging.  No matter how much President Obama and Gov. Romney put into those swing states the polls have pretty much remained just as they have been. 

I will be voting tomorrow and I hope every American eligible to vote will do the same.  I will also be riveted to the election results tomorrow night.  Thanks to my faith, I am able to look at the results with a whole lot more grains of salt than I used to when I was younger.  I see good in both candidates and understand human nature enough to know that no one party or candidate represents total good or wickedness.  God is the source of our hope and I pray God guides us to have leaders that will help us be a just and prosperous nation. 

I am fascinated to know if these unwavering polls are going to turn our right.  Will the President, who is no where near as popular as he was in 2008, really only going to lose a couple of percentage points nationally?  Are conservative Christians really going to come out in full force to vote for a Mormon to be president?  Will the President really win Ohio by 3 or 4 points?  Did Sandy have an impact of solidifying support for the President?  Do the polls actually short-change Republicans as some are claiming? 

I'm going to enjoy tomorrow night... and I'm sure I'll be up late.