Slings and Arrows of Outrageous Fortune

Last evening was a hectic time. I ran my own election decision desk for the states Ohio and Florida. Brit Hume et. al at Fox News Channel were biding their time in calling these two states for incumbent President George W. Bush. The ghost of the year 2000 Florida state election mess still haunted the networks. Notwithstanding the lesson of the Florida electoral projection debacle then, I thought it’s time to crunch my own election return numbers for these two swing states.

My election decision desk consisted of a Window XP PC, a television tuned to Fox News. I had several IE browsers windows opened and multi-tasked the following sites: The Drudge Report, The Fox News on-line electoral count, the Florida State on-line return tabulation, the Ohio State on-line return tabulation, and the Republican Red State blog.

I called both races for President Bush by 9:30 PM PST (12:30 AM EST). Nevertheless, I hovered about the television set waited for the validation of my projections. The confirmation finally came from Brit Hume near or at about mid-night (3:00 AM EST).

My able assistant, Irene, had provided this learned observation of the popular vote. The nearly four million popular votes President Bush received over Senator Kerry could very well have been cast by voters with strong religious and moral beliefs. (Note: The Republican top strategist, Karl Rove, estimated in the 2000 election, four million Christians did not vote.)

From under the vitriolic mud-slinging and accusations, the President had endured and won the election for a second term in office. The fringe Democratic Party elements are so despondent and outraged that the fortunate-son, President George W. Bush, has won - again. The President's resounding victory gives rise to a new meaning of the oft quoted phase, “Slings and Arrows of Outrageous Fortune.”*

*Wiliam Shakespeare - "Hamlet, Prince of Denmark" Act III, Scene 1.