What Caught My Eye Today - Presidential Election

Presidential Election - It's hard to believe, but the 2012 election is just a day away. 1,463 days of campaigning have brought us to this moment. My how time flies. Let's see where things stands one day before the main event. First Congress. After all is said and done, the composition of both the Senate and House looks likely to remain exactly the same. Democrats will continue to maintain a slim majority in the Senate while Republicans maintain a healthy majority in the House. For as many of us that think the 112th Congress is doing a lousy job--and at last check 83% us fall into that category--it seems rather odd that we appear to be headed toward another two years of the status quo.

Speaking of status quo, if you are a supporter of the incumbent Democratic President Barack Obama, the math seems to be going your way. For the first time in a couple of weeks, polls show Obama is leading Republican challenger, Mitt Romney (Did you know that Romney's first name is Willard?) in both the popular vote and in the Electoral College. So if the votes that actually do matter bear out what the polls are telling, Obama will get four more years at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

Are you kidding me? Four years of campaigning, billions of dollars on political ads, and we're going to end up exactly where we started? Can someone please explain to me why we cannot conduct an election in 6 weeks the way every other free nation does?  Clearly dragging these things out over 4 years doesn't really seem to make much of a difference.

One final word before the election, or rather one final number. While there can be only one winner (gee, I wonder who the Supreme Court will choose as the winner), the loser can take solace in this. Regardless of what happens on November 6, on November 7, it is a mere 1,464 days until November 8, 2016.

Here are the poll numbers through Nov 4 (courtesy of the fine folks at Election Projection and the NY Times):