Election day in the USA

Here is the long awaited day: the national elections. Campaign 2008 has stretched out for 22 months with record amounts of spending (but that is to be expected since Americans have spent record amounts on gasoline, on energy, on water too this past year).

Everyone at the UPS is asking me if the results are known yet. They started asking me this during the morning while America was still asleep. Do you think that people in Rome might be interested in the outcome of the U.S. presidential elections?

Well, yeah!

And the university here is very multicultural, multi-ethnic, international (108 countries represented in the student body), so the acute interest in the USA elections are not just a matter of the Italians or the Europeans: it is an interest of nearly everyone. In fact, since my arrival on 27 October, people asked me if I would return to the USA today so that I could cast a vote. That would not be likely at the cost of flights these days. Besides, I had to teach today for five hours. When would I go and vote?

But, I did vote - by absentee ballot. My ballot was waiting for me when I arrived, and I promptly filled out the card and sent it in. I made my decision as to how I would vote last March, but I won't tell anyone now. I'll say it tomorrow.

The polls have been changing every day, back and forth, up and down, few points and many points. Does anyone believe the polls? I just hope everyone ignores them and goes to the polls. And that won't be easy in many places. I was told by Bill and Joanne Kinney that their polling station has been moved out of their town of Lewiston (on the Niagara River), and that it is a 10 minute drive for them to get there. It is amazing. Looks like someone is trying to stop an outcome.

Tonight, after evening prayer, I was asked to give a perspective on how the United States run the elections -- and I explained the electoral college, the process of the selection of candidates, from caucuses and primaries to the national convention, and similar realities that are so foreign to Europeans and others. I also explained that this campaign is more then just a change of leader: it is all about big change: generational and cultural and philosophical. No matter who wins, the United States will seem very different on Wednesday.