"mystery achievement, where's my sandy beach? yeah-
I had my dreams like everybody else
but they're out of reach
I said right out of reach
I could ignore you
your demands are unending
I got no tears in my ice cream but you know me
I love pretending"

Since the 1928 election, Minnesota has voted Democratic all but three times, and only once in my lifetime when Nixon won Mn in 1972.

The idea that MN is a swing state really freaks me out, although I'll admit I don't know why. 10 of Walter Mondale's electoral votes came from the state of MN (his home state) and it offered me comfort since I was only 16, and couldn't vote against Reagan.

I really really wish I had some actual hope for change in this Presidential election. At least I know that health care costs in America will go down if there's a Democrat in office.

Honestly- I couldn't care less about taxes since I file as Head of Household and pretty much get everything I've paid for taxes back (that is, when my student loan isn't in default, but that will settled after I file taxes this year anyway..)

I just feel this desperation that I equate with having a Republican in office.

My life costs me so much more, and gives me so much less hope than it did 4 years ago.

" Ohio will be this election year's Florida, but Kerry will ultimately win. On election night, Kerry will win all the swing states except Ohio by the early morning hours, thanks primarily to 1) new voter registration, and 2) mothers who switch to Kerry believing their children are safer with him than with Bush. Recent polls show most American now believe that the biggest threat to American security is its frayed relationship with former allies, and with rival nations like China and Iran. Mothers-for-Kerry also reason that we're in Iraq now for a long time, and that bringing in other nations is the only way to make that job go quicker and safer. The recent statistic of 100,000 Iraqi dead also caused some parents to switch their vote to Kerry in disgust. Ohio will delay Kerry's win, however. The switchover from Bush to Kerry is going slower there thanks to the apathy of voters who are newly registered by the Bush and Kerry campaigns, but who nevertheless, thanks to their desperate economic condition, remain neutral on the candidates.

Voter fraud challenges that started in Ohio even before the election will catch fire on November 3. Within two weeks, it will be clear that the Supreme Court will have to settle the election outcome once again. However, at this point, Colin Powell, in an unprecedented act of political self-sacrifice, will announce his resignation while also admitting that his February 3, 2003 speech to the United Nations was done out of "my misguided sense of loyalty to the president and my hope to one day be president myself, rather than from my gut sense of honesty and duty to the American and Iraqi people." Powell's press conference causes remaining popular support for Bush to collapse, and with it the Bush campaign's Supreme Court challenge of the Ohio vote, and Kerry is headed for the White House. "
--Doug McGill, editor, The McGill Report

So thinking about Ohio, made me think of the Pretenders song "My City was Gone", and I almost quoted "Middle of the Road" here, because that sort of summed up how I feel about the election too, but instead I'm quoting my favorite Pretenders song because I can always find hope and promise in it.

"every day, every nighttime I find
mystery achievement, you're on my mind -on my mind
and every day,every nighttime I feel
mystery achievement, you're so unreal"

-The Pretenders