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zays >>> lando scarlata | Illustration
by: Herbie Martin Premature
Ejaculation
Del
Boca Vista will decide the election
American
history is filled with moments of irony. Today is really no different than any
other, or is it? As I am sitting here at my desk writing my column about the events
of the last 48 hours, the wire sends a piece of news that breaks the streak of
the overly hyped election coverage. The wire simply read, "it's
a girl for Seinfeld". As you all know by now, unless you
live under a moldy rock, the 2000 elections have brought a series of bizarre incidents
never seen before in our rich and colorful history. It's been really Seinfeld-like.
Let me explain what I am trying to convey here:
Election Day began just like any other Election Day with polls opening their doors
early in the morning. Throughout America, Democracy 's heart was beating with
every person exercising his or her right to vote. As the day turned
into night, like many of us here in the east coast, I turned my attention to the
flashy fancy television coverage. I even took one more step and got my computer
running so I could watch even more on the net. Yes we are living in an era of
fast media and instant gratification. The polls closed in Florida at 7pm. The
early results were coming in from states like Indiana and Kentucky, both of them
giving the early edge to Texan Governor, George W. Bush. Let
the strange events begin: As I was checking the web for
results, I came across the news that the Republican National Committee
website had been hacked. Do I smell "Intergate"
here? Just after 9pm the networks gave the state of Florida to vice-president
Al Gore. Now, folks let's just take a minute
to reflect upon that. A highly contested state and fourth in popular vote was
all done counting their own in just two hours. Was George
Constanza involved here? I did not think so. One in half hour later,
the same networks were retracting their predictions. A case of premature
ejaculation, if you will. The "Moops"
come to mind here. Another little tid bit of interesting news was when
the networks gave us a peek at was going on inside the Bush camp. It was
here when we first found out that maybe, we should just hold on about giving anyone
anything from any of those heavily contested states. It was a very surreal scene
watching George W. and his parents in front the press pool. It must have
felt very awkward. I bet Newman was behind
this. While the American people were waiting for the Midwestern and mountain
states to close their polls, the networks decided to give us the results of other
important races, such as the senatorial one from Seinfeld's
state of new York. History was made on this one, since for the first time, a First
Lady was crowned senator from a state she does not live in.
It
was great to watch president Clinton making eye contact to every female
in sight. The end result is that newyorkers will have a Clinton in office
for 6 more years. Hopefully, this one will be more civil, and dresses from the
J. Pederman catalog will not be stained.
In the state Missouri (or misery), the late governor Mel Carnahan
could not be taken out of the ballot due to his untimely death just two weeks
before the election. Carnahan who was running for senator of the aforementioned
state, was replaced by his wife and consequently defeated the republican incumbent
John Ashcroft. So for the first time in history a dead man defeats
a living incumbent. Patrick Smyth of The
Irish Times writes: "In Ireland, the dead have
been known to vote early and often, but in the U.S. It appears that a dead man
can get elected". The now elected widow, Mrs. Carnahan, said that
if her husband was alive, he would approve of her candidacy. I am one of the opinion
that, as much as a husband should support a wife's affairs, in this case, it would
be him, who would like to be in office, not her.
By the way the Irish believe that Gore should have won by a 57 to 43 margin.
Here's to whisky and rye and not asking why? So now, it's almost midnight
here in the east coast and the focus is on the states in which Green Party candidate
Ralph Nader could make and impact; the Wisconsin's, Minnesota's, Oregon's
and Washington's of the world. Well guess what, nader equaled to almost nada.
In this close election he might have been the difference between Gore and
the presidency, the vice president's supporters claim. Nader barely passed
2.5 million votes nationwide. Yes, enough votes to make one or the other, win
the election. Maybe in those states, more voters thought Bush or Gore
were not as "sponge" worthy
as in others, as Elaine would say.
As my eyes are getting shot, the media projects George W. As the 43rd president
of the united states. The networks were so believable that even Al Gore
believed it. He even phoned Bush to concede and congratulate. One hour
later as if he had spoken to Jackie Charles,
he retracted his concession. At 7am, and barely awake, there comes news
out of West Palm Beach (del boca vista),
that Uncle Leo had designed and misled the
voters with a very confusing butterfly style ballot. Ironically 3,000 voters (apparently
good enough margin of victory for the 25 electoral votes) including George
Constanza's
parents were involved in this fiasco. There is also news coming out
of Wisconsin, that democrat boosters were giving homeless people, cigars in exchange
for suffrage for Gore. Kramer is definitely
behind that. One really good thing came out of all this whether you are
Jewish or Catholic, dentite or anti-dentite, straight or gay (not that there
is anything wrong with that!) "This election showed
that every person's vote count". So what's Jerry
Seinfeld to do in a situation like this, well, "Yadda,
yadda, yadda", a Puerto Rican flag waves atop The Statue
of Liberty. I am sure the folks at the coffee shop are as puzzled as I am.
Strangely enough, I can really say that, like in "Festivus",
he will have to wait just like the rest of us. As for the real Jerry
Seinfeld and his wife Sascha, I
just hope they don't name their daughter "Mulva".
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