What's the big story of 2004? The election, of course. After all, over a hundred and twenty million people went to the polls to choose the American president--more than ever voted before. And then there were the hundreds of thousands, maybe even a million or more, who wanted to vote but didn't get to, for one reason or another.
There were the two black ladies in Indiana who got all dressed up and when they got to the voting place, two men in suits, asked whom they were going to vote for and when they said, "Kerry," the men smiled and said "Oh, too bad, don't you know that Democrats vote tomorrow?" So now those two ladies will never forget that in 2004 somebody made a fool of them on election day.
Then there were the people in Denver who came in from work and found their answering machines blinking madly to have someone tell them that there, too, voting had been delayed to November 3rd. Caller ID said that this helpful message came from a Republican party office.
The twenty-five Texans, who spent election day at the Holiday Inn, may not remember that they were part of a dirty trick in forgetable Ohio, making phone calls from pay phones to tell people who had once been in prison that,if they dared to vote, the FBI would arrest them and haul them back in. But the people they threatened probably won't forget, whether they actually intended to vote or not, yet one more instance of some people being to be able to break the law without getting caught.
And then there are all the people who stood for hours and hours waiting to vote in Ohio, until well after dark, and then were sent home before they ever saw a ballot because the poll workers, who had been sitting all day, were now tired and wanted to lock the doors and go home. Though Americans don't seem to mind standing in long lines, probably because they expect to get what they're after, when they get to the head, going home without having cast a ballot is not what they should expect and not something they'll forget.
In the sunshine state, on the other hand, the lines weren't all that long. Certainly not as long as the lines at Disney World or the Magic Kingdom. But, here too, people got a surprise--the magical transformation of one candidate's name into that of another when they touched the screen on the electronic voting machine. Whether their votes counted in 2004 will remain a mystery.
All in all, though it's not over, the election of 2004 is turning out to be most memorable. And yet, for some peculiar reason, as far as the major media are concerned, it might as well not be happening at all. Why is that?