Today is the day

Well, it's election day. The big day. What will happen? Will McCain/Palin win? Will Obama/Biden win? I'm so nervous - I'm making myself physically ill being so nervous about what will happen.

I voted last week. I really, truly have no idea what's going to happen. I have a sneaking suspision that McCain will win - solely because he's running against a black man. We say we've evolved and grown and changed, but we haven't. Nick & I agree that there are a lot of people that simply won't vote for him because of the color of his skin. I find that so close minded and just really irresponsible.

Well, without being too political - I'm just a wreck. :-) Today can't be over soon enough for me. If you haven't voted yet - make sure you get out and use your right to vote! Vote Democrat, Independent, Republican - just VOTE.

*Updated*

So, I logged into meebo.com (it's a free IM service - I use it to annoy Nick while he's at work) and periodically Meebo staff will post a little blurb that shows up when you sign in. I usually read them because they're funny - this one was posted for yesterday's date and it cracked me. Since it goes in theme with this post, I wanted to copy & paste it here:

"If you are one of the millions of Americans who have either already placed their vote, like myself, or plan to do so in the coming days you likely will be anxiously awaiting the results. As someone who has been following months of media coverage, news, and water cooler conversation, I am dying to know who will be the next president of the United States. While I know these things take time, and I inevitably will have to wait until late into the night on November 4th, I did a bit of digging to try to go beyond the opinion polls and the pundits to see what other people are using as predictors for who will win this presidential election. So, if you really want to know who is going to win and simply cannot wait until the ballots are tabulated, take a look at these far more sophisticated and reliable indicators, and then share them with your friends.

Since 1980, sales of Halloween masks have predicted the winner of each and every election, according to costume sellers. Amazon.com currently shows a 53 to 47 percent split of masks in Obama's favor, coincidentally the same current poll average that is being reported over at Real Clear Politics. Furthermore, Sarah Palin masks have sold out, clearing a margin of 3 to 1 over Joe Biden. Combine the two and it makes the race overall pretty close, if you believe in this prediction.

Another fun and reportedly accurate predictor includes polling the kids vote. Scholastic (R) classroom magazines hold a quadrennial poll of students in grades 1 through 12, and they’ve only been wrong once since 1956. The only one they missed was Kennedy/Nixon in 1960. Guess they weren’t allowed to stay up late enough to watch Nixon sweat the election away in their televised debate. So for this one, if you know of someone between 6 and 18 years of age, go ahead and ask them. Odds are, they are likely to be right.

For all of the sports fans out there, here’s another one for you: If the Washington Redskins win their final home game just prior to the election, the incumbent party wins. This has proven true 18 out of 19 times, and this year, the Redskins play the Pittsburgh Steelers on Monday night. Should the Redskins win, that would predict a win for McCain, while Obama fans should be pulling for the Steelers. I predict TV ratings will skyrocket during the game.

Various other predictors include T-shirt sales, book sales, and electoral schwag. One last possible predictor: In the 2000 election, the absentee ballot of a man in Bellevue Washington was delivered to a family in Copenhagen, Denmark, who found two absentee ballots mixed in with their junk mail. He voted for George W. Bush. Do absentee ballots found after being lost in the mail go on to predict the winner? I don’t know about that, but it does predict that everyone--even a family in Denmark--gets junk mail.

To me, the most enjoyable part of this political process (aside from playing the guessing game) has been the incredible conversations that have come from people on both sides of the fence. As director of business development at meebo, I get to help facilitate those conversations by allowing people from all over the world to come together and discuss their thoughts in any of our thousands of partner chat rooms across the web.

One humorous and lively conversation that I will be definitely be joining will begin November 4th and last for two days at Comedy Central's Indecision 2008 site. There you will find some of the most exciting election banter on the web. That’s not a prediction, it’s a guarantee.

In closing, I offer a message to those who are eligible: Predictions like these mean nothing, unless you vote!"