Wednesday, February 13, 2008
HeraldTrib Today: Feb. 13, 2008
In K.W. Barrett Elementary School’s gym waiting to vote just before 3 p.m. yesterday, I happened to stand in line in front Wayne Kubicki, a Republican activist who was bringing people to the polls. I believe he said he had all Democrats in this batch. He chuckled.
He told me that he had been ferrying people all about Arlington to different polling stations, 14 people by the time we talked.
In a couple cars in the parking lot sat seven people from The Carlin, he said. The Carlin, at 4300 N. Carlin Springs Road, is a low-income and elderly housing provider near N. Glebe Road.
He had the people’s IDs so that they could receive curb-side voting as the ice threatened to make a slick trip back down the entrance ramp.
He found the Buckingham precinct was the slowest. Earlier in the day it had taken him 45 minutes to get three people through, even though those people walked in.
It was especially slow since the voters were all in one line that led to one table where two election officials checked names of Republican and Democratic voters. They did not divide the books between sections of the alphabet; they just had a book to record Democrats, and another to record Republicans.
As Pat Hope, the Buckingham Community Civic Association president and Democratic activist emailed, “One line on a competitive presidential election primary? Jeez...”
I caught some flack for my quick endorsement of John McCain on the Republican side of the table. “Fuzzy,” in a comment at the end of the endorsement (click here), said I should have taken a longer, more thorough look at Mr. McCain, since what I wrote really wasn’t an endorsement at all. I’ll repeat my endorsement: “On the Republican side, vote for McCain. He has the brains and experience, and has never once said our Constitution needs to be Evangelized.”
Fuzzy called me to the mat on it, and he has a point. I probably should have taken more care in that endorsement.
If I may defend myself a tad, the only reason I endorsed yesterday was that I know* Arlington will come out in full-force in November to vote for whoever the Democrat is. On top of that, I knew** that Arlington Republicans would vote for McCain, hands down. Every Republican I know* well enough to discuss politics with would not for his or her life vote for Mike Huckabee, and rightly so, in my not-so-humble opinion. Of course, I totally ignored Ron Paul, and I should not have.
(*Readers should run laughing whenever a journalist says he/she “knows” what will happen.)
(**And now I can admit that I knew given that I’m looking at the posted, unofficial report.)
You will be sufficiently underwhelmed when I finally report on the Retail Survey dozens of you completed (thank you again). Still, I know* I’ll have it tomorrow or Friday. I fully planned on having it last week, but the “Crosswalk Bill” and elections got in the way. Sorry for the delay. Of course there is the weather-delayed public hearing on the Arlington Public School Board boudary issues tonight (I cannot make--alternate plans). See the schedule here. Tomorrow the School Board meets, with luck, to vote fully on the boundary issue. I'll be there... For more schools links and other information, click here. Today's Headlines: Headlines from Earlier in the Week:
The Week’s Headlines…
As always, you can scroll down to see all the recent stories, or simply click the links below (if the link doesn't work, scroll down to find the story, and email to tell me what's busted: heraldtrib@gmail.com --Steve Thurston).
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