Abbreviated Pundit Roundup: It's Election Day!

Visual source: Newseum

Don't forget to do something today to help turn out the vote. Obama for America has 5 things you can do right now to help get voters to the polls.

The Christian Science Monitor's editorial board:

All Americans can be inspired by those who took advantage of early voting opportunities in states like Ohio and Florida over the weekend. Some patiently waited in line for hours to cast their ballots. Those on the East Coast who have been hit by superstorm Sandy may have extra challenges getting to the polls Tuesday. Every effort should be made to see that they get the opportunity to participate in the democratic process.

Your candidates might lose, but that's not the whole story. If you 'always vote for principle, though you may vote alone,... your vote is never lost,' said John Quincy Adams, the nation's sixth president.

The blizzard of negative ads that try to besmirch the character of candidates and misrepresent their views could dupe voters into thinking that no candidate deserves support. But too much is at stake to be dragged down by mudslinging. Americans are savvy enough to look beyond overheated rhetoric and calmly choose candidates they feel will best serve not only their own interests but those of all Americans.

The New York Times editorial board turns it eye to the Senate:

For Republicans intent on unraveling President Obama's accomplishments, electing Mitt Romney has been only one part of the equation. Almost as important was installing a Republican majority in the United States Senate, where 50 votes (plus the vice president) would be necessary to repeal much of health care reform, roll back tax increases on the rich and gut social welfare programs.

The party's hopes, however, have been severely damaged in recent weeks. Republican candidates who are crucial to regaining a majority in the Senate have tumbled, according to a variety of polls, and Democrats are now considered likely to retain control. The reason for this is clear: Primary voters chose several unappealing or ideologically driven candidates who repelled general-election voters once they began speaking their minds.

Richard Cohen at The Washington Post runs down lessons for kids from a long campaign:

Say You Have a Plan. Richard Nixon did this in 1968 when he said he had a secret plan to end the Vietnam War. He did, and the war ended only seven years later ' just as he presumably planned. This year, boys and girls, Mitt Romney said he has a plan to revive the economy, balance the budget and, I think, get rid of acne. His plan is a secret. You, too, can have secret plans ' like how to get into college or straighten up your room. Try this out on your mom to see if she is as gullible as the American people. Let me know.

Remember, No One's Crazy Anymore. The clear winner in this category is the Senate candidate from Connecticut, Linda McMahon. In two tries, she has spent about $100 million of her own money to reach the Senate. To spend $100 million for your own proclaimed greatness ought to be in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual as a mental disease. Try something similar with your mom and dad or with your teachers. Say you're great. Repeat it over again. Also say you have a jobs plan. Let me know if it works.

As we see long lines (again), lots of pundits are analyzing the Republican attempts to suppress voter turnout, both in early voting, absentee voting and on Election Day. Francis Wilkinson at Bloomberg:

When one party is trying to restrict the franchise and the other is trying to expand it, you have a contest of past vs. future. The age of white dominance is coming to an end. A multiracial future beckons. Regardless of how race colors their personal views, more than a few Republican officials and operatives are seeking to stem this demographic tide, hoping to squeeze another victory, perhaps the last, out of a monoracial coalition. [...]

In the past, vote suppression tactics percolated in both parties. But with Republicans seeking to turn back the demographic tide rather than accommodate it, voter suppression is gaining a distinctly Republican signature. The long-term risks to the party are enormous. It's not clear how many voters in 2012 will be seriously inconvenienced or even thwarted altogether by suppression tactics. You can make a pretty good guess, however, about how long their outrage -- over what happened and who was responsible -- will last.

Kevin Drum at Mother Jones:

When it comes to photo ID laws, Republicans at least have the outward semblance of an argument: they're trying to prevent voter fraud. There's no evidence of more than a tiny handful of people ever committing the kind of fraud that photo ID would stop, but at least it's an argument. But pair that up with the recent jihad against early voting hours, and even the pretense of an argument goes away. There's nothing these two things have in common except for their unusually negative impact on demographic groups'including blacks, Hispanics, students, and the poor'that tend to vote for Democrats. It's the GOP's last-ditch effort to stave off demographic apocalypse.

Is there any kind of silver lining here? Probably not, but if there is one, it's this: it might backfire. The GOP has been so ravenous in its desire to suppress the vote of groups it doesn't like that it might make them more motivated than ever to vote. We'll see.

Charles Pierce at Esquire:

[T]he "objective" narrative already being created is that "voter fraud" is the other side of "voter suppression." There is absolutely no question that various Republican officials have used their elected offices to depress Democratic voter turnout in several critical states, most notably in Ohio and here in Florida. And there is absolutely no question that the whole question of "voter fraud" is the purest moonshine. Yet, people are going to pretend that the two represent equal sides of the same reality. Which they clearly don't. This leads me to believe the following conclusions:

' If the Democratic ticket wins tomorrow, we are going to hear the voter-suppression is a myth and that voter fraud swamped the system. This will begin on the right but will sluice into the mainstream media ' "Some people say..." ' almost immediately.

' If the Republican ticket wins tomorrow, any cries from the left, or from ordinary voters, that they have been finagled out of their franchise, will fall on entirely deaf ears.
And, in any case, most elite political reporters will just assume that the non-existent voter fraud cancelled out the very real, government-sponsored voter suppression fk-ups like that which I can see taking place right across the street.

Don't forget to do something today to help turn out the vote. Obama for America has 5 things you can do right now to help get voters to the polls.