John Laird: Boxscores, ballots and bigotry

Notes, quotes and anecdotes about Tuesday’s election while wondering: If Sarah Palin hates the media elite so much, why did she major in journalism and become one of us?

Endorsements boxscore — According to Editor & Publisher, U.S. newspapers’ presidential endorsements — as of Friday — included 240 for Barack Obama and 114 for John McCain. In total circulation, it was about 21 million for Obama and about 7 million for McCain.

Several angry callers have told me that Obama endorsements are one reason newspapers are suffering economic hardships these days. There are a couple of flaws in that argument.

First, if that were true, then conservative-leaning newspapers would be immune to the economic problems. The truth is, all newspapers are facing tough economic times.

Second, if angering the fewest readers were a factor in making an endorsement, then it would no longer be an expression of our opinion on the superior candidate, and thus, no longer an endorsement.

One-party rule is loudly denounced … usually — Have you noticed Republicans yelping doomsday prophecies about Democrats possibly gaining control of the White House, the Senate and the House? Oh, no! To have one party control all three would be terrible!

Calm down, folks, and remember:

n Single-party control happens to be quite peachy when it’s your party. When it happened to Republicans in 2002, they thought it was terrific!

n Each race should be considered independently. Vote for the best candidate, period. Anyone who would use the fear of single-party control as a reason to vote for an inferior presidential candidate probably needs to let his or her dog eat the ballot.

Take out the trash c-a-r-e-f-u-l-l-y — I would love to berate voters who are so dim-witted as to unintentionally throw away their ballots with junk mail and then falsely assume they can pick up a ballot on Election Day at a polling place. But I cannot. As one who has thrown away important snail mail in the past, and as a consequence has been warned to back away from the mailbox, I cannot make fun of others on that count.

But I can say that more than 2,500 replacement ballots have been issued by local elections officials. And because this is Clark County’s first presidential election with all-mail ballots, I can understand how some people would wrongly believe that a ballot will be waiting for them at the polling place, as in the past.

However, that’s not the case; there will not be any polling places on Election Day where you can get a ballot, except for the County Elections Office, 1408 Franklin St., Vancouver.

Please be careful not to throw away your ballot. And if you simply abhor the thought of having to vote by mail, or if you cannot afford a stamp, there will be 33 local sites for dropping off your ballot (these are not polling places) on Election Day.

Warped logic about candidates — Consider the colossal bone-headedness of this argument against John McCain: White supremacists want him to win.

Pretty stupid, eh? Then, if that’s the case, would some of you please stop snarling that terrorists want Barack Obama to win?

False alarm in California — Can anyone tell me how California’s quality of life has deteriorated or how the institution of marriage has eroded in that state since gay marriage was legalized there in May? Any increase in crime related to gay marriage? Any decline in property values? Any impact at all, other than a bunch of hetero-primitives hyperventilating over something that doesn’t affect them at all?

Nope. None at all. Still, Californians on Tuesday will decide Proposition 8, which would reinstate the ban on gay marriage. This is senseless, fear-based bigotry, yet the polling is close. If Prop 8 passes, get this: One group of perfectly qualified Americans will be forbidden to obtain a piece of paper and to use a particular word. Pretty sad.

And if Prop 8 passes, no one is sure what will happen to the state’s 11,000 same-sex marriages. I suppose those 22,000 people will be assigned some kind of subhuman status. What we do know is this: If Prop 8 passes, government will invade people’s private lives, led there by an intolerant faction that in most other cases absolutely detests government power. In the end, the same people who hate spreading their wealth will love spreading their sanctimony.

John Laird is The Columbian’s editorial page editor. His column of personal opinion appears each Sunday. Reach him at john.laird@columbian.com.