As I sit here writing this at 11:42 in the evening (I need to go to bed soon!) the electoral college votes are 246 to 195 per CNN’s predictions. I’m amazed with voter turnout, some 88 million people so far, that’s got to be a higher percentage than normal.

It’s going to boil down to Ohio. Right now it’s Bush unless the numbers change for some of the states that have only had a small % of precincts report in. Ohio will only swing to Kerry if their apparently huge number of absentee ballots stack up to be a couple hundred thousand plus (and all go to Kerry).

So, I’m going to bed as prepared as I can be for four more years of Bush. Realistically I know it can’t be that bad. The GOP likely will not have 60 seats in the Senate to break filibuster which is enough to keep the government in general gridlock.

The cynical, melodramatic, pessimist in me is curious about Bush Jr. v.2.0, almost wants it. The post-holocaust sci-fi writer in me asks: how bad can it get?

My guesses (and these are way toned down from the over the top items I first wrote…most of these I would guess have a better than 50% chance of happening in the next 4-5 years):

*At least one more war/invasion. Most likely Syria or Iran, though an African nation is possible. Due to the bad PR analogies to Vietnam, an Asian country with a large amount of jungle-like terrain will not be considered due to the amount of negative feedback stateside from any footage shown (seriously, if it came down to it, I would lay $$ this would be a factor)

*Spiralling debt. U.S. debt is currently at about $7 trillion. I’d guess between 12-20 trillion by 2008. The dollar will be about 20-30% deflated in value to the yen and Euro.

*After/during Operation Forever Justice in *Insert evil country name here* (see above), a national draft is re-imposed, and Halliburton subsidiaries are awarded no-bid contracts on the *Insert evil country name here* reconstruction and occupation.

*Gay marriage/civil union bans in a majority of U.S. states.

*Continued outsourcing of IT positions. This and other factors (continued bankrupcies in travel and other industries) lead to rising unemployment in the U.S.

*At least one more terrorist act against the U.S. which results in further lock down and stripping of civil rights. National identity cards issued, passenger sreening systems (aka CAPPS II) implemented on all major travel industries

*Alaskan Arctic National Wildlife Refuge opened to oil drilling

*New Supreme Court justices will be appointed to make a more conservative bench than has been seen in half a century, possibly affecting women’s rights to choose and gay rights, amongst other issues
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But like I said…that’s just the pessimist in me. I honestly hope that NONE of the above happen. But if they do, I will just quietly come up to anyone who voted for Bush this time around, nod, say “I told you so”, and walk off.

As the old saying goes: “Fool me once, shame on.., shame on me, fool me, well, you know…” Oh, sorry, that’s how Bush told it. Actually, Mr. President, it goes: “Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me”