Political Projectiles and Prognosticators

I'll be heading to bed in about an hour without knowing for sure who our next president is. I have a pretty good idea, but those "projections" make me nervous. How do they know, really?

As an average citizen, it's OK to go with those and say, "Yep, Obama will be our next president." But as a former newspaper person, who spent countless election nights getting the facts, just the facts, I don't trust anything but the final results. And sometimes that's after a recount!

The last presidential election I had to cover as a newswoman was back in 2000. And who could forget that? In a nutshell: Gore won the national popular vote, but lost the electoral college vote, after a bitter legal battle over disputed vote counts in the state of Florida. George W. Bush won the election on the electoral college vote of something like 271 to 266.

The election was one of the most controversial in American history. But we didn't know that until later. In the meantime, that night, we were supposed to get that newspaper to bed by 1 a.m. Then the press guys are calling me every 15 minutes after that. "Can we go with something? We've got drivers who will be here at 6 a.m. to deliver the papers!"

I was the news editor. It was up to me to make the call. But I did not want to give our readers a morning paper without the final result. If they had to get that from the TV, then why would they ever need the paper?

Finally at 5 a.m., after 12 hours of caffeine and sugar highs and subsequent crashes, I finally ran a headline: Too close to call. Later, I realized that was OK. With all the drama that unfolded the next day (and weeks), it was completely acceptable.

I'm just glad tonight I can go to bed and it's no longer my responsibility to carry the news to the world. I don't even have to be right. Just like those television projection artists, I can say, "I think so-and-so is going to win," and if I have to eat my words for breakfast, then so be it.

All I can say is there are still results yet to come in from more than half the country. But I predict, I project, that this will be a historic election!

How's that for going out on a limb?