Halloween Politics

Do Americans vote with their costumes? For years, observers have found a link between the sales of political masks and election results. Basically, whoever gets more people wearing his or her mask ends up winning the election. It's a strange connection, suggesting that we vote for the candidate who amuses/frightens us the most. Anyway, this year Barack Obama is apparently in the lead in mask sales. So, it doesn't look good for McCain, unless all the undecided trick-or-treaters break his way.

And just to show that Halloween politics is not all fun and games, there's been outrage about some Halloween yard displays--one in which a "Sarah Palin" figure is swinging from a noose and another involving a blood splattered "Barack Obama" mannequin with a meat cleaver buried in his neck. These displays, I think, are a bit symptomatic of the current political climate--people just can't seem to keep themselves from taking things too far. Of course, Ralph Nader would kill--or allow his likeness to be killed--for this type of publicity....

Sarah Palin and Joe Biden Debate Tonight

With the highly-anticipated vice presidential debate tonight, here are two of the more interesting articles written about Sarah Palin and Joe Biden. Well, at least I tried to find a recent incisive column about Biden but couldn't find any. Considering that this is probably the biggest night of Joe Biden's life, it's pretty stunning that no ink is being spent on analyzing the OTHER debate participant tonight. Lots of columns and articles about Sarah Barracuda. I do find Judith Warner's comparison of Palin to Elle Woods pretty fascinating. I'm not sure it's an accurate analogy but it is thought-provoking.

UPDATE: I found one! Here is a story focused on Biden from a few days ago.