Early Voting Across N.C.

What did young Ron Reagan say about feeling a tidal wave?

The anecdotal news from across the state is that early voting is pulling out an unprecedented number of voters. That's certainly true in Watauga County, and the trend in other areas of the state, as here, is that Democrats are out-polling Republicans by an interesting margin. Unprecedented, I tell you. And then factor in the healthy Unaffiliated vote -- which we don't believe is breaking in El Presidente's favor -- and you have the beginnings of what certainly feels like what Ron Reagan said he had intimations of ... a tsunami of decisive change, one of those crashing waves in political history that sweeps away old regimes and reorders the landscape. And the polls are totally missing it, because the pollsters haven't got a clue who's a "likely voter" this year.

What becomes of the Republican Party? Dunno, but I want my ringside seat for watching it all unfold. Guiliani might be well positioned to lead the "moderates" back into power, along with Schwarzenegger and John McCain.

Locally? It'll take them a couple of cycles to accept the new realities, just as it took the Democrats a couple of cycles after 1994. It's all evolution, which I realize the fine godly brethren don't believe in, but they might well give it a glance. Or else they could take the easy path and put Deborah Greene in charge. Oops! Already happened.